New challenges for business. How to develop a project during quarantine

Entrepreneurship is literally a path from one crisis situation to another, with the simultaneous solution of emerging problems. To stay afloat and scale your business, it is important to quickly adapt to the prevailing economic circumstances. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 virus, organizations worldwide are forced to drastically change their promotion tools and sales techniques. In this article, we will provide tips to help your business survive and even grow, despite the challenging economic situation.

How to Develop Your Business During a Global Crisis

Work Remotely

To survive in a pandemic, move as many business processes as possible to remote work.

Remote work involves any form of distance interaction between a company, employees, and clients.

Even if it's not possible to shift production to remote work, almost all team interaction processes can be organized through the internet. Working outside the office may only be hindered by internal barriers and prejudices. To organize team work, it is important to provide the necessary technical tools for:

- training and qualifications improvement. Develop a step-by-step training course for beginners. To quickly introduce to the course, involve experienced mentors who will advise on how to perform tasks more effectively.

- online communication with team members.Create working online chats and set up automatic notifications for news and any work-related changes.

- conducting presentations and webinars. Host online conferences to promptly deliver important information and personally present new products to company partners.

- collecting analytical data. Keep track of team productivity statistics. This way, you will identify weak points in the work that need attention.

All the functionality needed to work with a team is already gathered in a single online system - Recruta (recruting.biz). Instead of hundreds of Excel spreadsheets, numerous dialogues in different messengers, monotonous presentation of educational material, and monitoring each individual partner separately, you can use one system that has all the current and proven tools.

Conduct a business audit

A crisis is a time when it is necessary to soberly assess the effectiveness of each process in your enterprise. To objectively assess current positions and development prospects, conduct an independent audit of every detail. In particular, pay special attention:

- reward plan. The algorithm determining the volume and order of bonuses awarded to company partners directly affects the profitability of the enterprise and motivates employee activity. 

- sales volume. Highlight the list of flagship products, consider possible options for streamlining or expanding the assortment.

To increase sales levels, under current circumstances, revising the terms of product delivery will help. In particular, implement home delivery of products through courier services.

An expert audit from an external perspective will help identify nuances where the budget is being drained and pinpoint areas that generate the main income. Find a contractor who will competently address all weaknesses, impartially gather all reports, and calculate the conversion rate of each action. As a result, you will not only optimize every process but also receive a detailed development plan for the future.

Test different ways to attract an audience to the site

In the situation that has developed in 2020, consumers have become more active in using online services, shopping in online stores, ordering food/goods delivery, looking for alternative ways to earn money, etc. Even while in quarantine, people continue to make purchases, use services, or look for business opportunities.

When stores, restaurants, offices, and shopping centers are closed - the internet continues to work. It remains only to declare yourself online and attract the attention of the target audience.

More information on defining the target audience can be found in the article MLM Target Audience. Guide to Definition and Attraction

To present your offer, it is enough to create a one-page website and direct targeted clients to it. You can quickly put together a webpage using a landing page builder (similar to the one on recruting.biz) or develop it individually.

Having a clear idea of who specifically should be interested in the offer, choose methods to drive traffic to the site. Years of observation and experiments by the FlawlessMLM team have proven the effectiveness of the following methods:

1. Targeted Advertising. Targeting can be set up in search engines as well as in social networks. By launching this type of advertising on your website, you can attract specific target customers by segmenting the audience by age, gender, and location.

2. Link Building. This is a full-fledged strategy for placing links to your site from authoritative resources where your potential audience spends time. The more quality links to the resource, the higher your reputation in the eyes of search engines and the more organic traffic the site will receive.

3. Brand Development. By increasing the company's recognition, you will attract a highly loyal audience to your business and literally grow organic demand for services or products. Develop the project page on social networks, maintain an internal blog and columns on article platforms, participate in thematic conferences and niche events.

When applying any of the above methods for the first time, don't forget to test the effectiveness of each on your project. This way, you will determine the specific, most effective way to attract an audience and eliminate the waste of effort and resources on ineffective methods.

