How To Maintain Your Marketing Communications While Social Distancing

Businesses have been turned upside down over the last week or so due to the global outbreak of Coronavirus. Once packed restaurants, retail stores, and office buildings are now ghost towns as workers shift to a remote work environment. There is a lot of confusion in the world as people adapt to new work arrangements and consumers learn new ways to interact with businesses they frequent.

Not everyone can work remotely or can afford to shut down during this troubling time. Restaurants are still preparing take out, construction crews are still working hard and business have started doing more home deliveries. The businesses that are adapting to these new working conditions are now faced with the reality that their normal business communications will have to be handled in a new manner.

Your customers may not even know that you are open for business. They may not even know how to do business with you anymore since they are unable to visit your office directly. How are we going to change our marketing communications to inform our customers that we are still here to do business with them? Here are a few ideas that we’d recommend all business owners consider.

Develop A Business Continuity Plan

What is a business continuity plan? According to Investopedia.com, a business continuity plan is the process involved in creating a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

What internal and external processes are you going to have to change during this pandemic in order to keep the business operating? Do you have to deliver products to your customers directly instead of having them come to your location? Will you have to transition all of your in-person meetings to a video conferencing format? Outline what needs to take place in order for your employees and customers to continue interacting and have a plan of action.

Use Your Email Lists

Email is still the fastest and most cost-effective way to get a message out to your customers. If you have good clean email lists, start sending emails more frequently. Explain your continuity plan and any other details that your regular customers need to know. Show them the steps you are taking to protect your customers and employees in this strange time, and explain to them how to continue doing business with you.

Now isn’t the time to go silent. It’s time to stand up and be heard louder than ever.

Engage On Social Media

Since the start of this pandemic scare, we’ve seen more people “going live” on social media video than ever. There has never been a time in history where we’ve had more ways to communicate and connect with one another via technology. Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and others allow us to jump online and broadcast our message at the push of a button. The people that are using this most effectively right now are being authentic, empathetic and informative. Search your social media accounts and determine what platform might be best to use for this purpose and jump on this opportunity to reach out to your customers.

Look For Opportunities To Shine

Instead of looking for ways to make a sale, look for ways to add value and to help your community. Help make the lives of your customers just a little bit easier in this difficult time. They will remember it, the goodwill will spread, and you’ll build stronger relationships with your customers. Some of the greatest organic PR stories will come from this difficult time. As an example, just look at how grocery giant HEB handled their business when disaster struck. HR went into overdrive and revised their company’s sick leave policy, changed their business hours and implemented a pay raise for workers that were interacting with the public. They were already observing how other countries handled the increased demand for products, and how it was handled with a smaller staff. They learned from other people’s mistakes and put systems in place that helped ensure groceries and supplies were kept in stock and customers could safely interact and do business with their employees.

The world is watching, and when you locate these opportunities to shine and show that you are doing the very best that you can to continue providing great service, it will pay off greatly during and after this pandemic.

Photo by Allie Smith on Unsplash