As the shock of the COVID-19 Stay at Home Orders (coupled with the forced shutdown of businesses) finally begins to wear off, the focus is shifting to how to reopen.
Businesses owners will be faced with a myriad of decisions as individual States progress through their phased reopening plans. We'd like to offer our recommendations for how to coordinate your reopening through your digital presence.
Put the word out ahead of time
Once you've identified your likely date of reopening, please let our support team know so that we can post a prominent notice to your website. You should also promote your reopening plan on social media, and with a post to your Google My Business listing. If we manage these platforms for you through our Social Media or Local Search services, we'll handle this promotion.
What will be different?
Many businesses are planning to reopen under modified operations. Changes may include limiting the number of customers in the establishment, social distancing, required use of face coverings, restricted access to handling physical merchandise, and more. You should let customers know about these changes as early as possible through your website and social media.
You should also highlight anything you're doing to keep your customers safe, like improved cleaning procedures, UV sanitization, hand cleaning stations, and employee PPE. Communicating these changes lets customers know that you're approaching your reopening in a responsible manner to keep your staff and customers safe.
Mark yourself open!
When the big day comes, it's important that your digital doors open at the same time as your physical doors. If you've communicated your reopening plans to us, we'll check in with you the day before your scheduled reopening to make sure everything is still on track.
On the day of your reopening, we'll update your website to remove any closure notices and prominently announce that you're open for business. Social media posts, paid social advertising, email marketing and Google My Business Posts can all be leveraged at the same time to spread the word.
If you've been shut down and are subscribed to our Local Search Management package, you're likely marked as "Temporarily Closed" on Google My Business. Removing that designation will restore your business to full visibility!
Double check your information
Many businesses are reopening with modified hours or services. Be sure to send those to our support team so that we can update your website and local search platforms as applicable. If you expect those modified hours to be restored to normal at some point in the future, let us know so that we can prepare your listings for that change.
The word unprecedented has been thrown around a lot in the last few months, but it truly does describe what we've been going through. Nobody knows what normal will look like, but our goal at Brentwood Visual is to help our customers get there as smoothly and as quickly as they can.
