Rethinking Your Offerings
It’s no shock that the current pandemic has turned businesses upside down - some have been forced to close their doors, others are taking out loans and scrambling to do everything they can to keep their workers employed, and the list goes on.
One aspect of business that’s become increasingly apparent to me is that you have to always be thinking about your audience. As a content marketing strategist, this is at the heart of what I do with my clients. I ask them to put themselves in their customer’s shoes. Who are they, and what challenges do they have right now? Now, how can we create content that is relevant and helpful in solving their problem?
I’m realizing that this concept not only holds true for content, but also for your actual services or products. It’s not enough, especially now, to just say - well, here’s what we’ve always offered and you should come buy from us because we’re local, or we’ve been around a long time, or we specialize in your industry.
Is what you’re offering even relevant to your audience anymore?
Because let’s be honest here, there are a whole bunch of services and products that may have been in high demand 6 months ago that no one cares about anymore. That’s a harsh reality, but it’s reality.
We are all living in a completely different world these days and it’s up to companies to think really long and hard about whether or not what they offer matters to their audience anymore. As a small business owner, I recommend asking yourself these questions:
Does my audience really need my product or service in this moment?
How have my audience’s priorities shifted as a result of the pandemic?
What are my audience’s CURRENT challenges, RIGHT NOW?
How can I help them with those challenges? (And am I really equipped to do that?)
I’ve seen women who sell cosmetics shift their focus away from makeup (because most people aren’t using it these days) to proper skin care in the summer months. Distilleries started making hand sanitizer. Party houses created meals to go. Breweries set up curbside can pick up. Sign companies focused on helping local businesses with reopening signage. Laid off teachers started offering private tutoring services to newly homeschooling parents.
These are all examples of shifting your focus to meet the demand, and these are the businesses that will figure out a way to make it work in these challenging times. I think we all know this is going to be a long, bumpy and unpredictable road. The best we can do, as business owners, is to think about how we can bring value to our customers. And that may mean completely rethinking your business model.