#crisisresponseplan

The Importance of Updating Your Website for COVID-19

Whether you’re hosting a webinar, giving away a special report, selling a program, or presenting a video series, a landing page inspires your visitors to participate in some way.

Creating a crisis response landing page is a bit different because you’re not trying to convert leads into sales—you’re trying to communicate serious messaging to your customers.

Why should you put up a separate crisis-related page? Your visitors are looking for reassurance and resources, whether it’s around health precautions you’re taking to prevent the spread of coronavirus or changes to your opening hours. It’s important for your small business to have a crisis response plan, and a big part of that is messaging.

Such as coffee chain JJ Bean talking about their gradual reopening.

Coffee chain JJ Bean talks about their gradual reopening.

What Is a Landing Page?

It’s simply a website page, but it often looks different from your typical website. It has a primary focus—a single “call to action” or focused objective that you want your visitors to pay attention to.

It’s all about keeping the visitor focused on that main objective: your response to COVID-19.

The Dos & Don’ts of Creating a COVID-19 Landing Page

Click-through website pages are designed to convince the visitor to click through to another page.

This is often done on an eCommerce site, where a marketing campaign will send people to a click-through website pages and provide engaging details about a specific program, product or service. There will be a button that will lead people to buy whatever you’re selling.

If you have a call to action on your COVID-19 response landing page, make sure it’s sensitive and relevant. For example, if you provide counselling services or sell wellness-related items consumers are looking for during this time, it’s fine to show people how to access your offerings.

The Broken Whisk Restaurant has a COVID-19 landing page letting people know about their Heat and Serve Meal Program offered while closed.

However, if your small business sells completely unrelated items, don’t clutter your informational website pages with them. The rest of your website can do that; save your COVID-19 landing page for informational purposes. This communication is part of your pandemic response plan, not a sales pitch.

The same goes for lead generation. Marketers use lead generation website pages to capture the name, email address and perhaps other info (like a phone number or occupation) to enter it into a database list, which is stored in a newsletter platform service.

Then, that database list can be used to follow up with people who signed up, either through an autoresponder series, promotional campaign or other newsletter sendout.

You’ll want to avoid having a signup form on your COVID-19 response landing page. Even if you have coronavirus-specific resources to share, now’s not the time to be trying to grab leads from a page like this. (But if you want to boost your leads and sales on other pages, here’s an article I wrote on creating website pages that convert.)

The BC Chamber of Commerce has a page of resources for businesses affected by COVID-19.

READ: How to Pivot Your Small Business Strategy During the COVID-19 Crisis

I know this is a scary and isolating time both personally and professionally. I hope you’re staying safe and healthy, and that this article can help you with planning for business challenges related to the coronavirus.

I’ve personally had to pivot many times as an entrepreneur, and while it can be stressful, it can also be a time of innovation and growth. As you’re creating your coronavirus crisis management plan for business, here are a few things to focus on.

6 Ways to Build an Optimal Coronavirus Landing Page

It’s not as simple as putting up a page on your website and waiting for traffic to flow in (just like the rest of your website)!

Here are five ways to design an experience that will resonate with your visitors:

Start with a clean design. This page of your website should be simple and focused. Website pages with balanced “white space” make it easier for visitors to focus on your coronavirus messaging.

Add a descriptive headline. Simply putting “Resources” is not compelling. Something like “How We’re Responding to the Pandemic” or “COVID-19 Resources for Our Clients” will capture people’s attention.

Add images. Maybe not a close-up of the virus itself, which we tend to see on a lot of news sites! Pics of your store or restaurant staff, an image of the outdoors if it’s relevant to your small business...use your imagination.

Be empathetic. Be clear on why your visitor is on this page to begin with and ensure you are addressing their current needs, challenges and even fears. Show you empathize with those needs and demonstrate they are in the right place.

Keep it simple. In this case, less is more. Don’t add extra links, wording or visuals that distract your visitors. The whole point of this separate page is to keep viewers focused on the message.

Format your text. This is especially true if you have a lot of copy. Bold headers, make certain text stand out in italics and add colour to make your page more dynamic.

This is a challenging time for small businesses and customers alike. The more information and peace of mind you can provide your website visitors the better. By creating a pandemic response plan and a separate coronavirus landing page, it shows you’re thinking of—and care about—your customers.