Moving your business online could be a good way to keep trading during the lockdown.
Even if you don't have products to sell, pivoting your business online could still be a useful way to engage your existing customers.
We've written a brief guide on how to move your business online during coronavirus. Join our Monzo Business Community Facebook group or tweet us to let us know how you're getting on.
Register for a URL if you don't have one already
Your URL should be something similar to your brand name, so it's easy for customers to recognise. Here's how to see the free domain names out there before registering your URL.
Get your website set up and running
Setting up a website might seem overwhelming, but it's not as hard as you might think. Many solutions provide easy-to-use drag and drop layouts, with templates to get your site up and running within just hours. Some providers have low-cost or free options, too.
With Square, you’ll be able to open an Online Store, where you can add items, link a payment method and even manage local delivery, pickup or order shipping from your Square account. Square, and other solutions such as Wix or WooCommerce, can help with domain registration as well. If you're looking to make your website yourself, Square has APIs that let you build easy payments into your web architecture. You can read more about it here.
Get a free Square reader and free processing on your first £1,000 of card transactions, when you get a Monzo Business Pro account for £5 a month. After the £1,000 of free processing is up, standard Square pricing applies. Terms and conditions apply.
Try make your website as easy as possible to find
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help you with that. SEO makes your page easier to find when people type questions into search engines like Google. The better your SEO, the higher up the search engine page your website will be, and the more people who will see your website.
It's a great time to make sure your website has good SEO because so many people are doing their shopping online and online only!
You can also look into marketing channels like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and even TikTok. If you haven't created a social media profile for your business, now's a good time to get started on this too.
You can do things like join relevant groups on Facebook to post about your business and tweet about what you're selling and doing online. You can tap into communities on social media, which can be a great way to find new customers to reach. You can also look into promoting your business through social media (this may mean paying for advertising and sponsored posts), so there's even more of a chance that people will find it.
Marketing online isn’t a solo task, either, whether through cross-posts, guest blogs or recommendations, try working with other online businesses to help promote one another.
Look for creative ways to move your business online
You might be thinking about pausing some of the marketing campaigns you had planned during this time. But instead of pausing them indefinitely, it could be useful to think about creative ways to engage customers.
If you're running ads on social media, you could add some context about coronavirus so that your customers feel like what they're seeing is relevant to what they're experiencing. Do you have the tech set up to provide your customers with an essential service or essential goods?
If you're unable to continue with business as usual and you've seen a decrease in demand for your products or what you do, you could look into running online tutorials where you teach people a skill that you are an expert in.
You could also think about selling gift cards or vouchers whilst your business is affected by social distancing. Regular customers may want to show their support to their favourite businesses during this time. Here’s how to set up a gift card with Square.
If you're looking for some inspiration, take a look at Blume. Blume is a luxury floral design studio that specialises in creating bespoke floral displays for weddings and events. To keep their business running during these challenging times , they've set up online floral mentoring workshops. They're using the knowledge and skills they've built up over their careers and focussing on teaching others in the floral industry how to run and grow a profitable floral business. Take a look at how they're doing it here.
Engage your customers using your online platform
It can also be a good idea to focus on building your online community during this time. Use your website, email lists and social media channels to help engage your customers. Be open about the challenges you're facing and be transparent as possible in what you're doing to pivot and adjust your business during coronavirus.
Existing Monzo Business customers can access Monzo Business for the web here. If you don't have Monzo Business, tap below to get started. You can learn more about switching here.
The government has ordered certain businesses to close to prevent further spreading of coronavirus. You can see the guidelines, including which businesses are affected, here.