Whether your business is closed due to a government shutdown or you decided to close to keep your employees safe, there are several ways you can keep your business afloat and your customers engaged.
There are many platforms (email newsletters, your website, and social media) that will allow you to do this. If you have updates to your product offering, hours of operation, or are still open for business, let your customers know.
If your business is still open for in-person delivery, online orders, or take out, inform your customers on the precautions you're taking to ensure a safe working environment for your employees and the products or services you offer. In addition to informing customers on your precautions, you can take the time to highlight different ways they can continue to support your business.When this is all over, and your business is ready to open its doors, make sure to proactively inform your customers and outline what they should expect (social distancing rules, updated hours, cleaning procedures, etc.).To ensure you have a broad reach, make sure to repurpose your content across all your channels. This also gives you additional opportunities to inform customers where they can connect with your business.
If your business has a physical location, you can get creative with ways on how to keep customers coming in. With the majority of the country at home, customers are looking for new and exciting ways to interact with the brands and businesses they love.
If your business has an online following, maximize on that. Offer virtual classes on your product, stream your services, or create on-demand content for your customers. There are many tools (Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Google, Zoom, etc.) you can leverage at zero to little cost.
If you can, offer a discount or promotion to your product for the first set of customers that register.
If your revenue took a hit due to COVID-19, offering gift cards will not only ensure your customers will return to your business, but it will also assist with immediate revenue allowing you to keep revenue moving. You can also incentivize your customers to purchase more through promotions ($20 free when you spend $100, BOGO, etc.).