We are slowly but surely starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, with lockdown and distancing measures being gradually lifted and many small businesses looking at how they can finally re-open safely for the foreseeable future.
We can only guess at what is to come, which can be frustrating when all you want is to get your business back off the ground. However, there are a few things you can do to get ready for when the all-clear sounds.
Make Sure You’re Marketing
In a crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the first things to get the chop is marketing. However, if at all possible, you should try and maintain your marketing efforts. Less competition as other organisations wind down their marketing departments means your messages are likely to go further, and continuing to market shows consistency to your customers. Marketing, including digital marketing, always works best when carried out on a continuous basis, so if you’ve kept up your efforts, good job! If not, now is the time to start up again!
Don’t Expect Things to go Back to Normal
You’ve heard it all before – “How we’re adapting to the new normal” “What the new normal looks like for….” “Staying safe in the new normal”. It’s easy to get sick of messages like these, after all, every company under the sun seems to be making one, but it really is important.
We aren’t looking at pre-lockdown “normal” any time soon, or ever, if some predictions are to be believed, so it’s vital to be clear about what this means for your staff, your business, your customers and your shareholders. If you have to run a limited service for the foreseeable, it’s not ideal, but it’s important that you make the safest call possible and let your stakeholders know exactly what you will be doing – transparency is key. You also need to be flexible and stay open to any new guidance, new practices and new safety measures. It’s an uncertain time for everyone, but staying open to change is the best way to make sure you’re keeping your business safe and running as smoothly as possible.