corona virus | She Owns It

4 Content Marketing Strategies to Adopt in Your Business During COVID-19 by @QuianaDarden

April 24, 2020 by Guest Post 1 Comment

by Quiana Darden

The content you create is part of a valuable conversation with your audience that builds trust, establishes your industry authority and explains how your products and services can support them. But what do you do when the world is flipped upside down and you’re unsure about how the conversation should go?

Many business owners are struggling with this and are trying to continue the conversation while also maintaining integrity. Now is the time to review your content marketing strategy and make the necessary changes needed to be sensitive to what’s happening in the world while still operating as a business owner.

Here are 4 content marketing strategies to adopt in your business during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Be Sensitive

Emotions are running high. While you want to speak with your audience via social media, emails, podcasts, Youtube videos and the like, it’s crucial that you remain sensitive to these feelings.

Now is not the time to exploit the situation and play into fears about the future or capitalize on stimulus check disbursement to achieve your business revenue goals. Instead, maintain your integrity. It’s not worth a quick sale to lose the respect and trust of your audience as a whole.

Serve Over Sell

You want to continue showing up for your audience with content, but now is the time to use it to serve your audience over constantly making a hard sell. Yes, you can include a call to action to make a purchase or schedule a call, but ensure that you’re helping them to achieve wins related to what you offer.

Adjust Your Strategy

If you’re like many business owners you create your content strategy in advance and batch create your content so you can stay ahead of the game. This is typically what I recommend, but when catastrophic events happen, like this pandemic, you might find yourself needing to change your strategy.

Consider the following:

– Has your ideal client changed?
– Will you focus on a different content platform?
– Will your content frequency adjust?
– Has your offer changed?
– What content does your audience want/need?

Connect With Your Audience

Developing a human connection with those who follow you, subscribe to your email list and buy your products and services is crucial on any day. But, when the world is struggling as a collective, you want to use this time to connect with your audience even more.

– Ask them what they need right now.

– Ask them what would help.

– Ask them what type of content they want to see.

– Offer your support.

– Offer words of inspiration or encouragement.

Show up as a human, not just a sales machine and you will leave a lasting impression on those who view your content during this time.

Quiana Darden is a content marketing writer and content marketing strategist specializing in helping authors, speakers, content creators and service providers create high quality content so they can increase their visibility and attract better clients. Quiana established her content marketing firm in 2018 and has since supported corporations, industry experts and small businesses alike in creating content that connects, educates and sells.

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Financial Help for Freelancers, Gig Workers, and Creatives During The Coronavirus Pandemic

April 16, 2020 by Melissa Stewart 1 Comment

As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across the world, the United States’ economy is suffering. Businesses big and small are closing their doors, and hardworking people are losing jobs, struggling to put food on the table, and drowning in unexpected healthcare costs.

Thankfully, both the federal government and other groups recognize the need to provide financial assistance to small business owners, entrepreneurs, artists, freelancers and independent contractors. In the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, unemployment benefits, grants, and funds are helping freelancers, artists, and SMBs survive.

If you’re a boss babe who needs some financial assistance to keep going, check out these funds, grants, and loans to help you make it through COVID.

Funds and Grants for Freelancers

Women freelancers are some of the most economically vulnerable workers in America right now. The companies and contracts that used to pay your bills are cutting costs—and that often means fewer jobs for freelancers. Here are some places you can look to for help during these uncertain times:

The Freelancers Union has cooperated with companies like Fiverr and Upwork to create a Freelancers Relief Fund that helps freelancers weather this storm. The fund offers “financial assistance of up to $1,000 to freelancers who are experiencing sudden hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether as a result of illness, lost work, or caregiving responsibilities.” You can use this money to pay for food, utilities, and more.

Freelancers Union

The Freelance Co-Op, a group established to empower freelancers with the resources they need to run their own businesses, has created a COVID-19 Emergency Fund. These funds can be used for medical bills, utilities, food and even childcare. It’s important to note that there is a stipulation that those who receive funding donate the same amount to a similar charity when they get back on their feet.

