As the world shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals turned to social media for interaction and connection. Businesses have always played a crucial role in fostering connection in communities across the globe, and now they must adjust to continue to promote valuable messages, engagement, and hope online. Social media marketing strategies, such as content calendars, have allowed small businesses to adapt to the digital landscape and provide a way for businesses to succeed across various platforms.

Many small businesses located near college campuses are constantly competing for the attention of college students in the area and must seek new, dynamic marketing strategies to attract new customers. Student brand ambassador programs offer a low-cost way to market to students to increase brand recognition on college campuses. Student brand ambassador programs involve recruiting students as social media influencers who spread a business’s brand and message across their social media networks.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving both the quality and quantity of online traffic that reaches your website. By improving SEO, you improve the visibility of your website relative to relevant searches on the internet. Implementing effective SEO strategies is vital to the success of your business because when a word related to your business is searched, SEO increases the likelihood of your business rising to the top of search results. If no one can find your website, no one will be able to purchase your product or service.

Loyalty programs have become increasingly popular over the years. According to Accenture, roughly 90 percent of all businesses have implemented customer loyalty programs. However, since the start of the pandemic, it has become increasingly vital for businesses to integrate loyalty programs into consumers’ digital lives, or create “omni-channel accessibility.” In doing so, consumers are rewarded for their loyalty through various mediums, whether it’s purchasing products or services, or spreading the word about a company on social media platforms. These activities contribute to a seamless customer experience and help give brands a more permanent presence in the minds of consumers.

Social media marketing encompasses many different platforms and can be used in a multitude of ways to increase foot traffic and drive sales for businesses. When the COVID-19 pandemic shifted many work environments towards remote spaces, utilizing the digital landscape became even more integral to marketing strategies.

In today’s market, consumers’ first and, sometimes only, interaction with a business or nonprofit occurs online, and this interaction typically takes place through social media. This is especially true for nonprofits, where there often isn’t a tangible product, service, or experience being delivered to the donor. For nonprofits, having a strong online presence, whether it’s a website or social media page, can allow for improved engagement and retention, because it enables donors to remain updated on recent progress, understand where their money is going, and feel as though they are part of a community that is making a positive impact.

Effective communication is key to running a successful business during a pandemic. Given that face-to-face contact with customers is limited due to distancing restrictions, it may feel like the ability to demonstrate your company’s goods, services, and values are also restricted. While broad social media campaigns are easy and convenient to implement, targeting specific demographic groups has been shown to be more effective and will lead to better results for your organization.

Companies often find that employees are more personally engaged on projects that use the bottom-up approach as opposed to the traditional top-down approach where high-level management personnel determine all key decisions and create a strategy for the rest to implement. In fact, Oliver Wyman describes this bottom-up method as the “zero-based organization redesign” which is designed to put people at the center, build on their strengths while eliminating low-value work, and identifying routines and processes that add real value and are essential to successfully transform the company from within.

Companies are feeling pressure to take concrete action to improve Diversity and Inclusion initiatives in response to today’s call for systematic social justice, but what they may not realize is just how much diversifying their workforce composition can benefit them regardless of the current events. This article aims to outline just a few of the many benefits of diversity in companies’ leadership and employee teams that small businesses can learn from.

The movement against anti-black violence and police brutality has forced businesses to rethink their mission and strategy in order to bring Diversity and Inclusion to the forefront of their operations. Brands need to be aware of these shifts and adapt accordingly and responsibly.

Small businesses have a lot to gain from D&I initiatives just like larger companies. Diversity and Inclusion initiatives have the potential to increase productivity and thus profitability in the workplace. With diverse teams comes creative thinking and problem solving from a multitude of perspectives. Small businesses can embrace D&I initiatives by doing the following.

American businesses have always been heavily reliant on credit and loans. In fact, in July of the pre-COVID world, large businesses in the United States had over 10 trillion in nonfinancial corporate debt. Yet, while credit has long been a lifeline for drowning businesses, during the COVID crisis there is a new form of lending that can save businesses that have had to lay off a majority of their workers: labor loaning. Labor loaning is exactly what it sounds like - instead of loaning someone your money, as a business, you are loaning them your workers for a fee. This enables you to keep your workers employed and paid, even if your business activity alone cannot support them. 