Implement new methods of promotion and product sales

This involves integrating loyalty programs into business processes. Through such a marketing strategy, you can increase the average check, develop repeat sales to existing customers, and even attract new ones.

A mistake many managers make is not paying enough attention to this method of attracting an audience. And that's a mistake. The main advantages of importing loyalty programs:

- reduction in costs for attracting and retaining end consumers. According to the consulting company McKinsey, in small and medium-sized businesses, affiliate programs are capable of generating twice as many sales compared to traditional advertising.

- increased customer loyalty and overall company reputation. Due to a positive collaboration experience, trust levels will increase, and consumer attachment to the brand will develop.

In practice, the following methods have proven their effectiveness:

1. Accumulative bonus programs

This is the simplest and most popular loyalty program in the CIS countries. Its principle is based on recording the history/cost of consumer purchases, and the company's commitment is compensated by crediting bonuses to the participant's account. In the future, bonuses can be used as "local currency" to pay for purchases.

Lately, entrepreneurs are increasingly combining regular accumulative systems and network marketing methods. In particular, the basic loyalty program incorporates functionality to increase client levels and status. The more purchases a person makes, the higher their status. The higher the consumer's status in the program, the more bonuses they receive.

For example, at the store "Sportmaster", by making purchases for a certain amount, you can increase your prestige level in the bonus program. The higher the level, the greater percentage of discounts you can receive, and the more bonuses will be provided for future shopping.

2. Cashback

Cashback and promo code services can probably be applied in almost all areas. Most often, ordinary buyers encounter them directly when paying for goods in online stores.

Cashback - a certain amount of money or a percentage of the amount spent that is returned to the account after a person makes a purchase. The term Cash Back literally means "money back".

A similar money-back scheme benefits everyone. By connecting cashback, the seller stands out from competitors and literally advertises themselves. The money saved on promotion is paid to customers as a reward.

For example, when paying with a PrivatBank card at program partner establishments, a portion of the money spent goes to a separate "Bonus Plus" account. After accumulating the required amount of money, the customer can use it to pay for other purchases at participating stores.

3. Promo Codes

A promo code is a unique combination of characters that entitles the buyer to a discount, gift, or free delivery. The buyer can obtain it from a third-party promo code service, directly from the online store, or see the code word in an advertising publication.

By using promo codes, a company can not only attract and retain customers but also stimulate sales of a specific brand, products from a new or old collection.

For example, one of Ukraine's largest online retailers, Rozetka, regularly sends out newsletters with promo codes to its subscribers, indicating specific items eligible for a discount.

4. Multi-level affiliate programs

Multi-level partnerships are the most complex type of loyalty programs. It is not just a program that benefits the company, but alternative job opportunities and sources of income for new partners.

In projects that operate on the principles of multilevel marketing, the client has the opportunity to become a full partner. They will earn from direct sales of the company's products/services and by recruiting referrals who receive the same rights. By building a structure of personally invited people and becoming their leader, the partner receives additional bonuses for the progressiveness of their team and the total sales volume.

A specific algorithm is responsible for the distribution and accrual of rewards. You can read more about it in the article MLM Marketing Plan. How not to get lost in the 3 pines

Over time, companies that have successfully implemented such a partnership move to using multilevel marketing as the main method of attracting clients and product distributors. The effectiveness of MLM can be seen in examples of commodity, investment, insurance projects, and in businesses offering a variety of services.

To develop and import a multi-level partner program, it is important to attract professional contractors. At a minimum, expert and practical experience is critical in developing compensation payment plans.

Keep in mind that most IT contractors are not familiar with MLM specifics and do not have practice in developing marketing plans. By turning to FlawlessMLM, you will save both time and money. Our team will develop a marketing plan of any type and will handle the partner program import turnkey. After analyzing the specifics of your project, our managers will suggest the best solution for you. To get a free consultation, write to the managers in the website chat flawlessmlm.com

Obviously, the global crisis threatens the well-being of small and medium-sized businesses. On the other hand, it is the best time to rethink priorities, perspectives, and development plans. By optimizing work nuances and surviving the critical economic situation, companies find themselves in a more advantageous position than before.