When it comes to the last few months, and this year to be honest, it hasn’t gone as any of us will have expected it to go. It has been a very hard year for so many businesses and as things start to ease, you may be wondering what you can do to get your business back on top after lockdown.
The truth is, many businesses will have had to diversify and make some changes, and so that means that you might have changed direction just to keep your business going. It might be that those changes have worked out well for you and your business, but it could mean that you need to start thinking about how you can bring customers back to your business so that you can continue to be a success. With that in mind, here are some of the best ideas to get your business back on top after lockdown.
mage source – pixabay – cco license
Start a newsletter
One of the first things that you could consider would be to revisit your customer database and to create a newsletter. It might be that you look at contacting them to inform them of how your business will operate now that lockdown is over and businesses are reopening. Or it may be that you want to offer up new services or new products. Maybe you diversified your business and you are keeping these changes in place. Letting your existing customers know what is going on is a great way to remind them that you are still there and you can be of use to them. Perhaps it may even prompt them to make a purchase, place an order or even share your business.
Take advantage of the local community
Another thing that you can do would be to focus on your local community. Now more than ever people will be wanting to help local businesses and also remain local themselves without the risk of travelling to other destinations. It is all about being covid safe at the moment and social distancing. So it could be the time to advertise locally through local facebook groups, a community magazine or even just focusing your marketing in this way. It could be an excellent way to let the local people know who you are and what your business is all about.
Use a business blog
It could also be a fantastic time to work on your digital platforms and search engine optimization of your website and a great way to be more visible online would be to start a blog. It gives you a chance to drive more traffic to the main website and ecommerce store and also look at things that you can do to help you enhance your visibility. It is easy to start a blog, and you can look at creating posts that are helpful as well as sales oriented. The more posts that you have, the better it will be to help you create more opportunities for your business moving forward. These posts can also be excellent content for things such as social media posts.
Think about the customer experience
Your customer experience is more important than ever before when it comes to your business. You now not only need to attract the customers to your business but if you are dealing with them face to face, you need to ensure that they feel safe and secure in the environment. It could be worth looking into technology that can help you enhance the customer experience. From a CRM where enterprise integration software to thinking about keeping them safe with face masks and social distancing measures to keep them happy in your business environment. It is important to develop the right level of customer experience to ensure people feel happy to deal with you now that you are back in business.
Image source – pixabay – cco license
Prospect, prospect, prospect
It is important for you to do what you can to drum up as much business as possible. So prospecting is always going to be a worthwhile thing to consider. You can prospect in many different ways, but check you have had permission to send sales related marketing to your customers before you do it. You can prospect through email newsletters, drop leaflets or by phone if you want to. You could offer up a specific code for welcoming back the business and encourage them to buy from you. It may seem hard at first, as so many are against prospecting for business, but this is an ever changing world. You might be able to encourage people to deal with you who may not have thought they could because of the current situation.
A decent customer experience leads on to referrals
Another thing to remember when it comes to a great customer experience is to think about how many referrals you can get from it. The best thing about it is that you need to think about how this can have a positive influence on your business. You want people to want to do business with you, and so if you treat the customer right, you can ensure that you do this the right way. The small changes that you make can make a big difference. Customer referrals can also be an incentive to your customer. You can offer up special discounts or money off, or even a referral payment if a customer goes on to make a sale with you. It can be part of a loyalty scheme and it could certainly be the advertising that money simply cannot buy.
Be present and humanise your social media platforms
Finally, the last thing to consider would be to be present on social media now more than ever and to consider humanising it some way. By that it means showing a face behind the account. People buy from people, and if they can see the behind the scenes element of your business then it may be a great way to reach out to others. Now more than ever people are online and scrolling through their social media, so being consistent and providing quality content is essential.
Let’s hope these tips help you when it comes to bouncing back with your business after lockdown.