As restaurants look to cut costs and streamline, Sous Vide offers a more cost-effective alternative. Sous Vide translates to “under vacuum” in French. It is a precision cooking technique wherein the food is vacuum-sealed in a bag and then cooked in a water bath for a prolonged period of time. The technique promises efficient cooking at extremely precise temperatures. Moreover, vacuum sealing ensures the food is not oxidized by the air around or in any way influenced by foreign forces. On top of that, with vacuum-sealing, all of the nutrients and flavours of the food are retained.

While it may seem that social interaction is at an all-time low under the unprecedented circumstances created by COVID-19, the coronavirus crisis has jump-started an era of giving. Communities have come together to perform wonderful acts of kindness such as supporting essential workers and feeding struggling families. As small businesses fight to stay afloat, channeling the charitable feeling that has been trending amongst their customers by getting involved in philanthropy can become an essential step in keeping their doors open.

Many small businesses are looking for ways to increase sales during this time when their stores are closed. Some small businesses have promoted their existing gift card programs or there newly created gift card programs to bring in cash. This is extremely important for small businesses that are trying to keep their businesses afloat and pay expenses such as rent. Bento Asian Kitchen + Sushi, an Asian style restaurant that offers Asian rolls, bowls, and more out of several locations throughout Florida, did a gift card giveaway over Instagram as a way to promote their brand and get individuals to share their pages. However, for small businesses that can’t afford to do such giveaways, marketing strategies need to be adjusted to promote gift cards for customers to buy now and use later.

Top fine-dining restaurants are utilizing auctions to create additional revenue streams during the COVID crisis. Llama San is a single high-end establishment based in New York City and “to raise supplemental income for our employees that are most in need”, they have auctioned off deals for ceviche bowls, pisco sour recipe lessons, and victory dinners by restaurant chefs. This has been made possible by 32 Auctions, a platform for free online silent auctions. Other restaurants such as Chai Pani Restaurant Group have also gone to 32 Auctions where they can set their starting bid price on limited release merchandise and have 100% of its proceeds raised going to support their staff.

In response to COVID-19, many gyms throughout the country are looking for ways to continue to engage their communities through online classes. This move to virtual fitness classes is beneficial to trainers who continue to earn a salary, gyms who continue to bring in revenue, and customers who want to stay active from their homes. In the move to virtual fitness classes, one of the most important decisions is how many classes to schedule each day and how to ensure that those classes have high enough attendance to be worth the investment.

Only 27% of CEOs were ‘very confident’ in the possibility of revenue growth for 2020, according to PwC's 23rd Annual Global Survey. Pre-COVID, CEOs were worried about issues of growth, technology regulations, upskilling, and climate change. In response, nearly half of all executives planned to form a new strategic alliance or joint venture to stimulate corporate growth and/or profitability. However, no one predicted the rise of COVID, bringing with it drastic human and economic impacts. In America alone, nearly 40 million people have filed for unemployment since mid-March. Whether it be issues of climate change, technological regulation, or the effects of COVID, one thing remains true: the need for strategic alliances in the face of uncertainty.

Many stores use high-quality service to differentiate themselves from competitors. Covid-19 has forced many stores to close, leaving them unable to provide the same level of physical service for its consumers. This article details some practices that companies have used to offer the same caliber of service and maintain customer-employee relationships.

As the coronavirus spreads, small businesses across the globe look for answers. With the public quarantined, these companies rely on their marketing to drive operations. In fact, sproutsocial, a social media software company, found a change in how audiences engaged with brands during COVID-19. They found incoming engagements increased by 44 engagements per day across all industries, and over 7 more engagements per post per day across all industries. While engagement can tell us the popularity, it does not always translate to sales. As consumers scroll through social media content, it is important for the content to be effective. Therefore, with the use of lifestyle branding, businesses can navigate through the challenges they face from the COVID-19 pandemic.