Summer is an important time for business. The weather is nice, students are on vacation, and potential customers will be out on the town. This means lots of opportunities for people to come into contact with your business. For many businesses, summertime is the perfect opportunity to hold special events for sales, new releases, and anniversaries to bring in customers. However, what do you do if it looks like your business won’t be able to host planned summer events? Don’t throw in the towel just yet! If uncertain times suggest an event can’t be hosted physically, that doesn’t mean you can’t use your online tools to promote the occasion and involve your customers! Here are some ways to develop a backup plan if you might need to cancel summer events.
Give Yourself A Timeline
Nobody wants to cancel an exciting occasion but announcing cancelation minutes before the event is never a good idea. If you have reason to think you may cancel in-person events early on, give yourself a timeline to make decisions. Give yourself a date to inform your coworkers and employees that you’re planning on changing the event. This will make sure everyone is on the same page. You should also give yourself a date to announce any changes to your customers via social media, mailing lists, and your website. Make sure that all the information you put out is consistent and updated simultaneously. This is important so you can keep all your customers informed. Sometimes an event might have to be changed suddenly due to bad weather or unpredictable interruptions, but if you can imagine an obstacle a few weeks ahead, you should have a plan ready.
Keep Customers Engaged
Summer events draw in customers because they’re fun and engaging. If your event is going to feature raffles, flash sales, or coupons, you can easily make many of these opportunities available online with little adjustment. If you plan on continuing a sale online, let your customers know ahead of time if you will be available for curbside pickup or delivery. Also, if you are hosting a raffle, giveaway, or sending out coupons, make sure you let everyone know in your social media and updates to your customers. Let customers know that they have a chance to participate and get the products they love while helping your business.
Show a Friendly Face
Your summer event may have been to feature guests, unveil a new line of products, or celebrate a milestone for your business. Consider live streaming on social media to talk directly to your customers. If you’re planning on hosting a guest speaker, like an author or an activist, reach out to see if they could talk on your business’s Facebook Live stream. If you’ll be releasing new products, you and your coworkers can appear on your social media to talk about them and why you are so excited about the release. Say you are celebrating a milestone, anniversary, or are opening a new location — you should talk about it. Customers will be glad to see a friendly face share how excited they are about the business. Talking to your customers, even when it is online, will be more engaging to them than reading emails or posts on social media.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Draft a timeline and determined what activities, promotions, and appearances can be moved online. Take time for you and your team to get used to online promotions. Livestreaming and Facebook giveaways aren’t difficult, but you want to make sure you know what you’re doing. Read up on instructions and how-to guides for any new platforms or features you would utilize ahead of time. Make sure everyone on your team knows what they will be doing and what they need. The more technical issues you solve before hosting events online, the fewer frustrations your customers will experience.
Summer is a fun and exciting time for everyone, and sometimes online events may not seem the most ideal. However, with a little ingenuity, you make sure that you have a backup plan that engages customers no matter what.
Are you planning summer events and looking to create an online backup plan? Monkey VA can help you keep in contact with your customers and maintain your online presence. Reach out today!
