The COVID-19 pandemic is considered by many experts to be the worst global crisis since World War Two. It has impacted lives and it has affected businesses. By August 31, 2020, over 160,000 American businesses have indicated on Yelp that they have closed. Many of these businesses have since reopened but the impact of the pandemic cannot be denied.
Many small businesses had to get creative in order for them to stay operating during the pandemic. Some businesses used translation services to increase their leads while others tried livestreaming to get more customers. This article will look into the various ways that businesses tried to stay afloat during the pandemic.
How the Pandemic Affected Businesses
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The pandemic caused millions of deaths in the United States. It has also killed thousands upon thousands of dreams when it closed down businesses. During the early months of the pandemic, many businesses saw a downturn in the number of customers that they are getting. That forced them to let go of some of their employees.
Many expected that the pandemic will be short-lived but as the days turned into weeks and then into months, there was still no end in sight. More and more people had to be let go and one by one, the businesses succumbed to the pandemic.
How Businesses Got Creative
In this environment, business owners had to get creative to keep their businesses afloat. Many had to rely on new methods to deliver their service. This actually accelerated the adaption of some new technologies. Those who were hesitant to use technologies in the past were forced to adapt to digital technologies.
According to a survey, the response to the pandemic has speeded up the acceptance of digital technologies by several years. We’ll go through some of the steps taken by businesses to generate leads.
Using Translation to Get Leads
One of the biggest problems caused by the pandemic for many businesses is that it caused a massive drop in the number of clients or customers coming. The reasons depend on the nature of the business. For restaurants, the lockdowns mandated by state governments prevented them from operating normally.
Other businesses suffered because their usual customers had to cut down on expenditures during the pandemic. Whatever the reason, businesses lost clients and customers. Some found unique ways to get new leads.
For example, there are businesses that found potential leads with the help of translation. They got help from translation agencies to work on their marketing. Professional translators worked on their marketing material and that opened up new sources of revenue for them. It was a way to open up a new market for them.
Why is translation such an important tool for marketing? For starters, more than 72% of consumers spend most of their time on websites using their own language. Roughly the same percentage of consumers claim that they would purchase from a product or service that has information on it in their own tongue. Language is clearly a factor in consumer consumption and when there is language, translation follows not too far behind.
Small businesses that sold products online through platforms such as Amazon were able to target a wider audience when they started targeting Spanish-speaking consumers. Marketing through social media with the help of translation also allowed businesses to expand its reach during the pandemic when others were having a hard time.
Livestreaming
Another tactic that many businesses utilized during the pandemic is livestreaming. This tactic is particularly effective for e-commerce businesses. Live commerce showed early on during the pandemic.
One such business that saw a boost because of this tactic is Credo, which is a cosmetics business based in the United States. They implemented Credo Live which is an online consultation tool. Credo Live became so popular that it has managed to outgrow its original purpose which is to get customers for its beauty line. Now, Credo Live has become a source of income for the company itself.
Credo Live is now the source of up to 15% of the company’s sales. The average sales there are up to 40% higher when compared to the average sales on its e-commerce platforms.
Livestreaming allows businesses to interact with their customers in real-time. It can be a great way to sell clothes and other similar items. With Facebook, for example, one can see the comments and the name of the commenters while one is livestreaming. They can interact with those viewers in real-time. That’s a huge boost for marketing.
While the pandemic is winding down, the use of livestreaming as a marketing tactic is not going away any time soon.
Relying on Mobile Apps
As businesses struggled to find ways to cope with the pandemic, many discovered the value of apps. There are all kinds of mobile apps and it’s safe to say that if there is no app yet to perform a task, then one is being developed. Many business owners realized that they can rely on apps to help them get through the pandemic. This happened at the same time that the general population also became even more addicted to mobile apps.
During the first quarter of 2020, mobile app downloads reached 35 billion, while in-app spending amounted to $27 billion.
Many restaurants and other types of businesses that sold food, saw the advantage of relying on apps, to connect with customers. Food deliveries facilitated through apps boomed during the height of the pandemic as people stayed put in their homes.
Building a Sense of Community
Still, other businesses were not just solely focused on the mad scramble for retaining whatever clients they can. The Sill is one such business. The Sill is a plant delivery business. Instead of just solely focusing on continuing with its operations during the pandemic, the owner created online workshops about plants.
It was there they saw the need of their audience for some form of connection. They built a community of people who were passionate about plants but were also looking to build connections. The community while catering to the needs of its members also helped to boost the sales of the business.
These are just some of the steps that were taken by small businesses during the pandemic to stay afloat. These are not the only strategies that were adopted during the pandemic but most have something to do with digital technology.
Tomedes is one of the fastest growing translation services provider based in Israel and the US. It helps US businesses with legal translation and other language translation services at affordable prices.
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