1. Engaging with your customers
Social Media
If you don’t yet use social media, now is the time to embrace it. In a rapidly changing situation, pages are quick to update, and customers often prefer these over websites. The main platforms to consider first are:
- Facebook - If you sell to individuals (as opposed to businesses) and if your customers range across age groups, are locally based and your offering needs a lot of explanation, Facebook may be your best bet. See our guide.
- Instagram - If you sell to individuals (as opposed to businesses) and are a very image-led business Instagram is a good fit. See our guide.
- LinkedIn - If you sell to businesses, then you should set up a LinkedIn page and personal account and connect with your clients. See our guide.
Ensure all pages have your Coronavirus statement pinned at the top.
2. Selling or taking bookings online
If selling online for the first time, remember whatever approach you take, you’ll need to consider delivery logistics.
Here’s a few approaches to consider.
Quick route to online selling
If you currently don’t have a website, you may find the quickest route in the next week or so is to use existing marketplaces, such as:
Make sure you check all fees and terms of use and balance the benefit of accessing their wider market, against the costs. And of course, adhere to the latest Government Coronavirus advice on delivery.
Your own online shop
If you want to build an online shop as part of your existing website, then first check if your existing platform offers that functionality as an add-on. The likes of Squarespace, Weebly or WordPress mentioned above do this.
If your current platform doesn’t enable this, then you can set-up a separate online shop and link to it, for example with the likes of:
- Shopify which, due to the Covid-19 outbreak, is currently offering a free 90-day trial.
Payment processors
Once you have some form of shop online, you’ll still need to take payment from your customers. Payment processors include:
For more information on ecommerce, please see the DigitalBoost Understanding eCommerce guide.
Taking bookings online
If you are supplying appointments or booking slots, and staff are now working remotely, you can get by with a manual system by phone or email initially, but you may soon become overwhelmed. Consider using an online scheduling tool, such as:
- Appointedd - It's quite a low monthly cost, and they are offering three months free.
- Acuity Scheduling - They are offering a free 7 day trial.
3. Providing a service online
The new face-to-face
Video calling and video conferencing are being described as the new face-to-face so you can still see clients and continue your advisory service. Consider tools such as:
Delivering classes
There are many thousands of online classes already out there, however at times like this, people crave contact from those that they know. You might not put on the most polished performance, but live streaming your classes, or recording them for playback later, will be welcomed by your customers and maintain your income. Classes, including music, dance, exercise, martial arts to arts and crafts for adults and children can work brilliantly.
(This can be restricted to paying customers by creating closed groups, and granting permission to individuals to access them; giving details and links to paying customers only; or hosting content behind a password-protected page on your site.)
Quickest tools to look at for this include:
Terms, conditions and costs
Check the small print of any tool before using it to ensure it meets the standards you need for data security and back-up, that you agree with the terms and conditions, and that you have chosen options licensed for business use.
Looking at costs, even with free trials, pricing packages of digital tools can be quite complicated. It’s worth checking:
- Will payments be taken automatically when any free trial has ended? Diary a week before the payment is due so you have time to review and cancel or continue as you wish.
- Is there a discount for an annual subscription? This could be worth taking, but given the current unpredictable circumstances, and the need to maintain cashflow, taking a monthly subscription might be sensible just now. Diary for three months’ time to review again.
- Does the cost change if you have more staff users? Before committing to a tool, make sure you understand the costs if all your staff are using it.
4. Terms, conditions and costs
When using any platform or tool, make sure that you check the small print before using it, to ensure it meets the standards you need for data security and back-up, that you agree with the terms and conditions, and that you have chosen options licensed for business use.
Looking at costs, even with free trials, pricing packages of digital tools can be quite complicated. It’s worth checking:
- Will payments be taken automatically when any free trial has ended? Diary a week before the payment is due so you have time to review and cancel or continue as you wish.
- Is there a discount for an annual subscription? This could be worth taking if you plan to use it in the long term
- Does the cost change if you have more staff users? Before committing to a tool, make sure you understand the costs if all your staff are using it.
You can access free online and virtual adviser support through our DigitalBoost programme.
Your local Business Gateway can offer you free 1:1 advice and online support to help you with anything to do with your business or if you are just thinking about starting up then we can support you with that too.
Fill in the form below and we will get back to you to help.