Freelance Co-Op

Financial Assistance for Small Businesses

Small businesses often run with little to no financial safety net, which means the COVID-19 quarantine is forcing many women-run businesses to permanently close their doors. Luckily, there are funds and grants popping up to help keep SMBs afloat.

The federal government and SBA are working with state Governors to offer financial relief as well as business counseling to small businesses who are struggling due to Coronavirus. The SBA is providing SMBs a low-interest loan with a long repayment schedule, if needed. You can use the funds to pay “fixed debts, payroll, accounts payable and other bills that can’t be paid because of the disaster’s impact.”

Small Business Agency Disaster Assistance Loans

Business For All grants. In partnership with Verizon, the digital fundraising and advocacy platform Hello Alice is offering emergency grants of up to $10,000 for companies impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. $10,000 COVID-19 Business for All Grants are awarded on a rolling basis. General Business for All Grant applications are due September 25, 2020 at 12:00 am PT.

Hello Alice Business For All

Google announced an “$800+ million commitment to support small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), health organizations and governments, and health workers on the frontline of this global pandemic.” Though they aren’t offering direct grants to small businesses, they are providing SMBs with active Google Ads accounts $340 million in Google Ads credits. According to Google, “credit notifications will appear in their Google Ads accounts and can be used at any point until the end of 2020 across our advertising platforms.”

Google Funding and Grants

Funds and Grants for Creatives, Artists, and Musicians

The Creator Fund from the email marketing company ConvertKit is offering financial assistance of up to $500 for artists and small business owners. Supporting Creators in Need.

The Creator Fund

MusiCares is aware of the enormous financial burden to those whose creative practices and incomes are being adversely impacted by COVID-19. In response, The Recording Academy® and its affiliated charitable foundation MusiCares® have established the COVID-19 Relief Fund to help the music community affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

The Recording Academy / MusicCares COVID-19 Relief Fund

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability, or age-related problems. In other words, Healing Musicians in Need.

Sweet Relief Musicians Fund

Additional Resources:

Melissa Stewart

Melissa Stewart is the founder of SheOwnsIt.com. She is a Purveyor of Possibility, Entrepreneur Advocate and Coffee Addict. She believes that behind every successful woman is her story. What’s your story?

sheownsit.com/

Content Marketing During Covid-19 by @lucyrk78

April 15, 2020 by Lucy Rendler-Kaplan 3 Comments

by Lucy Render-Kaplan | Featured Contributor

Social media managers are in an interesting position, navigating through Covid-19. There is much uncertainty on how to post, what to post without coming off as insensitive and finding the right balance between acknowledging the sensitive time we are living through and trying to keep business afloat.

While people are cancelling planned activities and doing whatever they can to help flatten the curve and stop the virus, they are spending more time on their phones and laptops, spending more hours than ever before, scrolling through their social media pages. According to eMarketer, Facebook saw a 70% increase in usage of all of its apps in the month of March. People are turning to these apps to keep them entertained, connected, and informed while they’re spending more time at home.

The most important thing is to keep on marketing. If you don’t post regularly, the algorithms won’t show your content nearly as much. Continue posting but be sensitive to the ongoing situations. At the same time, don’t ignore what’s happening. If you simply carry on as usual, you risk the chance of coming off as insensitive. It’s likely that your consumers pain points have changed: are they now dealing with working from home? Are they trying to keep kids busy now that schools are closed? Are they trying to stay fit and healthy while in quarantine? If you have scheduled posts, revisit them and see how your content can help your audiences’ changing priorities. If you are a customer-facing brand, consider highlighting creative ways to use your product in times of working remotely, homeschooling your kids, or just passing time.

With most of the workforce now working from home, this is a great time to educate and entertain your customers. There are free platforms you can use to create a virtual lesson series or go live, answering the most frequently asked questions you receive. These are great ways to allow people to get to know the people that make up the brand and engage with them to help create deeper, longer lasting relationships.

People want assurance, safety and hope. How can you give them what they need? Show current and potential customers what you are doing to keep them safe when interacting with your company. Show how you can help people. Are there new offers or discounts you wouldn’t normally offer, but can now? People will remember what businesses stepped up during this difficult time, whether that’s a sale, free offer or simply a bit of kindness and understanding.

