3 Ways to grow your business during Lockdown 2.0
Jon Richardson • November 1, 2020
Build Resilience and Revenue
The news last night about the country going in to lockdown for the next four weeks increases the uncertainty for business owners. The smaller the business the more severe the implications become. Many smaller businesses struggle to pay the bills even in ‘normal times’ and putting everything on hold for weeks or months on end isn’t a scenario many of us ever countenanced prior to March.
The uncertainty about how long this new lockdown is going to continue also increases stress both financial and emotional.
So, the question is, how can you protect your business, build resiliency and minimise the impact of this and future lockdowns or restrictions?
Here are my 3 tips to help business owners protect their businesses and livelihoods
1. Build an online shop to compliment your bricks and mortar business
The UK is the world's third-largest e-commerce market, with nearly £200 billion in sales in 2019! Currently e-commerce sales make up 27.5% of retail sales in the UK. Research predicts that these figures are only going to increase.
Many people are embracing ecommerce for the first time or increasing their usage and using online stores for new areas and items. Many of the older generation have had to embrace ecommerce whilst they have been shielding. This opens a whole new market that is waiting to be serviced.
The benefits of ecommerce are many and include:
1. The ability to trade 24/7/365
2. The ability to trade globally.
3. Having in depth insights to your customers behaviour and demographics
4. Being able to proactively remarket to and retarget customers
5. Low expansion cost
2. Expand your online presence with a mobile App
The cost of building Apps has reduced significantly in recent years. This has resulted in an explosion of Apps being built for small and medium sized businesses. There are over 4 million apps available today with over £100bn per year of revenue being generated by them. With an estimated 55.5 million smart phone users in the UK and 90% of time spent on mobile phones is on Apps means that there is a huge market waiting for you.
These are all eyewatering statistics but what do they mean for you? Why should you invest time and money in having your own App built? The answer is simple; ‘a mobile app will increase customer loyalty and encourage your customers to spend more frequently with you’. It can do this in multiple ways such as:
1. Making it extremely easy to buy your products or services. With just a few swipes of their finger a customer can find, and pay for your products or services whether that is beauty products, food, alcohol or pretty much anything else
2. Loyalty Scheme, it is well know that loyalty schemes bring customers back time and time again. Many companies have a loyalty or rewards scheme. Ask yourself two questions; how many loyalty cards do you have and how many times have you forgotten to use them? What if they were all on your phone, how easy and convenient would that be?
3. Communicating with your customers. All companies want to keep in contact with their customers but most types of communication require the recipient to do something. Open an envelope, open an email, search for your website etc. The beauty of An App is that you can use Push notifications to make your message appear on the home screen of their phone.
3. Increase Your Social Media Presence
Social media is becoming increasingly important. Social media usage rocketed throughout the first lockdown and there is no reason not to expect it to increase again during this lockdown.
A lot of business owners have traditionally managed their social media channels themselves. This often leads to sporadic posting and disjointed messages. Having a defined social media strategy is important because your reputation can be enhanced or destroyed by social media.
I could write several blogs on social media strategy but that is beyond the scope of this blog,. Here are some key elements you need to consider with a social media strategy:
1. What platforms do you need to be on? The answer to this is simple, it is the same ones your customers and potential customers are on.
2. How often should you post. Well you should post once at least once per day across the platforms you are on. It can be a challenge to create original and engaging content all of the time, but you can share third party content such as industry news or events
3. Followers and following. You should follow as many of your customers as possible and like and comment on their posts. Additionally, follow your competitors as well, see what type of messaging they are pushing out and keep abreast of any offers they are promoting
There are many other considerations and opportunities with social media but the overriding goal is to ensure that you are always at the front and centre of your customers and potential customers minds.
Conclusion
None of us wanted to enter another lockdown and it will put a lot of small businesses under significant pressure but what we have learned from the previous lockdown is that we essentially have two options.
You can either hunker down and wait for it to end and hope you can pick up where you left off. Or you can take this opportunity to take stock, continue marketing and build resilience and additional income streams into your business.
