How Do We Get Back?
As businesses reopen, marketing is going to be more important than ever. Small business owners and entrepreneurs are going to want to generate more revenue than ever to expedite the recovery process. Here in New Jersey many of our small businesses have been shuttered for 10 weeks. Restaurants are trying to do more than take out with some outdoor dining ideas, yet many small firms see no relief in sight as of yet. Reviewing CDC guidelines for restaurant operation, it becomes overwhelmingly apparent how expensive re-opening and operating is going to be under these new conditions.
Small businesses and firms of all shapes and sizes will spend enormous amounts of money to sanitize, promote social distancing, protect staff, and team members, but will they make enough money to afford these changes? Marketing will determine this.
How do you market this?
Purchasing the safest, fast-acting, best smelling sanitizer is not enough. The safest, best smelling, fast-acting sanitizer is expensive? How do we know it’s expensive? Because it’s the best. The firm that manufacturers the product has spent money to conduct the research and development (R&D), to design a chemical process that allows them to make this claim. The firm that sells the product, likewise, has invested in talented, proven sales people to reach small business owners just like you and close the sale. This is called marketing. This type of thinking can help market away Coronavirus expenses. What you invest in your marketing is what determines your price. If you use your price to determine your marketing you’ll never have any money to promote your good or service.
Social Media Marketing for the Win
It is not enough to simply follow the guidelines. Entrepreneurs and small business owners need to market the guidelines. Market the fact that you’re following the guidelines. Market the methods and innovations you adopt to keep people safe. Just like the firm that manufactured the sanitizer, and the firm which sold you the sanitizer. Promote its finer qualities of why you purchased it. Creating Facebook posts, Instagram stories, and Snaps is the easiest way to help your customers understand their safety is your first concern. Again, this will help market away Coronavirus expenses. It may seem counterintuitive, but this will ultimately allow you to keep more of your top line for your bottom line.
Have a disinfectant team come through your restaurant, store, shop, or equipment and clean the surfaces? This costs you money, and adds value to your customer, and their peace of mind. Market this. Create beautiful videos showing the disinfectant team at work with voice overlays of the shop owner, and the disinfectant company owner talking about all the benefits of cleaning with their product followed by happy customers utilizing your business. Does the disinfectant keep the surface(s) germ free for a period of days, weeks, months? This is information your customers want and it’s your job to provide it to them! By showing your customers the value you’ve created for their safety, you are marketing away Coronavirus expenses.
How to make it appeal to your customers
This type of information is ideal for Social Media Marketing. Stories of people who care about their staff and customers always resonate with followers and friends. Consistently create high quality marketing content for your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Twitter, and Google My Business (GMB) pages and it will not be long before you realize the fruits of your labor. Be sure to keep your messaging and branding cohesive and easy to follow. Don’t over complicate it and don’t hesitate to reiterate your message over and over again. Data has shown customers are only beginning to pay attention to your message by the time you’re tired of it. Keep going. Do not repost the same thing over and over, but incorporate your same message over and over until it’s become so mundane to you, you can’t stand it. Only then, is it reverberating with the customer you intend to reach.
Use your social media channels and your other digital marketing mediums to show customers the steps you are taking, the continual staff training you’re conducting, the quality control measures your small business has implemented and demonstrate why your followers and their friends should frequent your business over another. Your process may be similar or identical to many others, but many others will not recognize the opportunity to market their process. Many customers and consumers are scared. Show them you’re empathic to their concerns. Broadcast and promote the steps you are taking to be responsible and keep everyone as safe as is reasonably possible.
Be Creative
Well designed and implemented Facebook posts, Instagram Videos, Snaps, and Tweets will help solve revenue shortfalls. The increased volume you can expect from a consistent, continuous, well designed social media and digital media marketing campaign will assist greatly in limiting necessary price increases, and helping customers understand why prices for goods and services are currently higher than they may be used to. This messaging creates content that allows you to market away Coronavirus expenses.
Overall, Brace Yourselves
Ultimately many people are going to tighten their belts. Many families will experience decreases in disposable income. As a small business owner and/or entrepreneur you want to be very thoughtful and strategic in how you utilize your budget to tactically reach the correct customer. The social media marketing campaigns are the fastest and most effective way to capitalize on your strategy. The road ahead is likely to be arduous and bumpy, but those firms who survive will be better off as our country, state, and local communities come out of the pandemic.
Spend money marketing your firm. Create high quality content, be consistent, and stay on message. Let your marketing determine your price, not your price determine how much you can spend. Invest in social media marketing as you would equipment. The benefits will become abundantly obvious over time. Use your channels to market away Coronavirus expenses.