Operating During Covid-19: Helpful Tips for Local Businesses -

Published by : Vicinus

Date : December 16, 2020

Operating During Covid-19: Helpful Tips for Local Businesses | Vicinus.ai

During these unprecedented times, local businesses have found operating very differently from pre-Covid times. However, there are ways that local businesses can help themselves during Covid-19. Some of these tips are local SEO, resources for support, and keeping your customers posted on what’s happening with your store. Below are some tips and tricks on how to help your local businesses during this pandemic.

Adhere to Covid-19 Regulations

First and foremost, ensuring that you are adhering to both national and regional guidelines on the pandemic is essential for the safety of yourself and your customers. These regulations are adapting on a day-to-day basis so it’s best to review national and local news on a daily basis to keep updated with these ever-changing regulations. Make sure that the information you’re finding is from a credible source as some social media sites and other websites can be involved in spreading false information.

Communicate Covid-19 Restrictions with Your Customers

As these restrictions are constantly-changing, local businesses have to continuously communicate new restrictions and guidelines with their customers.

There are three main platforms which you can communicate easily with your customers:

Google My Business

Mike Blumenthal suggests that: “More than ever, your Google Business Profile is a critical communication nexus with your customers”.

GMB is a great intermediary between your customers and your brand. With Vicinus, you can have real-time management of all your locations from one easy-to-use platform. This will help customers find only up-to-date and consistent information about your brand. There are even Covid-19 updates which you can frequently post in order to remind your customers about new regulations in your store.

Bing for Business

Much like the Covid update in GMB, Bing Business has a ‘temporarily closed due to Covid-19’ status available on the Bing PLaces dashboard.

Yelp Reviews

Again, much like the two above, Yelp now has a ‘temporarily closed’ field which can be used for businesses that are closed as a result of the pandemic. However, you must indicate an end date for this closure which can be an estimate due to these uncertain times.

Using Your Website to Update Your Customers on Covid-19

There are a few ways you can keep your customers posted during Covid-19 using your website.

Use a banner

Using a banner image detailing the very basics of your operations during the pandemic is a great visual way to show your customers how you’re operating during these uncertain times.

2. Provide Complete Information

Although the banner is useful for some information, you have to make sure your website states the full operational aspects of your business. This can be on a separate website page or a blog post for you customers to be able to find.

3. Edit Location Pages

Make sure that all of your location pages for your businesses physical locations reflect the closures or new hours to your business.

4. Use Your Blog

This is a great way to keep customers updated on the details of your operations during a pandemic.

5. Link to Social Media

Social media is a great way to update your customers daily on your businesses operations/. Making sure that there are links to all your social media channels on your website is essential not only to make sure your customers can find them but also so that your customers can have daily updates too.

Using Social Media and Emails for Covid-19 Updates

Whether you primarily use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social media platform, they are great for instant communication with your customers. This is the same for emails too. Email marketing can be one of the best tools to communicate truly necessary information to your customer base in one go. However, when you decide to frequently update your customers, remember that you shouldn’t be using this pandemic to self-promote your products. Instead, make sure the info you’re giving out is helpful to your customer base.

Operating During Covid-19: Helpful Tips for Local Businesses

Operating During Covid-19: Helpful Tips for Local Businesses | Vicinus.ai

Adhere to Covid-19 Regulations