We may be living in strange and uncertain times, but there’s no need to let this cripple your business and network. Forming and maintaining strong relationships with partners and customers is more important now than ever, and we cannot allow social distancing to undo all the hard work we’ve put into building our companies up to where we are today. We did some digging and arrived at four safe ways to network during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Send Care Packages
During these trying times, caring gestures mean more than ever, so thoughtful gifts are a great way to stay connected. Think of products that can ease the strain of lockdown for the recipient and include some corporate gifts to keep things on-brand and help them out in their home office. If your care package is correctly tailored, this approach is perfect for maintaining relations with business partners and customers.
Connect With Customers Virtually
When looking to form new relationships and build your customer base, the virtual space is your best bet at this point in time. Direct-selling techniques will be far less effective now that many are worried about where their next paycheck will come from, but that doesn’t mean you can’t bring prospects through your sales funnel – you simply need to adjust your approach.
Focus on engagement and supporting your community, and people will appreciate and remember the effort you put in. If you need a budget boost, think about the general advice that you normally hand out for free anyway and package it as an ebook. You can use this as the opener for your sales funnel, and as a bonus, it will help you grow your email list.
From here, offer a consultation to work out the needs of that specific member of your audience. You can then build rapport and take a personally tailored approach to winning them as a client, thus turning them from a cold lead to a warm one that’s going to work with you if they’ve got the motivation and budget.
Run Or Attend A Video Networking Event
If the relationships you are seeking are more professional, you should consider running or attending a video networking event. Many companies are running “virtual drinks” in order to keep in touch with current business partners and find new ones. While it is harder to connect through a screen, it’s much safer at the moment, and this tactic will allow you to solidify or expand your network in these unprecedented times.
Get Social
If virtual drinks don’t appeal to you, you can fall back on social media to attract clients. Social networking sites are a great way to engage with your community, and as long as you keep things professional when reaching out to people, they can be used to grow your network as well.
It is important to remember, however, that when it comes to social media, there’s no point only creating content focused on getting your audience into your sales funnel. They’ll quickly lose interest in your channel and unfollow you. Instead, social posts should be crafted around getting your audience to engage and interact with your page and each other.
By doing things this way, you’ll be able to build a community around your brand which creates your own little army of brand ambassadors. If they love you (and your content) enough, they’ll share your posts and tag their friends, thus expanding your network.
So there you have it, four safe ways to network during the coronavirus epidemic. Good luck, and be sure to take care of yourself.