26March 2020
3/26/20 Update: A few more ideas for small businesses to reach customers online, as well as increase your social media following…
One caterer has turned to preparing dishes live on Instagram TV for audiences to watch, be inspired and follow along. She’s even focusing on using pantry ingredients that we are all likely to have on hand right now.
Having issues growing an audience to reach online?
One Miami restaurant is offering a giveaway to increase likes and followers. Once someone is subscribed to you on social media, it’s easier to reach them with posts, stories and (if those aren’t working) ads.
3/26/20 Update: If your business is servicing customers but your social media following is not as engaged as this pub’s, here’s an idea:
Start by sending direct emails daily to your entire customer list to let them know you’ve pivoted online and how they can continue to engage with and support your business.
Once you have a few people tuning in, do this:
- Ask them to subscribe to your business’s page and receive updates
- Ask them help spread the word by sharing a few posts and inviting their friends to partake as well
If you’re struggling for ideas on how your business operates online amid social distancing and coronavirus lockdowns, we’ve can provide several ideas and examples custom to your business.
We actually heard from so many of our clients and blog readers yesterday about gift card options that we decided to do something to help—we’re launching a virtual gift card package that includes everything needed to get online gift cards up and running quickly.
This is all included:
- An e-commerce landing page that makes purchasing gift cards fast and easy
- Writing, design, and programming all done by our marketing experts
- Several gift card amounts for clients and customers to choose from
- Fast and easy payment directly into your, Square, PayPal or Stripe account
We aren’t here to make money off of this either. So, for a limited time, while coronavirus is still an issue for our small businesses.
We’re offering this package at our own cost. That’s only $281.
You can request additional information by clicking here.
If your business is lesson or education-based, PBS published this article with tips on distance learning.
3/26/20 Update: My turn to share a small business story. This happened to me earlier last week, when I went to visit my acupuncturist (while still observing safe social distancing, don’t worry!)…
I visited my local acupuncturist, and the place was EMPTY. This actually surprised me, because this particular acupuncturist is usually super busy, he also offers nutritional assistance including strengthening the immune system among other services you can do while safely practicing social distancing.
I’m a regular here, so I felt comfortable speaking frankly to him. And his practice manager has been there 30 years (as long as I’ve been a patient there), so she’s familiar with me as well.
Come to find out, my acupuncturist, unfortunately, had to scale back recently to due to COVID-19…
He went from a full calendar to an almost empty one! What a punch in the gut.
I asked his practice manager, “Have you guys been emailing your customers to let them know you’re still open, practicing safe measures and offering these other services?”
And she says some of them, yes. (But I’ve NEVER gotten an email from them EVER.)
So, I’m like, “Okay yes… Go on…”
And then she shows me boxes and boxes of files. She tells me that she’s been working on digitizing their paper files for YEARS.
Their patient database is about 8,000 locals—yet they only have 91 emails entered into a digital database!!
Easy outreach for them was basically impossible. They had this huge chore to do before they could even think about communicating with patients, and they just weren’t ready to confront it.
And I totally understand. This is what happens when you get busy with running a business and doing the thing well that makes your business so successful.
This doctor is passionate and amazing and has been available for my family WHENEVER we need him. I have his cell number as do most of his patients. He has come in on weekends, holidays—I mean literally whenever. He is a doctor first, a businessman second and does really put decent effort into his marketing too… but it’s a complicated subject and the email project was just one of those things… Never slow enough for any of his staff to dedicatedly do this project.
I immediately told them that we would help. I mean, how could I not?? Some of our staff are a bit slower than usual because we serve small businesses like this acupuncturist, who is suffering and had to lay everyone off. So, I told them that someone from my staff would come and help them enter these emails for 2 hours a day until it’s done.
We’ve already picked the perfect guy to help. We literally just hired him—a decision we made before everything really hit the fan—and his start date was already scheduled for this week. I didn’t want to turn him away; he has 2 daughters to support! So, we’re going to put him on this task for the time being and pay him the agreed rate for a much easier job.
Hopefully, it will work out for everyone.
My acupuncturist will finally have a comprehensive database that they can use immediately to start emailing patients and bringing them back in for appointments.
My new employee will have something constructive and useful to do, whereas things at my company might have been a bit slow—and he has a guaranteed income right now. I literally told my HR (as I hadn’t met this new hire yet), “If it’s a young kid that lives at home, we’ll let them start as soon as things pick up. But if it’s a mom or dad relying on this income, we’ll figure it out.”
And who knows, I may end up with a great employee for life!
It’s so important that the entire small business community come together and help each other where we can during these challenging times.
Now is the time to support each other and remember that we’re all in this together—and we’ll get through it together.
Tony & Yolanda
Here at Maximize Printing, we are committed to staying open, serving small businesses and delivering all current, future and in-process orders and direct mail campaigns without halt despite COVID-19.