Mask on and six feet apart. This is the current nature of most people’s interactions with other members of the general public, as well as with those in the public service industry. These restrictions, of course, have both their upsides and downsides.
The upsides are an increased sense of personal space – no worries that someone will get too close and cough or sneeze all over you. Crowds are certainly less likely to occur and cleanliness is a much greater priority for most.
However, the downsides are that due to gathering restrictions and public mask orders many businesses and organizations are losing much-needed revenue in order to sustain themselves throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. This is especially true for the mom and pop shops in smaller communities and other local businesses who typically rely on their loyal customer base and foot traffic from off the street.
Because of the substantial loss in revenue due to COVID-19, too many of these businesses are having to close their doors either temporarily or worse, for good.
Normally, in order for businesses to boost their revenue, they would turn to their tried and true marketing strategies – however, traditional marketing such as print media and advertisements can potentially cost money that is just not there, which further puts a business in the hole. This simply means that this type of marketing might no longer be a feasible option and these businesses need to rethink the way they do their marketing.
What other options are there?
Well, you may have heard of a little thing called “marketing automation” that has been growing in popularity over the years. This is essentially another, digital way of looking at marketing that relies on obtaining subscribers and sending mass automated communications to them in an effort to promote your business and boost your sales and revenue.
Marketing automation, and automated communications in general, are becoming more important than ever as it is a contactless way of maintaining engagement with your customers and keeping your business at the forefront of people’s minds whenever they need to prepare to venture out into the world. All you need is subscribers’ email, phone number, mobile number, or fax number and you can send newsletters, electronic flyers, take-out menus, and any other digital marketing material their way!
But why is marketing automation more viable than traditional marketing?
One of the key merits of marketing automation is that it is both time and cost-efficient.
Creating campaigns for automated communications may require some effort upfront, although once the content is created and the campaign is running, it reduces the overall manual effort required considerably, especially compared to traditional marketing strategies. Instead of manually sending marketing messages to subscribers, the automated communication campaign takes care of all the sending automatically. What’s more, messages are sent all at once rather than one at a time!
As well, automating your marketing and communication campaigns will save businesses money in the long run. Not only will the business have to spend less on marketing resources, the cost of sending the campaign can be as low as several cents per message. These cost savings can be astronomical, especially in a world where overall revenue is down and pennies need to be pinched.
We are now entering uncharted territory when it comes to how businesses can remain open and available to support the needs of its customers throughout a global pandemic. Businesses need to adapt, whether that means pivoting their focus toward online sales or changing their protocols for in-person customers to help ensure their safety as well as that of their employees. This means that businesses need a way to help their customers become aware of the changing business practices – and a perfect way to do this is through automated communications.
Getting back to normal does not mean that things will be back to the way they were pre-COVID-19; it essentially means getting back to a place where businesses are able to resume operations, albeit in a cautionary manner, and customers know what to expect whenever they walk through the door.
With an automated communications platform such as SimplyCast’s, a business is able to facilitate this return to the “new normal” by maintaining that open line of communication with customers and ensuring that they know that the business is open and what changes have been made to ensure a safe shopping experience for everyone involved.
Click the button below to request a demo of the SimplyCast platform to see how your business can become more time and cost-efficient with your marketing and communication efforts throughout the duration of COVID-19.
