As it looks like the UK is starting to lessen COVID-19 social and economic restrictions, many businesses are planning to re-open either in part or fully. One of the biggest challenges you’ll face other than making sure you maintain a coronavirus-secure environment, is letting your customers know you’re back in business.

In this blog, we’ll outline some of the most effective methods of getting the message out there that your goods and services are available once again!

Email Marketing

When it comes to getting a message out there directly to your customers, there’s no substitution for email marketing. Not only can you drop a message directly into your customer’s inbox, but you can customise it to fit your brand exactly and optimise it for whatever conversion you want to make.

Online services like Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor have made this kind of marketing much more accessible, offering both free and paid methods of customising your email designs and storing the details of your customers safely and securely.

Naturally, one limitation with email marketing is that you need to have the addresses of your customers. Not only that, but with GDPR legislation you also need permission to store and use the personal details of your customers.

Building a database and using it correctly isn’t easy, but that’s something our team can help with. Reach out to us today and we’ll make sure email becomes a key element of your marketing campaign and helps to grow your business.

Social Media

Social media is another fantastic method of getting messages out to customers both old and new. Firstly, it is vital that you get information about your re-opening to your existing audience. Make sure you appear repeatedly on their timelines – you can’t assume that every person will see one post that you put out.

Secondly, one advantage of social media over email marketing is being able to engage with new customers who might not have been exposed to your business before. This is especially important right now, as your business might be offering something that is unavailable due to ongoing disruption.

If, for example, you’re a coffee shop that is opening fairly early compared to other businesses in your local area, let people know. If their typical coffee place isn’t open, they’ll likely give yours a try and you might even have a customer for life!

Social media advertising is crucial when it comes to building your audience, but it’s a complicated process and easy to throw money away chasing the wrong kind of targets. Click here to read more about social media advertising.

Update Your Online Presence

When customers need to find out something about your business, Google is almost always the first place they will go. This means that they’ll either be looking at the summary Google provides for your business, or that they’ll visit your website.

Firstly, this means updating your opening times on Google. Have you noticed that most businesses are listed as ‘temporarily closed’ at the moment? If you’re going to re-open, it’s crucial you update this along with any updated opening times.

You also need to update your website. If you’re looking to do the bare minimum, you can add a blog post, although it isn’t guaranteed customers will seek this out. 

However, something more effective doesn’t have to be a major endeavour – you can just add a banner or pop-up to the homepage. Or, you can get slightly more in-depth and add a ‘COVID-19 Information’ page to your site. 

Every business will require something slightly different, so speak to our web development team to find out what is the most cost-effective solution for your company.

Get in Touch

And there we have it, whether you do one or all of the above, there’s no point in re-opening unless your customers know. None of the methods we discussed are expensive or time-consuming, but you need to make sure you’re going it right for maximum return on investment.

A marketing plan can really help boost your business recovery after the severe disruption we have all faced over the last couple of months. Our team of creatives have come up with tailored strategies to help all kinds of businesses across a huge range of industries to stand out through creative and cost-effective marketing.

Keen to get started? Get in touch.