No one was ready for this year. But just like that, it happened – and today we all find ourselves in a different world.
Consumer habits are adapting. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed in the U.S. since March 2020. 9 in 10 consumers admitted to changing their shopping habits after COVID-19.
Outsourcing went from being a helpful backup to the only viable option.
And one business has been paying close attention.
Enter Fiverr – an established freelancer marketplace that quickly scaled the charts as the (business) life-saving superhero of 2020.
Here are just a few of the ways it’s become invaluable.
How Your Business Can Compete in Today’s Marketing Hunger Games
Tip 1: Retention Equals Revenue
In times of instability, it’s easy to lose sight of the foundation.
That’s how stress impacts our brains. It’s Maslow’s hierarchy. Our minds are kidnapped by our emotional limbic systems, causing us, as humans, to make sure our basic needs are met (like hoarding toilet paper) – and making rational thought almost impossible.
This is where business leaders find themselves, slowly slipping down Maslow’s hierarchy during these moments of crisis.
That’s why business owners immediately look at revenue as a source of success.
But, the truth is, they’re looking in the wrong place. Revenue is a result of usage – and the best way to increase it is to first increase the amount of customers a company retains long-term.
But the good news is, it costs more to acquire a new buyer than to hold onto an existing one.
Thanks to the social, medical, and economic storm that has been the year 2020, businesses need to be ready to pivot quickly to enhance retention. It’s the only way to secure short-term survival and enhance long-term resilience at the same time.
That’s where Fiverr can help.
Reinvention is not met with resistance. Whether you’re between budget cuts and employee furloughs, or just coming to terms with how permanent this quickly changing market might be, it can be challenging to keep the machine running. But for almost any modern-day problem, Fiverr has a solution.
With Fiverr, you can connect with specialized talent anytime, anywhere. No matter which kind of task you need, what size your budget is, or when that deadline will hit – you can get the project done.
The services available vary from the basic tiers of any business to just about everything else: graphics, writing, digital marketing services, programming, and the list goes on. It’s designed with your timeline, your budget, and your level of commitment in mind.
Retention is your business’s version of basic needs (i.e., your toilet paper). And, to retain customers, you must innovate for the future.
To maintain retention, you also want to build trust and show empathy to adapt to changing consumer behaviors.
Look at the backlash Ticketmaster received after they stated they would not refund tickets or events canceled due to COVID-19. After a reporter aimed at them in the New York Times and inquiries from Congress, Ticketmaster was more flexible.
In these strange times of chaos and disruption, you have to focus on what matters most, retention.
Tip 2: Find a Happy Medium Between Tone-Deaf & Overly Concerned
Empathy is another key vital force in transitioning to the new world; it shows a human sensitivity to circumstances. Banks, for example, have waived overdraft fees.
Adding empathy in your messaging and tone can align your business with shopper sentiment. It shows that you’re thinking about the greater good of your community. But these days, it’s easy to misinterpret tone without face-to-face communication.
While consumers want to know you genuinely care about them, you don’t want to come across tone-deaf or overly concerned.
Take Guinness, for instance. They shifted their message from celebrations at the pub on St. Patrick’s Day to wellness and longevity.
One way to do this is to adopt the approach of “we” first with a customer-centric approach. Research has shown that using “we” increases participants’ perceived closeness when compared to “you” or “I.”
Here is an example from Levi’s:
Levi’s® executives reflect on race, George Floyd and where we go from here. Read their candid Q&A. https://t.co/K8mT6LImj7 pic.twitter.com/qScP3aM6Tl
— Levi's® (@LEVIS) June 1, 2020
You can see Levi’s starts their statement with “we.”
That’s why today more than ever, you want a copywriter that can create empathetic connections between your business and your consumer.
And Fiverr was built to make sure you can get one.
This is where your expectations can not only be agreed upon ahead of time, but you also get to verify that the work meets them before any payment is made.
Once you’ve got what you want, Fiverr’s talented copywriters can help you cultivate the tone of voice you’re looking for, establish your brand, and then build guidelines to keep it maintained.
On top of that, Fiverr is the perfect place to go for adjusting your tone, converting your content to other languages, or even creating designs that will support it – thanks to its talents from all over the world.
When searching for a copywriter, they should have the ability to empathize with your consumer. It shouldn’t feel forced. The right message and tone can help your consumers feel seen and heard.
Tip 3: Switch Acquisition Content to Education-Based
As we continue to shift to this new world, business owners need to rethink the near-term relationship. With problems arising from top-down sales, it’s time to find new ways to fill the funnel.
Content needs to switch from acquisition to education-based. A customer-centric approach to content will be perceived as more genuine.
This could take the shape of webinars like the James Beard Foundation did.
Or even creating a standalone page on your website like Mailchimp.
These are great examples of brands shifting to thinking about the solution, not the product.
With businesses near and far needing to adjust their communications to match the current concerns of users and buyers, freelancers offer another special advantage: they’re more likely to have already had diverse experience executing this shift, while the rest of the world gradually comes to terms with it.
Whether you’re looking to make across-the-board changes in a pinch or simply double down on your marketing efforts, there’s no task too daunting with Fiverr’s marketplace of content creators, editors, designers, translators, and many more at your service.
Tip 4: Stop Using Outdated Tactics
We know consumer behavior is changing. People are adopting online shopping for the first time. Travelers are not using public transportation. And, the workforce is working remotely.
As things continue to change, it’s vital to re-evaluate your marketing campaigns to pause, delay, or entirely scrap.
For example, Corona could have avoided negative press coverage by delaying its Corona Hard Seltzer launch.
The key takeaway is that you want to review your entire customer journey to identify pain points or potential blockers based on the current situation.
Finding a freelancer to assist with your conversion strategy is not only easy – it’s smart. Conversion strategists can work with you to prioritize the primary sources of revenue throughout the buyer journey.
This can include win-back campaigns for your loyal customers that may have left, cultivating new customer experiences, and even assisting in pricing and promotions based on the data you share.
And since freelancers have been working the closest with our rapidly changing market, their perspective is the one you want right now.
By optimizing your conversion funnel, you can free up your sales team to sell more.
Tip 5: Prioritize Your Website Usability
As more people work remotely, more people are spending time searching the web, which means more potential for their time to be spent on your website.
If you’ve survived this long without an online site or store by relying only on social media or other means, your time has come: now’s the moment to get a dedicated website and increase your audience.
Businesses should focus their budgets on website optimization for usability, to gain new customers and retain loyal ones.
For example, your page speed is more important than flashy features on your site.
Removing any aggressive conversion tactics like pop-ups can be the determining factor between a goal conversion or a bounce back.
So how do you figure out the right move to make? Get a Fiverr expert to take you through your top-performing web pages and help you gain customer insight.
By diving into your customer journey and usability, you can understand consumer pain points.
These pain points can be used to create new FAQ copy or build out your help center.
The Secret to Growing Your Business in this New World
Honeywell CEO Dave Cote talked about his experience during the 2008 recession, stating, “There will be a recovery, and we need to be prepared for it.”
It’s becoming possible to imagine what the “new world” of your business might look like. The secret is staying in tune with what’s valuable to your customers right now. The campaigns you worked on yesterday are irrelevant today.
If there’s one thing the world needs to come to terms with sooner or later, it’s this: these times have shown us that a full in-house team is no longer necessary to run or reinvent your business.
Thanks to Fiverr, you have the ability to source the ideas and the talent to help get everything done quickly and efficiently, on a task-by-task basis, and on your time and budget.
It’s finally time for the world to reimagine business – and Fiverr is right on schedule.
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The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor's own.