They say that nothing is more important than communication when it comes to business, but how are you communicating with your customers, especially as a small business? If there’s one thing this pandemic has shown small businesses across the world and their customers, it is that communication, especially when things are likely to change rapidly, is a vital part of our changing world and that communication will be the one aspect that customers will be thankful for when the world is in disarray.
For smaller businesses especially, learning to communicate with your customers in a way that works for both you and for them is absolutely critical, and it could mean the difference between your customers remaining loyal in times of difficulty or finding a new business to provide the same services that you have been providing.
A Pandemic Of Change
Over the last ten years, we have seen a massive change in the way that businesses communicate with their potential customers, and marketing especially has moved on from selling products rather forcefully to trying to communicate with customers in a way they are more accustomed to and more natural human way.
The importance of being human when it comes to business has never before been so vital as when the pandemic hit in 2020. Suddenly, small businesses across the world were having to shut down or change the way they work, and customers were having to learn to deal with new ways of communicating with each other and with businesses in a way that has never been seen before.
If your business has recently gone online, this is something that you will have needed to have got used to very quickly, especially when it comes to changing hours and possible changing of physical shopping methods for your customers.
With that being said, communication is the most vital thing that you have in your arsenal in times of disaster. Here are six methods of communication that small businesses will be able to make use of, even without a marketing team.
On-Site Chat
In 2020, hundreds of thousands of new small businesses came online for the first time, and the change for businesses has been absolutely incredible. For many businesses, there was a real need to update their websites to keep up with mobile and desktop trends, and having a real-time chat installed is one great addition. Websites that allow customers to speak to someone as in real-time, rather than waiting for an email that may or may not come, have become much more popular with customers in recent years.
Social Media Pages
Social media has seen some of the biggest changes in business use over the last few years, with new social networks coming online and becoming popular, as well as customers becoming fickle and leaving networks quicker than imagined.
For example, just a few years ago, Facebook pages were one of the most important tools for businesses, but these days Facebook pages for business may not be a channel that is particularly viable, and you may wish to look into other more popular social networks such as Instagram and TikTok, depending on your business.
The issue that social media has always had is being able to show a clear return on investment for businesses, and this is something that will continue while the world gets to grips with new privacy concerns.
Social Media Groups
One method of social media that has actually grown quite well in the past few years is the use of social media groups, such as Facebook groups and LinkedIn groups. Many businesses have found that having groups for specific customers, especially small businesses in the services industry, has become a really useful marketing tool.
A great option for small businesses is to have an open group for anyone to join and then a paid group for paid subscribers only. This creates a culture of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) for those customers who are only in the free group and not the page group, which in itself is a great marketing tool.
Telegram
In 2020, concerns were raised about private networking client WhatsApp, after a change in privacy policy lead many to believe that WhatsApp was going to become less secure. One of the private networking clients to really take WhatsApp on has been Telegram, and joining a Telegram group has been a great method of communication for small businesses everywhere.
Telegram offers the chance for businesses to have groups that can communicate effectively with customers without compromising privacy, and it is a great method of instant marketing that allows dedicated fans and customers to comment in real-time in an organic way.
Email marketing is still a big business in 2021, with most businesses using some form of email lists to keep in touch with their customers. Email marketing has been one of the surprising winners of the pandemic, with businesses being able to update a large number of customers on the rapid changes quickly and effectively whilst creating a one-way channel of communication so as not to be drawn into a lengthy public debate.
It has to be said, though, that email marketing is much more tricky to do in Europe and Great Britain due to the stronger laws surrounding privacy and worries about sharing private data such as email addresses, telephone numbers, and physical addresses, and concerns over how companies will use this information and sell it on.
Face To Face
It’s just over a year since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and changed the way we live. While many of us have adapted to this new way of life as best as possible, the default state of human beings is still to be sociable face-to-face.
When it is safe to do so, and your State laws allow, opening back up and meeting customers face-to-face will be a real bonus to most small businesses and will allow small businesses to bounce back and thrive in a new post-pandemic world.
