Opening Up Your Business Again? You’ll Need a Plan to Reopen

Stay at home orders across the state of California are about to be eased in phases and businesses all over are getting ready for it. This is not going to be an easy process, and it will require a lot of planning and enforcing. First, there are the health and sanitation regulations that will need to be implemented in order to operate. As if that wasn’t enough, you then have to deal with attracting your audience once again. That’s when you’ll need an effective plan to reopen that incorporates online channels and communication with your audience. That is where our team of digital marketing experts come in. Here’s a brief overview of what an ideal plan to reopen looks like.

Exercise the Upcoming Business Regulations

First, you need to make sure that you are ready to open to the public. Under the original stay at home orders, in-person non-essential businesses were asked to close down to prevent exposure. As part of the plan to reopen, some of these commercial venues can begin to go back to work if they implement the proper safety measures.

• Perform a detailed risk assessment of the establishment, indicating potential points of contact and contagion.
• Implement a site-specific protection plan for the venue, taking into account the circumstances of your locale and person-to-person interaction.
• Screen employees for potential coronavirus symptoms, urging them to stay at home if they are presenting them.
• Implement similar measures for customers and visitors, asking those who have presented symptoms not to enter the premises. This also includes requiring the use of face masks inside the locale.
• Set up disinfecting protocols for the staff, merchandise, and surfaces.
• Enforce physical distancing guidelines inside the venue, making sure people maintain a safe distance between each other.

Communicate with Your Audience

Of course, you can implement all these cautionary measures to protect yourself and your employees, but they will be useless unless you communicate with your audience about it. Your customers need to know they’ll be safe if they visit your establishment. The “in these uncertain times” email newsletters for customers are already a cliche by now. We are not talking about that. No one needs to hear about the current state of the world from that coffee shop where you opted for an email receipt once last year. No, we are talking about communicating with your audience about the conditions under which you are opening back up again. Here’s how to do that.

Make Use of Your Email List

If you are not keeping an email list, you haven’t been paying attention to the marketing landscape. Email lists are a vital part of how we do marketing now. These allow you to reach out to your audience with updates about your operations, special promotions, and personalized messages. Emailing your customers about the ways you’ll be making their experience there safer is a great way to promote your business right now. People miss going out and visiting their regular spots, so let them now that it will now be safe to visit your establishment. That’s why you are taking these precautions in the first place.

Use Your Website

Your website should already be a key tool for your business in these times of COVID-19. If you provide any sort of retail services, you should be making an effort to continue to sell merchandise online. In case you are a restaurant or a food venue, you should be using it to showcase your menu and promote takeout and delivery options. If you can’t provide your services through an online channel, however, then your website needs to be the hub of your digital presence. When regular and potential customers look up your services, they will want to know about how you’re operating. You should be using your website to share the steps that you are taking to protect your clientele, regardless of the services you provide or the circumstances of your operation.

Take Advantage of Social Media

Social media was already the way in which most people communicated and engaged with businesses and service providers. After all, it’s a great way to passively continue to learn about the locales you like. If you are a business operating in 2020, surely you already have a social media presence. And if you don’t, you probably should get on that anyway. Posting updates on your social media can let your audience know about how you are planning to continue your operations as the stay at home orders are lifted. The best part? This method is pretty non-invasive. While people tend to dislike getting spam emails, they usually don’t mind seeing updates or posts on social media.

Your Plan to Reopen is the New Normal

What a lot of business owners need to understand is that these are not measures you’ll need to keep in mind for the next few months and that’s it. People keep talking about things going back to normal when, in reality, we might not be going back to the way things were anytime soon. In fact, a lot of work will need to be put towards recovering that former normal, which will take longer than most people expect. This is why you need to invest in this new pandemic infrastructure for your own business. You need to start adapting to the way shopping, dining, and spending are, in general, going to be working from now on. An online presence isn’t just something you have in case of emergencies. It’s, in turn, a pillar of your entire business operation.

Heighten Your Online Presence

If we are being honest, you probably should’ve been implementing a lot of these measures before this. Maybe not the part about deep-cleaning everyone who enters your venue, but definitely everything involving maintaining an online presence. Nowadays, it’s vital to communicate with your audience to keep them engaged. Your website shouldn’t just be there to let people know you are still open. No, it should be an information hub that helps you reach out to more people. We at Website Depot are here to help you establish a successful online presence, be that through a website, social media, or digital advertising. If you are curious about the ways in which we can help you in your plan to reopen, call us at (888) 477-9540.