During this trying time, many small businesses are struggling. Living in a close-knit community, we all feel the burden and hardships that this pandemic has brought upon our world. But we’re all in this together and we’re here to help! Whether your business can open in some way or not, or you’re all working from home, there are things you can do to continue to keep your name out there and potentially bring in some revenue. Based on the type of business you are – restaurant, retail, or a customer service-based business many if not all of these ideas and suggestions can pertain to you.
Keeping Online Presence Up-To-Date
No matter your business, maintaining your website and online profiles such as Google MyBusiness, Yelp and TripAdvisor are important, especially in today’s world. The most important thing is to make sure that you keep your hours updated and you note if you’re closed. In the normal day-to day, when consumers are looking for a place to get food and a business is marked as “closed” when they’re actually open, or vice versa, that sends a very mixed message and can leave a bad taste in a potential customer’s mouth. Today, it’s even more important to keep hours up-to-date because all businesses are following different routes at this time. Your hours could be changing on a weekly basis and that’s okay, just make sure you’re keeping it updated on your online profiles.
Social Message & Social Ad Spend
Just as we mentioned above, keeping up with your online presence even if you’re not open, is important. Spreading a positive message out to your customers and followers is key. Also, as you may know, running Facebook & Instagram ads lead to website clicks and conversions. While your budget may need to drop during this time, it’s important to keep your name at the top of people’s minds. So we understand you may need to cut your budget, but we believe that allocating some sort of budget, and putting a more concentrated funnel on who you target for these ads will do wonders.
Be Creative & Adapt
COVID-19 has forced a lot of businesses to close, some indefinitely. Not being able to have in-person customers or clients 100% puts a strain on a business and its employees. However, as we’ve seen with many businesses, large and small, adaptability is what it’s all about. Here are some examples for each type of business:
Back in March, many restaurants initially began by offering takeout and delivery only, but quickly moved to get themselves listed on sites like GrubHub and DoorDash which expands their searchability to those looking to have food delivered straight to their home. On that note, we’ve even seen restaurants that never had online ordering, pick it up and run with it. Offering no-stress ordering, delivery and specials to get people excited are all ways a restaurant can adapt.
Retail businesses began to make changes as well. Never had an online store? What better time than now to get that resource up and running. You can list your items on the site, people purchase them and you ship directly to them. No contact, while continuing to serve your market and make revenue.
Customer service-based businesses include a vast sea of occupations. Businesses like law offices or insurance agencies are resources that many people rely on week-to-week. By adapting and offering online conferences and consultations, as well as phone calls, this allows business to continue as normal and help keep those members in your community.
As you can see, there are so many different types of businesses and they all run differently. These are just a few tips and tricks we’ve seen be successful for our clients and community thus far during the pandemic and we wanted to pass them along. Just like we said, we’re all in this together and if you need help adapting your business to find its strengths and provide solutions, give us a call at 609-840-6173.