Generate Revenue + Future Foot Traffic As You Prepare to Reopen
Innovative Ways to Generate Immediate Revenue and Future Foot Traffic as You Prepare to Safely Reopen
Innovative Ways to Generate Immediate Revenue and Future Foot Traffic as You Prepare to Safely Reopen
Creating a seismic disturbance in the livelihoods of local business owners everywhere, the global health crisis has altered future plans, shifted priorities, and put growth on pause. With much of the country beginning to ease and adjust shelter-in-place orders, and more businesses preparing to reopen soon, paving the way for a successful transition to bringing customers back safely in the near future while generating immediate revenue in the interim is top-of-mind for any owner.
Your business should begin considering several actionable ideas focused on bringing you more customers when the timing is right -- easing the way toward a successful grand reopening.
1. Settle on a Reopening Strategy
With everything there is to do, developing a reopening strategy now will help take a little off your shoulders as you prepare to open the doors. Be sure to readjust and abide by new safety guidelines as necessary, deliver promos to build up excitement, and expand offers once customers are back such as extended birthday party promos for summer. One resource among many is Local First Arizona’s recently released “Reopening for AZ Restaurant Guide”, a free resource for local restaurants and businesses to start developing a plan to reopen.
2. Leverage Your Website to Increase Purchases
Since the COVID-19 onset, many businesses have updated their websites with temporary closure messaging, but less have followed up with consistent updates. As you segue toward reopening, start with installing a website popup to showcase a Support Voucher or other promotional offer.
By allowing customers to purchase directly from your website, you’re not only increasing revenue but also creating a path for more customer traffic on your site as visitors return to check for additional promos upon reopening. At Hownd, we’ve discovered that merchants who installed a website popup earn 11x the revenue of those who didn’t.
3. Create a “Virtual Tip Jar” for Employees
A painful ramification of the global health crisis, many business owners have been forced to furlough valued employees as a response to sapped revenue. For those whose income is heavily supplemented by gratuity, the impact has caused measurable financial difficulties.
As an owner you want to stand by your employees during this challenging time and show that you’re here to support them during the work stoppage. You’ll also need your employees’ support upon reopening. By creating a “Virtual Tip Jar” you can do both.
Distributed through the same means as Support Vouchers, a “Virtual Tip Jar” collects community donations that can be immediately shared to the staff as a whole or you can give your customers the option to donate to specific recipients.
Through this solution, 18|8 Fine Men’s Salons has generated over $40,000 in donations for their stylists.
Additionally, use this time to review and revise your online booking processes for consistency and clear calls-to-action prior to reopening.
4. Stay in Touch Through Social Media and Email Channels
Right now, the need to maintain engagement and stay fresh in the minds of loyal customers is crucial. By reaching customers with the right promos, you’re enabling continued visibility wherever your customers spend time online.
For best results, audit your social media during your downtime, adjusting messaging as needed and increasing your transparency and engagement levels.
5. Collect Customer Data
For owners, fine-tuning the approach to collecting customer data to create repeat customer foot traffic can be difficult even during the best of times. Through our Hownd platform, collecting emails, birthday, and anniversary details for remarketing efforts is a big part of what we do to help businesses drive more foot traffic and revenue.
In addition to setting up a data collector as a website plugin, by enabling Boost Wifi through Hownd upon reopening you can collect customer data whenever a visitor requests access to your guest WiFi network. Once they sign in, their data is automatically transferred into the Hownd platform for immediate and ongoing promotions. This is just one example of a way you can easily collect data as a small business to better get to know and connect with your loyal customers.
6. Generate Immediate Revenue Through Support Vouchers
Support Vouchers are specific promotions designed to appeal to local consumers searching for a way to help their favorite local businesses during the economic crisis. With each purchase, the merchant receives the proceeds immediately while the consumer collects a non-expiring gift card or redeemable voucher to use once the business reopens.
Through the Hownd platform that we operate for example, vouchers are curated and distributed automatically, requiring minimal effort from the business owner. From there, the promos reach consumers at the right time and in the right place via web, social, email and the MyHownd™ consumer app. Easy to purchase and full of heart, consumers are encouraged not only to buy now and visit later — but to continue to discover Support Vouchers from their other favorite local businesses through their preferred devices.
By making Buy Now, Visit Later Support Vouchers available to consumers, Hownd merchants have seen over $1.5 million in immediate revenue from their local communities through COVID-19. This is Hownd’s way of ensuring the small businesses that have always been there for our communities have our support during these challenging times.
At Hownd, we’re helping Local First Arizona members and other local businesses Raise the Sails and get back to business with 15 Free Customers today. Click here to learn more, and continue thinking innovatively and creatively about how your business can drive revenue and foot traffic as you return to operating your small business.
