Staying Visible When the Doors Are Closed

It’s been about two months since most of us learned a new vocabulary. Stay-at-home. Essential business. Curbside. Some Michiana businesses have been closed the whole time. Some have stayed open in a way that barely looks like their old business. Some are starting to reopen in stages, with a lot of questions about what that will look like.

I’ve had a lot of conversations with owners in that time, and one question keeps coming up: should we stop marketing until this is over?

Going dark has a cost

I understand the instinct. Revenue is down, the future is foggy, and advertising feels like the easiest line to cut. For some businesses, cutting back is the right call, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.

But going completely silent has a cost that doesn’t show up right away. People are home. They’re paying attention to local news and to the local places they care about. They want to know who’s open, who’s still around and how to support the businesses they like. If they don’t hear from you, they’ll assume you’re closed, or they’ll find someone who’s talking.

Being visible right now isn’t about selling hard. It’s about being useful.

Change the message, not just the volume

The ads you were running in February probably don’t fit anymore. A spot about a spring open house or a packed dining room lands badly right now. That doesn’t mean stop. It means rewrite.

The messages that fit this moment answer practical questions:

• Are you open? In what way, and on what hours?
• How do I buy from you now? Phone orders, curbside pickup, delivery, online ordering, appointments, gift cards.
• What are you doing to keep people safe? Say it plainly, without making a production of it.
• How can I help? Some customers want to support you. Tell them how.

Keep it calm and specific. People have enough fear in their feeds already. They don’t need more from a furniture store or a pizza place.

Update your hours everywhere

This one sounds small, and it causes more frustration than almost anything else. Your hours have probably changed, maybe more than once. Make sure the new hours are right everywhere someone might look: your Google listing, your Facebook page, your website, your voicemail greeting and the sign on the door.

Do the same with how to order. If you’ve added curbside or delivery, say so at the top of your website, not on a page nobody visits. Someone who has to hunt for how to give you money will usually give up and go somewhere easier.

Check on your customers

Some of the most valuable marketing you can do this spring doesn’t look like marketing at all. A short email to regular customers saying here’s what we’re doing, and we hope you’re well. A phone call to a longtime client just to check in. A thank-you post for the people in town who are still going to work every day so the rest of us can stay home.

None of that sells anything directly. All of it gets remembered. The businesses that treat people well during a hard stretch tend to be the ones people come back to when it’s over.

When the doors open again

Nobody knows exactly what the next few months look like, and I’m not going to guess. What I’d suggest is planning for a gradual return, not a single grand reopening. Keep telling people what’s changed. Keep your hours current. Keep the tone human. And hold a little of your budget back so you can let people know when you’re open again and what to expect when they walk in.

If you want a quick look at where your marketing stands right now, the Marketing Checkup takes a few minutes. Take care of yourselves.