It’s Time to Start Planning for Re-Opening Marketing Needs

While some states are being more aggressive than others, the writing is on the wall. Businesses are beginning to reopen their doors. This will bring many challenges that you may not have considered. What are these businesses going to need and how is the best way for them to communicate to their customers? That’s the topic of this week’s Propago Blog.

Let’s start with the basics – businesses want to reassure their patrons that they are safe. How do they demonstrate that? Well, for one, they should have signage prominently displayed around the business – from the parking lot to the entry way to the restrooms. In some cases this messaging will be driven by state and local government. In other cases, it might be the business owners who want to assuage concerns. Either way, the businesses are going to need signage.

That means that for print service providers, now is the time to exercise strategic, proactive sales planning. This is a perfect opportunity to reach out to your clients and prospects to check on their readiness to open. Informational signage will be in huge demand and businesses need to communicate with their customers on the current social distancing rules and protocols they are enforcing for public safety. Hygiene signage, checkout line guides, and the like are already becoming widespread. And the smartest businesses will want these materials customized to match their branding and messaging. This is the kind of thing short-run digital printing is made for.

Direct Mail Will Dominate

In the same vein as highly localized signage and graphics, personalized direct mail has a chance to shine right now. Direct mail is perfect for getting up-to-date information and hyper-personalized messaging right into the hands of customers.

Because everyone is online right now more often than before due to working at home and social distancing, marketing through print in the form of direct mail has a greater chance to stand out from the marketing people are receiving online. Direct mail has the benefit of being more tangible and personal than the massive amounts of digital messaging people are receiving right now. That makes it stand out.

Plus, the tangible quality of direct mail means it has a greater chance to be seen again and again as it sits in the house. People are spending much more time at home, and often have much more time on their hands. Screen fatigue will leave people appreciating and paying more attention to any form of messaging that doesn’t appear in an email or browser.

The Importance of Local, Personalized Messaging

Just about every business in the world is currently being affected by this shutdown in one way or another. For local businesses in the retail and restaurant industries, social distancing rules and orders mean that policies are having to rapidly adapt and sometimes change by the week.

These businesses need to be able to quickly and effectively communicate to their local customers what the current situation is. Temporary graphics and printed materials like flyers and posters are all great tools for this job.

And, most importantly, the key to standing out will be with effective, targeted messaging. Since all businesses will be in a similar boat, everyone will be competing to stand out. These businesses won’t be as interested in large, long-term brand-building campaigns. Meaningful, personalized messaging and offers will be key to drawing a slowly returning public through the doors. 

Bringing the Value of Print to Your Community

This is a time where working together is not a luxury but a necessity. Never before has it been so important for businesses across industries to adapt at breakneck speeds. By being the one who reaches out first to make connections, ask questions, figure out what the businesses around you are planning and what they need to make it happen, you can find opportunities to add the value of print into the equation.