By now you have heard about the Coronavirus. The sad reality is that it is spreading quickly and will continue to spread for a while.

Did you know that we are getting roughly 13,000 new cases a day and it’s growing fast?

No one really knows how many people will be infected (or will pass away sadly), but it has caused the global stock markets to crash, which means as a business (or even a marketer), you will be affected.

And because my Agency works with hundreds of companies in all the major sectors and we have already starting to show people how it is impacting businesses.

So what does this mean for you?

Well, before I go into that, let me be clear on what business owners should not do and what they should do.

Don’t exploit the situation
The first thing we are seeing is people trying to exploit fear.

What I mean by this is supplies are running low around the world. From masks and toilet paper to hand sanitizer and other basic necessities… I am seeing marketers buying them and then reselling them on Jumia or running ads and selling them for 10-50x the price.

This isn’t entrepreneurship and this isn’t marketing. I highly recommend that you avoid exploiting the Coronavirus situation to make a quick buck.

Not only is it wrong but it is also very short-sighted. Sure you may be able to make a quick buck, but it won’t last… you are better off spending your time on anything that is long term.

So now that we got that out of the way, what does the Coronavirus mean for marketers?

Businesses are going to struggle for a while
Even if the virus slows down fast as the numbers have dropped in China, businesses are going to struggle for well over a year because they will have to make up for their losses.

For example, in China the virus caused retail sales to drop by 20.5% and the unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 in February.

When companies like Apple shut down their stores to help reduce the spread, it means less income and less profit. Sure they are able to pay their employees during their temporary shutdown, but not all companies have their bank balance and most won’t be able to do the same.

Just look at the travel industry. The virus is expected to lose them 820 billion dollars. Virgin Atlantic just asked their staff to take an 8-week unpaid leave.

The ports are also empty and the first rounds of layoffs have already started.

It’s estimated that in total COVID-19 will cost the global economy $2.7 trillion.

And not only are people losing money but they are losing traffic and conversions.

So what should you do?

From a conversion rate standpoint, we saw drops in most industries as well. Even the financial sector, which had big traffic booms in traffic, dropped in conversions.

It is true that people didn’t want to miss out on Coronavirus, political and financial information with the turmoil, hence news sites saw a nice lift.

You can get online as soon as you can and create a blog for your business, start writing about the inportants of people doing business with you through your online platform and also help to promote news related to the Coronavirus in other to help reduce the spread.

Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful
I didn’t come up with that saying, it’s actually a line from Warren Buffett.

You will see people cutting back because the economy is predicted to get hit by 2.7 trillion dollars and experts are saying that we are going to go into a recession.

You even have billionaire investors like Carl Ichan saying that the market has more room to go down and we should expect the sell-off has longer to go.

But what I’ve learned from going through two crashes (the dotcom crash in 2000 and the real estate crash in 2008) is that the best time to double down is when others are not.

During an economic downturn, you’ll find that you will have less competition, if you are very creative which means it is easier and faster to get results, and in some cases, you’ll be able to get deals from new customers if you start an online platform advertising. We can help you put them all together at a very reduce rate.

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Note: We have put together a small Website Designing Package for business owners, If you need a blog or website for your business for less than N6,000, kindly contact 09042431148 and see the different package we have for business owners.

And as for your marketing, this is the time for you to double down. Don’t be fearful when others are also afraid. Do what Warren Buffett does… be greedy when other people are fearful.

In other words, double down and move your business online by using this opportunity.

How have you seen the Coronavirus affect your income?

PS: Please be safe and, if possible, stay indoors.

PPS: I know many of you may be facing financial difficulty, so hopefully having a website or blog for your business, organization, club, church, school helps you make some of the money from home.

Joshua Udom

Survey for Business Owners (incentive within)

Hello
My team is building tools to help grow your business! This 2 minutes survey seeks your insights based on your day to day experience as a store owner/operator. If you have any questions, please reach me- kedoxadesanya@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks.

The survey link: https://forms.gle/6X9gtnjTLdNKY5ao6