We’d like to help get you started with some ideas you can implement today!

Bars

Virtual Bartending: Choose a bartender and a date/time for them to work their shift. Begin promoting this live event at least 5 days in advance. When it’s showtime, your bartender can set up a virtual tip jar that’s connected to their Venmo or cash app. They can share drink recipes, play music or just sit there and listen if people are missing their usual in-person drink-and-vent sessions. The bar owner will pay the bartender their usual hourly pay for this virtual shift.

Fitness Studios

Members may place their memberships on hold and for studios that charge on a monthly basis, and while this might not be a big deal to the large corporate gyms, our favorite studios and boutique fitness locations will be hit hard. Now more than ever we need some form of fitness in our daily lives, to keep both our bodies and our minds active, not to mention the binge eating some of us find ourselves doing in times like these.
- Instructors can offer virtual training sessions, consultations, meal planning or group fitness classes to keep their members motivated.

Real Estate Agents

Social media is your BFF right now.
- Ask people to share photos of their front porch, decorate for spring
- Offer downloadable coloring sheets from your website
  - Parents can send them to you and you can repost for UGC

Clothing Stores

Using surprise and delight, choose a random day for this campaign
- Offer: for every gift card sent to someone on the specified date/times, give back a bonus 10% of the original value to the buyer.
- You can also customize gift cards and add personalized messages before sending them.
Changing your copy is a simple update
- Rather than sharing “Date Night Looks,” try “Date Night at Home Looks”
Use empathy
- Acknowledge that it is a strange time to promote a sale, but realize that many people are “distraction shopping”
  - Not everyone can afford to shop currently anymore. Mention that you also have products in your online store for “window shoppers” that might brighten their day simply by seeing them

Marketing Agency Owners

Have any of your clients pivoted from their usual operations and are now producing hand sanitizer? Masks?
Are there local small businesses you can help highlight?
- Are they offering meal kits?
- Making donations with purchases?

Hairstylists

Tutorials! Even if you don’t normally post these, now is the time! Clients need ideas on how to keep themselves from doing anything drastic while they await their next appointment.
Product reviews: use this time to try new products and then post your reviews
Clients always have inspiration photos to bring in to you, share some shots that show what YOU are inspired by

Restaurants

We know that once restaurants are forced to close, they can offer takeout and delivery to stay afloat, but we’d like to share additional ideas that are easy to implement today!
- Meal Kits: Restaurants that serve pizza are the easiest for this. Kids are out of school and there are MANY hours facing parents each morning, keeping their children occupied. Take out meal kits are a fun way to spend time together AND you get a delicious meal out of it!
  - An example of a pizza kit you can offer: 2 kid sized rolled out doughs, shredded mozzarella, tomato sauce and your choice of any 2 toppings.
- Cooking Class: You can make meal kits that people can pick up and then they can join you at a specified time as you go live and teach them how to make the dish.
- Rewards: If you currently have a rewards program, consider offering double points for a specified time period.
  - Go one further and offer a cash prize to the rewards member that earns the most points during that time frame.

One last idea: We all are in the business we’re in because we feel that our products or services will help people. The more value we can offer in the least number of steps that our consumers have to take in order to accept our offers, the more we will see repeat customers and word of mouth returns. So why not partner with like minded local brands and become a one-stop-shop for both current and potential buyers? Simply set up a quick landing page and offer gift cards to a wide variety of businesses (starting with your own!) that purchasers can redeem later.

Social distancing has got us all craving connections. Businesses that are still hesitant to be active on social, now is the time for you to be out there offering support for those struggling through this trying time.

Lucy Rendler-Kaplan

Lucy is the founder of Arkay Marketing & PR. A writer from an early age (who could forget the 88 page “Bears” novel from an outspoken 3 year old?!) she’s excited to be writing for She Owns It and loves the feeling of camaraderie and empowerment of the group. When she’s not staying in and writing marketing plans or celebrating wins with clients, she can be found taking selfies with her 15 year old mutt, Desi.

arkaymarketing.com