Business, as usual, doesn’t exist right now. Everywhere you turn companies are having to respond to what is happening in our country. No, our world. It’s a very volatile and scary time. But in the midst of a movement and a pandemic people are still struggling to keep their livelihoods alive.

I was reminded of this fact after I received a request from one of my clients this week, who requested a meeting to discuss his website.

During our call, I could hear the concern in his voice. He was afraid that his business wouldn’t survive and wanted help to make changes to his website immediately to get traffic. He had already spent a lot of money on equipment for his company and paid for Google ads. He felt that if he could just get traffic to his website that he would be okay. His other business painting business had virtually dried up overnight and he needed something to happen…NOW!

As I listened my wheels started to turn and I knew exactly what I wanted to do for him. I thought to myself, how many other business owners are also struggling to make money and continue doing business in the midst of all that is happening right now?

So I thought a lot about that for this week’s post and wanted to share some of the things I did for my client to help him resolve his dilemma. Maybe it can help you too.

1. I encourage him about his situation and helped him to see that there is abundance in the world.

I wanted to get him to calm down and not panic because that’s when we make a lot of mistakes. Especially in how we spend our resources. Desperation can lead to overreaction before we have a plan in place. He had already informed me that he had spent money on services that did nothing but dwindle his finances. We wanted him to see that the country was re-opening and that companies would be looking for his services if they weren’t already. He agreed that he had felt defeated and had allowed his thoughts to negatively spiral. Guard your thoughts, it has a direct impact on your actions.

2. Create your RIGHT NOW plan.

There are some things that he needed RIGHT NOW so that he could start generating income and there were some things I knew he needed to continue to do to grow his brand. For example, because he has a service targeted to commercial construction industry clients and I knew that FB ads would be a good way to target them. My research revealed for as little as .10/per impression we could reach hundreds of his ideal clients in days. I suggested he run ads directly targeted to his ideal customers. We had also put the FB Pixel on his website so I knew that I could do retargeting directly to any of his ideal clients who had already visited his website. Once he was calm he also remembered that he had successfully run ads in the past. We set his budget and he was actively doing something that he knows can result in direct leads to his business. One of the advantages of this climate is that FB has lowered their ads. Take advantage of it.

3. Be proactive about finding your ideal clients.

He was using a very passive and reactive method for finding prospects and waiting for them to come to his website. He’s a fairly new business so I knew this strategy was going to fail him. I asked him if he knew the names of some of the clients he wanted to sell to and he said “Absolutely“. I asked him, “Then why haven’t you reached out to them to offer your services? They are probably looking for you but don’t even know you exist.” Sometimes small business owners feel that once they launch a website they will automatically be found online. Not so. If you’re not a recognized brand you may not even be on their radar. Don’t be afraid to look at your business like you looked at finding a job. Be tenacious and go after those companies you want to do business with.

4. Make sure your website is optimized to convert.

Your website is critical to your sales and marketing strategy. I redid his entire home page and make sure he had clearer messaging, problem statement, solution, brand story, and call to action. He had changed it around on his own and now it was bland and not optimized to convert. I added color, changed the fonts, redid the copy, and made sure that his CTAs popped off the page consistently so a prospect would know exactly what to do in order to work with him. We also made sure that all the changes looked great on his mobile device, as most businesses these days need to adopt a mobile-first strategy. We then updated the header META data to match the keywords we knew would help him be competitive. We did this using a plugin called Yoast. He was already ranking 3rd for his ideal keyword but we wanted to make sure all his unique keywords were visible in the Google search results when they pulled up his website.

5. Create a clear long-term strategy for growing your brand and online presence.

Growing a business these days takes time and you have to have a long-term strategy for how you’re going to continue growing your brand awareness. There are many variables at play all at once and you can’t stop showing up and making yourself seen and heard. We discussed his long-term content strategy, email marketing strategy, how often to look at his analytics, and inbound links. I explained the value of having a content strategy and why he needed to invest in making sure he was staying top of mind for his ideal clients. Taking the time to explain things to him empowered him so he understood the value and benefit of each one and which he felt he could sustain in his business with the team and resources he has. Using a tool like Trello or Airtable to plan our your content strategy is a great idea for you and your team.

I executed the strategy for him quickly because I knew taking action would be the way to change his situation. Below is the email he sent to me after we finished the project.

So I hope this real-life example helped you to see that there are so many ways you can continue to do business, even in the midst of everything we are experiencing right now. I want you to stay calm, clear a clear plan, be proactive, optimize your website for conversion, evaluate your long-term strategy, and TAKE ACTION. You got this!