After months of tight regulations and lockdowns, small businesses are receiving some reprieve as restrictions begin to ease. Now is the time to get your business back in the game. We share 5 effective ways to drive customers through your door to get those registers ringing!
1. Get socially active
Social media is a powerful tool for letting people know you’re back open for business. Using a combination of different platforms creates more opportunities to connect with new and existing customers. Make the most of your social media channels by:
- Using them as monitoring tools to gauge how people are interacting with your brand, key terms and themes. Understanding what people are looking for can help when it comes to planning where to spend funds for online marketing. This information can be found in the analytics section of most platforms.
- Getting the word out when your business is ready to reopen its doors. It’s a valuable platform to let your customers know essential details like what restrictions may apply, if they need to make a booking and your business hours.
- Share your customer reviews and experiences to attract business by turning them into social media posts. It’s a cost-effective way to build your brand and an opportunity for potential customers to hear good news stories about your business.
2. Contact your customers
Re-engaging with your customers via email or SMS is an easy win. Getting in touch with those you have done business with reminds them of your brand from a simple message and can help spark a renewed relationship.
If the budget permits, why not run a special offer to entice your customers through the door? In-store discounts and offers can help generate foot traffic when you need it the most.
3. Rewrite the plan
Like many small businesses, chances are you started 2020 with a grand plan, then the unforeseeable happened. The good news is it’s not all doom and gloom. It’s an opportunity to reflect, shift the goalposts and think creatively.
Things you can do to replan and drive traffic:
- Chat to your network. What is working for other small businesses in your industry or area? What are they doing differently/the same? How can you use these strategies to help your business?
- Reassess your budget. Where you may have initially allocated spend in an area (e.g attending an industry event, expanding the business location) may not be appropriate now. Instead, you may want to use these funds for online marketing and in-store promotions.
Recommended reading: How to write a business plan
4. Get noticed online
Creating an online presence takes time and effort, from setting up your website to creating and monitoring social media accounts. These are the first steps to getting your brand out there but there are a few extra steps you can take to make sure your potential customers know you exist.
- Create a Google listing– Head over to the Google Business website and follow the instructions to claim your business for an online listing. Creating a listing helps customers find your business, especially when they are searching for specific products or services in your location.
- Audit your website – Take a moment to put your customer hat on and go over your webpage with them in mind.
Check things like:
- Are the pages loading correctly and quickly?
- Is the sales process easy to use?
- Do you have all the correct contact details of your business available?
- Have you connected all social media buttons to your site? This increases interactivity. with your customer base.
- Get to grips with Google Analytics – This is a free tool that allows you to delve into all the nitty-gritty of your website traffic. Google offers a free course that you can take to learn all about how it works. Once you have an understanding of the data, it can help to gather valuable customer insights like what pages they are looking at the most and your traffic sources.
5. Play it safe
As much as you want to drive your customers to your business, safety comes first. Different guidelines will be in place for different industries, so always check government websites for up to date and relevant information.
Reassure and communicate to your customers the measures in place and what you need from them. For example, place appropriate signage on how many people are allowed in your premises at one time, have hand sanitiser stations set up and any other steps you may be required to ensure a safe environment.
Are you reopening?
If you are a small business looking to reopen your doors, drop us a line. BizCover is a community for small businesses and we would love to hear about your experience, best practices and any tips you would like to share to help other small businesses in the same boat. Leave your details in the comments below.
