Closing the Circle

The world is changing.

Everyone has an opinion and everyone’s opinion is valid. We cannot know and we may never know why our lives have been turned upside down by this pandemic. Experts are telling us that it’s blip compared to many other pandemics we’ve experienced in the past, but how it has affected our daily routines makes it seem apocalyptic

The travel industry and tourism is in tatters. Call centres in the Philippines have shut down after Government ‘close up shop’ directives and multinational companies that had invested in this cheaper labour are now struggling to keep up with customer demands and redesign their customer service platforms.

Business across the world had settled into their ‘comfort zone’.

Now a virus called CoVid-19 has pulled the rug out from under us and we have come out blindly, wildly swinging at an opponent that has the upper hand. Our lives have always been on line. We communicate online, we shop, we pay our bills, entertain ourselves, but before CoVid-19, it was our choice. Now in isolation we turn to those online apps that allow us to reach out ‘pseudo face to face’ to do business and catch up with our loved ones. People that would normally not choose to work from home are being forced to do so to protect their livelihood and Governments are scrambling to implement new ways of doing things.

What we are seeing is reminiscent of another end of the world movie. People fighting each other in the aisles of supermarkets and chemists to get the last of a product. We are turning on each other rather than turning towards each other for support. I am hoping that Will or Arnie will rock up and tell us it has all been a joke, that tumbleweeds are not going to be the only thing in supermarkets in 6 months time, but I think I am kidding myself.

To survive we need to kick ourselves out of our business comfort zone. Stop relying on the fattened goose that lays the golden egg. The days of sitting back and assuming that customers will knock on your door has gone.

Your customers are sitting at home in front of a computer, a laptop, a tablet or a phone and they are buying. They are not just buying from you.

If you are not set up to sell online, you will lose valuable business over the coming months, because your customers will only be shopping online. If you have not built brand awareness, if you are not advertising right now or you don’t have an effective website you will not get through this without serious repercussions.

People are spending money on marketing that goes NOWHERE.

Businesses are spending gross amounts of money on advertising platforms like Google adwords sending them to badly designed websites that don’t convert or retarget visitors. If your website is not converting leads to customers, you’re paying for the lead and giving the job to your competitor when they hit the back button.

Many businesses are not closing the circle. This means they are spending big dollars directing people to ineffectual websites. It’s like sending your customers to You need to close the buying circle to create a strong, effective company. This means you need to have;

1. An effective website that sells your business services and products or sources you the leads for remarketing (common website mistakes)
2. Constant long term brand awareness
3. Short term call to action campaigns designed to increase cash flow fast

The world is changing and there’s nothing you can do to stop it, but you can change the way you do business.

Now is the time to put in place your business survival strategy. The longer you wait the further behind the pack you will get. You need to start now. It doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of money, you just need to put a plan in place to get online and start bringing in customers online to ensure your business survival.

Survival depends on preparation. How prepared are you?