The COVID-19 pandemic has been tough for all of us, but it’s been especially difficult for small business owners. If you own a small business, not only are you dealing with pandemic effects in your personal life. But you may also be trying to figure out how to keep your business thriving. Luckily, there are some tech tools that can make it easier to survive during these uncertain times. And save you some stress in terms of your small business.
Engaging and Utilitarian Websites
Even before the COVID-19 crisis, people were searching for businesses online before making a purchase. In fact, consumers looking for information on local small businesses conduct 46 percent of online searches. With stores closed and people staying home more these days, that percentage is bound to go up.
So, if your website is below par, you could end up losing out on sales that could help your business stay afloat. If you’re not sure where to begin with website improvements, hire freelancers to help you out. Freelance job boards make it simple to connect with website developers and other freelancers that can provide the edge you need to stay competitive right now. So be sure to check these sites out.
User-Friendly E-Commerce Options
E-commerce is another business element that was popular before COVID-19 but that’s even more essential with more consumers sticking closer to home. While a basic website can help your business stay relevant, incorporating e-commerce elements into your website can help your business continue to bring in profits during this crisis. This is something you can discuss with a freelance developer if you choose to go that route.
You should also ensure that your e-commerce shop includes essential user experiences. That will encourage your customers to complete their purchases and keep coming back for more. You can also look at options for setting up your store if you use WordPress with the help of e-commerce plugins.
Social Media Marketing Strategies
Once you’ve updated your website and added an e-commerce shop, you should also think about incorporating links to your social media pages. That’s because consumers also use social media outlets to find new local businesses, with Facebook being the most popular platform used for this purpose.
Establishing connections between your website and your social media accounts will encourage online shoppers to click through and really get to know your business. You can talk to a web designer or developer about adding social links. Or you can look into tools like Hootsuite, that can manage multiple social media accounts and give you insights into their performance.
Video Conferencing Tools and Options
If you have been talking with other business owners, chances are that you have heard them mention Zoom in the last few months. Zoom is one of the most popular video-conferencing systems right now. People are using this tool to connect to fitness classes, check-ins with friends and families, and, of course, small businesses.
You can use video conferencing for consultations or even as a means to provide other services for your customers. Of course, you can also use Zoom and other tools to meet with your staff and work on other projects. If you’re an enterprise, there are solutions for email and collaboration like Plesk Premium Email that make it easy to connect for remote teams.
COVID-19-Specific Health and Cleaning Tech
Last but not least, small businesses need to be aware of the tech that can keep their employees and customers safe during this ongoing pandemic. This tech could be as simple as infrared thermometers for temperature checks or contactless payment systems. The latter has been growing in popularity over the last few years but contactless payments are predicted to be the future for all in-person sales. If you are looking for an even simpler way to use tech to keep your business clean and safe, you can also use online tools to print signs and decals to remind customers of the COVID-19 rules while shopping in your store. Including social-distancing.
The COVID-19 pandemic makes running a small business and keeping it open challenging but it doesn’t have to make it impossible, especially when there are so many ways to use technology to improve your business and stay connected to your customers. You just need to figure out which tools will make the most difference for your small business.