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The AI Tools That Actually Generate Leads AI isn’t just about saving time; it can actively help you win new business — if you use it the right way. Google Ads and Meta Ads Optimisation You’ve probably noticed that Google and Meta now talk about “Smart Campaigns” and “Advantage+” ads. That’s AI at work — algorithms that automatically test different ad headlines, images and targeting combinations to find what performs best. It’s far from perfect, but it’s powerful when used properly. The mistake small businesses make is letting the system run on autopilot without checking what it’s doing. AI works best when you feed it good data and clear goals. You still need to know what to target, where your audience lives, and what problem you’re solving. Let AI do the testing and optimisation — but don’t hand it the steering wheel. If you’re managing ads yourself, use AdCreative.ai to generate high-converting ad visuals and copy in minutes. It’s simple, quick and doesn’t look like it came from a robot. AI for Local SEO and Google Business Profile This is one area where AI genuinely gives small businesses a fighting chance against national brands. AI-powered tools like Local Falcon, BrightLocal and Surfer Local can scan your entire Google Maps ranking area and show exactly where you’re visible (and where you’re not). That’s data you could never get manually. You can then use AI to help write keyword-optimised posts, service descriptions, and responses to reviews. If you do it properly, you can dominate your local area because most of your competitors won’t even know these tools exist. We’ve tested this ourselves, and the difference can be night and day. Clients go from being invisible outside their postcode to ranking across an entire 10-mile radius in a matter of months. To learn more, check out our LOCAL SEO service page. AI Chat and Lead-Capture Agents Here’s a huge one. AI chat agents can now do far more than pop up on your site with “How can I help you today?”. They can qualify leads, answer FAQs, book appointments, and even follow up automatically. Tools like Tidio, Drift, or GoHighLevel AI Agents make it easy to build one that fits your tone and brand. Used properly, they can turn missed calls into booked jobs, especially for trades and service businesses where speed of response is everything. But be warned: this only works when your bot feels human. If it gives robotic, generic answers, it will kill trust instantly. Spend time training it with real questions and examples from your past conversations. You can see how we use automation like this on our AI Websites page. The Tools That Sound Exciting but Rarely Pay Off AI image generators, video avatars and content mills have their place, but most small businesses waste time chasing gimmicks that never generate a penny in return. AI Image Generators Everyone loves playing with Midjourney and DALL-E — but unless you’re in creative design or product marketing, it’s mostly just fun. They’re great for social graphics, concept visuals and mock-ups, but they take time to master. You’ll still need editing, branding and human judgment to make the results usable. Verdict: Nice to play with, not a daily essential. AI Blogging Tools You’ve probably seen the “write me 10 SEO-optimised blogs instantly” type tools. They can churn out text, sure, but it’s usually bland, repetitive and reads like it was written by a committee of robots. If your aim is to rank or build trust locally, that won’t cut it. AI is brilliant for drafting outlines and ideas (we use it for that all the time), but you still need a human to add expertise, local context and personality. Google’s algorithm is smart enough now to spot thin, generic AI content. You’ll do better with one well-written blog a month that genuinely helps people than with ten AI-generated ones that don’t say anything new. AI Video Avatars These have exploded in popularity, but most look awkward and fake when used for local service businesses. Unless you’re creating explainer videos or training content, it’s better to film yourself (or your team) for authenticity. AI avatars can’t replace genuine personality and personality is what sells local services. How to Tell if an AI Tool Is Worth It Before you sign up for yet another shiny new AI platform, ask three questions: Does it save me time every week? If it doesn’t make a recurring difference, it’s not worth keeping. Does it improve my marketing results? Does it generate more leads, improve conversions, or give insights I couldn’t get otherwise? Can I see myself actually using it? Most AI tools fail not because they’re bad, but because people forget they exist. Pick a few that fit neatly into your daily workflow. A good test is this: if you stop using it for a week and nothing gets harder, cancel it. The AI Tools We’d Recommend to a Local Business Right Now If you’re short on time and want a focused list, here’s what genuinely helps most small businesses: ChatGPT or Claude – for quick drafts, emails, ideas and posts. GoHighLevel AI Agent – for lead capture and automated follow-ups. Local Falcon – to track and improve your local visibility. Vista Social – to manage social posts and analyse engagement. Fireflies.ai – to summarise calls and meetings. AdCreative.ai – to create better-performing ad creatives quickly. Everything else? Nice to have, but not essential. The Future: AI as Your Silent Business Partner The smartest small businesses in 2025 won’t be the ones that chase every new trend. They’ll be the ones that quietly integrate AI into their day-to-day operations and never look back. AI won’t replace you (yet), but it will replace a lot of your admin, manual marketing, and repetitive customer interactions. That means you can spend more time doing what you actually enjoy, running your business, talking to customers, and delivering great work. Final Thoughts Most AI hype is built around things that look impressive. But the real gold is in the boring stuff — automation, data insights and everyday time-savers that keep your business moving faster than your competitors. Start small. Automate one thing. Measure the impact. Then add the next piece.vvWithin a few months, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it. If you’d like help identifying the right AI tools for your business, or want us to integrate them into your marketing systems, BOOK A CHAT WITH THE TEAM AT OVERT DIGITAL MEDIA . We’ll show you what’s genuinely worth your investment… and what belongs firmly in the bin.
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