Businesses have started taking the first steps towards reopening after the mandatory lockdown is coming to an end. You have been patiently waiting for this for the last few months. But now your primary concern is how to bring back your old customers and get new ones for your small business.
Your business has been dormant for the past few months. Now your biggest fear is if you have to start your marketing all over again.
You won’t have to start from scratch again, thanks to your social media presence. Irrespective of whether or not you’ve maintained a customer database, your social media pages have a large chunk of your existing customers as your followers.
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With a few simple steps and the engagement of a social media agency, you can reach out to your past customers and gain new ones.
Re-Engage Your Audience
Before you open your doors for business again,
you need to re-engage your audience and let them know that you are going to be
open for business. But re-engaging does not mean advertising or marketing, at
least not in the beginning. Saying the right thing at the right time is
necessary so that you can regain the attention of your customers.
Your first few posts should be about the
effects of the Covid-19 crisis on your customers. Show them that you care and
empathize with them. The consequences of the pandemic or the lockdown might
have been limited for you, but it might have affected your audience immensely.
So, before you start to post anything related
to your business, conduct some audience research about the effects they might
have faced. You can do it in the following ways:
- A small questionnaire on your social media pages, asking what your customers might have faced during the crisis.
- Check your customer’s pages and gather data from their posts.
- Visit your competitor’s pages and see what they are posting about and what their customers are saying.
Gathering data before you start social media marketing will allow you to connect emotionally with your audience first. You must show that you are socially responsible. If you or your brand have associated with any voluntary activities or charities, make sure you highlight them on your pages. If you see that any of your customers are involved in charity or volunteer work, you can offer your assistance.
Don’t Post Incorrect
Information About COVID-19
There is a lot of false information getting posted on social media about the virus. More than 50% of the population in the US has read falsified knowledge about pandemic.
Before you post any content related to
Covid-19 on your brand’s pages, make sure that you cross-check it first with
official WHO pages.
Respond to Customer
Queries and Complaints Quickly
One of the primary functions of your social
media pages must have been customer communication before the crisis started.
You must resume that role because the majority of your customers are going to
get in touch with the brand over social media.
According to studies, more than 90% of your
customers expect a reply within a few hours, so you have to be prompt with your
communication. Remember that every message from a customer is an opportunity
for you to ensure the customer’s return to your business.
If you fail to reply promptly, you might lose
that customer. Sounds a bit extreme to you? Imagine the scenario for a
restaurant owner. Most restaurant owners can only deliver their food, or
customers can have it to go.
Suppose a customer inquired whether the restaurant is open at lunchtime for a takeaway. If the owner notices the message in the evening, the customer has already picked up an alternative place to eat. That’s why it is necessary to reply to your customers promptly, even if you cannot provide a product or service because of some problems you are facing.
Post Responsibly
Over-posting on social media can affect your customers negatively, so make sure that the number of posts is limited to what your frequency was before the pandemic.
Also, take into consideration how much you
have posted while your business was closed. If you haven’t been very active
during the lockdown, you should limit the number of posts initially and
increase the frequency gradually.
The frequency of the posts is a secondary factor. The primary factor is the nature of your posts. To reinitiate engagement with your customers, you have to re-establish your social connection with them.
Even though the loyal customers would be waiting for your business to reopen, you have to recreate your brand’s image for the others. Therefore, you have to re-evaluate the relevance of the posts to connect with your customers.
Bottom Line: Social Media
Management After the COVID-19 Crisis
Don’t forget to show your humane side on
social media. Remember that in times of crisis, your kindness will get
reflected through your social posts and presence.
The most important thing right now is to
market your brand with the right image in the customer’s eyes.
