Many companies would agree that the most effective way to connect with clients and prospects is with the kind of personal interaction found at events, conferences, tradeshows, and conventions. Unfortunately, the coronavirus crisis has caused the cancellation or postponement of these types of mass gatherings for the foreseeable future.
When businesses miss these in-person opportunities, they risk losing 25% of their marketing budget along with the ability to generate their sales pipeline. Luckily, in today’s digital world, it’s quite easy to reach customers online. Here are three new paths to take with your 2020 events budget…
Digital Advertising and Outreach
You already have a lot of demographic and psychographic information about your target audience. Why not spend a little of that trade show budget on some highly targeted paid search and social media ads? For even greater impact, go a step further and retarget those who have visited your website or subscribed to a newsletter.
Invest in some eye-catching imagery or a video, then link to a dedicated landing page with timely special offers or discounts. You can even make use of that branded merchandise you already purchased and send it to people who set up a discovery call.
Website Upgrade
Your website is often the first place that prospects go to learn more about your product and offers. If you’ve been neglecting your website, you may need a full redesign, but many times you can make a bunch of upgrades on your own.
Two places we would recommend focusing on are the home page and your content. Make sure that your homepage clearly reflects the work you are doing. Does your website visitor know exactly what you offer by looking at the area right above the fold? Do you offer a clear call to action there as well?
Your content will provide value for, educate and entertain your visitors. Making sure that all your pages are well written, guide your visitors down the buyer journey and ultimately invite connection is another place to focus.
If you don’t have a blog, now is a great time to start building one. Make a list of all the questions your customers have asked you over time and write posts to answer them. This will also educate your visitors and will boost your SEO.
Search Engine Optimization
Websites with good search engine optimization (SEO) will naturally appear higher in the results when someone is searching for the products and services you provide. A well-optimized site addresses how your website is structured, page content, links to and from other sites, and the accuracy of your local citations. SEO is an ongoing process as the algorithms search engines use are always changing. That said, most websites will see improvements in rank with a few minor optimizations. If you’ve been neglecting your SEO, now is the time to make it a priority again.
This Too Shall Pass
Yes, these are challenging days, but there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We’d love to help you take advantage of the opportunities that exist to lay a strong foundation for your future. Contact us.
