The coworking industry, like the majority of other service-based industries, got severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With people practicing social distancing and working from home, coworking spaces faced a steady decline. According to a report, in 2020, the global market for coworking spaces declined at a CAGR of almost 13%.

However, as the world is slowly adapting to the new normal, coworking spaces are reopening their doors with proper precautions in place. But the road ahead isn’t as easy as it was before the pandemic. Coworking businesses must follow some strategies for coworking space marketing post-COVID to leverage the market resurgence.

According to predictions by JLL, by 2030, the coworking sector will comprise 30% of the entire office real estate. While this is undeniably good news for coworking business owners, many of them find it really difficult to implement expensive marketing strategies after the downturn. If you too belong to this league, don’t lose heart because here, we’ve outlined seven low-cost yet highly effective strategies for marketing coworking space post-COVID.

1) Communicate that you’re strictly following the safety measures

It’s needless to say that maintaining your members’ health and safety has to be your top priority during these challenging times. But even if you’re following a regular and thorough disinfection and cleaning routine, how do you make people feel safe working in your coworking space? To accomplish this, you must communicate the safety measures. Make them clearly visible everywhere – from your website and social media pages to within your community and in the space. You can also create a virtual tour of your coworking space, where the measure that you’re taking will be highlighted, and post it on your website and social media channels. Remember to continuously update your present and potential members on the safety measures you’re taking to keep the workspace safe.

2) Change your coworking space environment

Due to the pandemic, the priorities and expectations of the members of coworking spaces have changed a lot. Now, they’re preferring semi-private or private workspaces over the open floor plan, collaborative concepts. Therefore, you also need to change your office environment accordingly before you start coworking space marketing post-COVID. Apart from the hygiene and cleanliness of your coworking space, be sure to check its ventilation as well. You’d also need to ensure that everybody in the space strictly follows the new CDC guidance.

3) Learn about your customers

With the changed requirements of your target clientele, you may have to modify your business model to suit their needs. And to pinpoint those requirements, you need to understand your customers in a better manner. Focus on getting accurate information about the following.

• Types of users of your coworking space
• Resources they used to find it
• Their purposes for using it
• Reasons for which they’re coming to your space instead of your competitors’
• Their times of using your space

You can use various methods including manual data collection, implementing a CRM platform, and using short surveys to capture this information. Once you’ve gathered the data, analyze it thoroughly and modify your strategies for marketing coworking space post-COVID to attract more customers. For example, once you’ve identified the main resources that your customers are using to find you, you can focus more on strengthening them.

4) Modify your pricing and cancellation policies to promote flexibility

Coworking spaces have always had an advantage over conventional office spaces in that they don’t come with a legally binding agreement. You can extend this flexibility even further to support your members during these difficult times. For instance, if you’ve managed to negotiate revised terms with your landlord, you can pass those savings to the members by lowering your space’s pricing. You can also consider offering an attractive discount to members who book your space for longer terms.

5) Update your website

These days, people consume information from the Internet more than ever and your customers are no different. Your website, being the primary source of information about your coworking space, has to be clearly visible in the SERPs (search engine result pages) to draw more customers. Instead of investing in PPC ads, focus on improving the SEO of your website.

Implement SEO best practices such as updating your site’s H1 and H2 tags, titles, replacing the old content with fresh and relevant information, updating the site structure, adjusting the URL structure, adding meta descriptions, etc. You also need to strategically incorporate both short-tail and long-tail keywords in your site’s content to improve its chances of being able to rank higher in SERPs. Building and implementing a content strategy is another highly effective idea to attract more organic traffic to your site and in turn, to your space. It all these seem to be too technical or you don’t have the time for it, consider hiring an SEO professional.

6) Leverage the power of technology

Technology has always played a pivotal role in the coworking business and in this post-COVID world, it has become important than ever. You can use it for different purposes to add value to your coworking space and to demonstrate your unique value proposition. For example, you can let the members’ access services using their smartphones, allow them to book your space or a tour from your website, add features to help them renew memberships online, etc.

7) List your website in popular online marketplaces

Apart from promoting your coworking space through social media channels, you should also list it in popular online marketplaces that generate very high amounts of traffic regularly. Since these marketplaces come with different filters such as location, amenities, etc, people can easily find your space by incorporating their exact requirements. However, you’ve to ensure that people can clearly understand your offerings and your USPs. Therefore, remember to mention enough details of your space along with some high-quality images.

As we’ve mentioned in the beginning, people’s interest in coworking spaces is on the rise again. However, it’ll take time to regain its earlier popularity. In the meantime, implement the above strategies for marketing coworking space post-COVID to attract customers and remain profitable.

Also check out for Latest Trends of Coworking Spaces for 2021