If your company is considering re-opening in the coming days, you’ll have a list of concerns in keeping your employees safe and your business moving forward. It might be that customer communication falls lower and lower on your priority list as other fires demand your attention. But keeping your customers in the loop is critical to getting business up and running again. While it might be too chaotic to launch a new content marketing campaign, there are easier steps you can take to stay connected with your customers:

Immediate Needs

Update Your Website

During COVID-19 many businesses added banners and pop-ups to their website alerting clients and potential customers to their pandemic response. Your first priority should be to update these notices to announce your re-opening date, any health policies you’ve put in place, and any hours or experience changes customers might expect. If your banners are getting long, consider adding a web page dedicated to explaining your policies and new practices.

Update Your Business Hours

Potential customers will often use Google My Business or Bing Places to quickly find your phone number, address, website, and hours of operation. Whether your hours are back to normal or modified, be sure to update the information on these directories so your audience know their options.

Intermediate Needs

Celebrate on Social Media

Hopefully you have remained in contact with your audience during this crisis, and now is the time to use that connection to celebrate your re-opening. Create a visually-interesting post that lets your followers know when and how you plan to re-open. You should also consider adding social media ads to reach more of your audience (and potential customers who haven’t followed you directly) than you could achieve organically.

Send an Email Alert

Spread the word to your current clients and your subscribers through a special email alert. Messaging should be crafted to convey information about your business hours and any promotions, but it should also instill a sense of confidence in your business’ outlook and ability to protect your employees and customers on their return.

Strategic Needs

Re-opening Communications Plan

While addressing your immediate and intermediate needs will help reach your customers quickly, we at Scheffey will always advocate for the strategic approach to any kind of messaging. We are ready to consult with your team on how to effectively reach your audience across multiple channels with a unified re-opening message. Our public relations experts will help you consider what is timely, relevant, and appropriate to meet your customers’ current needs and your business’ goals. By approaching it with a full plan, you avoid sending mixed messages, communicating in bursts, or missing an opportunity to reach your customers.

Website SEO

Search Engine Optimization remains one of the primary ways people are finding businesses to meet their needs, even as companies begin to re-open. People turn to the internet to find who is open, who has what they’re looking for, and how they can safely get what they need. If your website hasn’t undergone an SEO audit recently, now is the time to take a look at how your website appears to search engines.

Spread the Word

With businesses re-opening all at once, the competition will ramp up again. Your re-opening message could get lost among all of the other celebrations likely to spread across the internet. Help your business stand out by creating impactful ads displayed across multiple platforms. Meet your customers – wherever they roam across the web – and let them know you’re ready for their return.

We know things might be hectic as you try to get back to some version of “normal” in the coming days and weeks. But keeping customers aware of your company’s availability and procedures will help improve your ability to bounce back. Consider leaning on Scheffey, either to tackle some of your immediate and intermediate needs, or to provide a more strategic approach to your re-opening communications. We’ll shoulder the communication so you can focus on moving your company forward. Let’s get started.