As the COVID-19 outbreak increases in intensity, we extend our best wishes to you to stay safe and healthy. COVID-19 presents an unprecedented disruption to the economy as workers around the world practice social distancing and working from home. We’ve seen online services like Slack and Zoom skyrocket in value as employees adjust to remote work. ISPs like T-Mobile and Comcast have lifted internet usage caps. Online services are more in demand than ever before. Is your company in a position to help customers in this new reality?

There is uncertainty. Not inaction.

It's easy to say that you don't know where you'll be in a month from now. (Heck, we don't know what new social distancing rules will be announced tomorrow!) But if you allow that uncertain viewpoint to win out in your mind, then you are already losing.

Now is the time to find new customers.

Now is the time for you to be the stable rock for those customers in this moment of crisis.

You can get ahead of everyone else while your competitors are focused on finding toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And that is how you win.

Do you sell goods online? Should you?

If you are an e-commerce brand, it’s time to make sure that your site’s reliability is solid. If a large influx of traffic would bring your site to a crawl or take it offline altogether, consider if you need to re-evaluate your hosting or platform. It’s also worth investing in customer service processes that make transactions as easy as possible for your customers during the pandemic. While these can be appreciated even after the outbreak, adding self-service options for common customer service needs such as returns can help now with decreasing the demands on your customer service team so that your employees can rest or focus on more important business matters.

If your company sells something that could be sold online but currently is not, this represents an excellent opportunity to consider if it might be time to open up an online store. This can reduce the demand on your salespeople and make it easier for transactions to continue even while your salespeople can’t meet face-to-face. Although your company's industry might not seem to lend itself to online purchasing at first glance, many products and service processes can be productized or automated to help facilitate e-commerce.

You should offer gift cards.

Gift cards let customers who would like to continue supporting you do so, even if they aren’t able to visit you in person during the pandemic. Gift cards let you sell now, with the promise to fulfill service later, when things return to normal. Nearly every company can benefit from selling gift cards. For that reason, if that isn't something you're already offering, we highly recommend you consider it strongly.

More eyes, cheaper ads.

Facebook Advertising remains one of the most popular ad platforms in the world. Like other industries, its prices are based on supply and demand. Since there is a finite amount of space for ads within apps and websites, when demand goes up prices also rise accordingly. We are in the midst of the biggest traffic surge Facebook has ever seen. More available ad supply. More eyeballs to see those ads.

Q4 is traditionally the most expensive time to advertise with Facebook since you’re competing for space with many companies during the holiday season. The first two months of this year have also been unusually expensive as a result of the democratic primaries. Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg in particular have poured millions of dollars into the Facebook machine. But within the last couple of weeks, they, along with nearly every other candidate, have dropped out of the race. Other companies affected by COVID-19 have reduced their marketing spend. This contraction has resulted in a significant reduction in demand, and Facebook ads are trending significantly cheaper than normal right now. If your company can afford to advertise, now is an excellent time to do so on the Facebook platform.

Let’s navigate this new economy together.

Our team is already comfortable working remotely and we continue to work together to build amazing things online while simultaneously doing our part to practice social distancing and slow the spread of the virus.

If you’re in the same boat and looking to boost your site, let’s talk.