Your customers are still out there during COVID-19

Peyton Duplechien • 13 Apr 2020 • 3 min read

COVID-19 has seen many small businesses closing doors to protect against infection, which has many business owners worried about income. Adapting to the circumstance and shifting gears can help leads and sales keep coming in, despite the change in how your business typically operates. 
Digital marketing 
Now might be the time to beef up your digital marketing. If your store solely relied on drive-by or foot traffic, those opportunities have rapidly dried up. Even if your store is closed, people passing through could see your business and think to call or check online to see about purchasing products or services.  
Looking into pay-per-click and social media advertising, as well as fine-tuning your website with SEO tactics can help drive an increase in web traffic. If you’re selling products, people are still interested in buying, they just need some guidance getting to your business online. 
Direct mail marketing 
This old-school marketing tactic could rapidly become a sure-fire way of attracting new business. Just think, people are home and they’re not as busy as usual. Checking the mail could actually be part of a daily routine to pass the time. And instead of tossing “junk” mail directly into the garbage because of a lack of time, they might start reading it.  
This is an inexpensive way to get your business’s name top of mind with consumers. Again, the direct mail can’t drive people to your business’s physical location, but instead provide a phone number or a web address where they can find out more information or place orders.  
Offering promotions and discounts 
For the service industry, people still need services. Whether you’re a plumbing or an HVAC service, people still need your service. Things might be slower than normal, which is why it’s important to drive people to your website or advertise a number for them to call instead of relying on billboards or seeing your service trucks driving around the area.  
On your website, you can advertise certain specials or promotions during this time to help drive a lead to a sale. It’s important, too, in service industries that are considered essential to provide information on safety during COVID-19. Share the policies you have in place for service calls – whether it’s wearing masks and gloves or ensuring your technicians are fever- and symptom-free before making house calls. 
For non-essential services 
For the service industries that have had to close – such as hair or nail salons or massage parlors – your business will re-open once we’re on the other side of COVID-19. Now is the time to be patient and know that once people are out of quarantine or isolation, they’ll be desperate to pursue normal activities.  
There is work you can do now. Similarly, to the essential service industries, you can offer promotions and discounts to be cashed in on later. This will keep people interested in your business and wanting to come in as soon as possible.  
Email marketing 
Like direct mail marketing, email marketing can be more effective during this time because people are not only curious to see how businesses are reacting to COVID-19, but they have more time to read through email (and are interested in the distraction) than usual. 
Keep emails flowing to existing customers, as well as leads, to let them know of promotional opportunities and informing them of your product or services.  
All of this to say, your business is being hit by COVID-19. Most of the economy will be impacted by the novel coronavirus. But it won’t last forever, and the economy will see an uptick. You can still pursue leads and sales and you can keep your business top of mind if it has temporarily shut down its services entirely.