How Print and Digital Can Work Together to Help Brick and Mortar Companies Rebound from COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has annihilated many brick-and-mortar businesses. Unless it was an essential business, the doors were closed. Now that businesses are re-opening, it is important to consider how print and digital can work together to help encourage customers to return. 

• Let Them Know You’re Open: One of the biggest reasons to start advertising in print and digital form is to let people know you are open. Everyone has a different level of concern about re-opening. Most aren’t going to go straight to your door to check it out. Print marketing will reach your target market by mail, and digital marketing will reach the world of social media, e-mail, and website advertising. Both are essential to reaching as many people as possible and letting them know you’re ready for business. 
• Provide Access Options: Many people aren’t going to return to shopping inside stores, which means brick-and-mortar businesses need to advertise options. Curbside pick-up might last for a while, so will online shopping and delivery. Again, people need to know that you are open to social distancing measures even when they are lifted.
• Target Locals: Digital marketing tactics like Geo-fencing allow the business to market based on parameters set up to target locals or a certain demographic. There are many ways to use this technology including targeting the customers of your competition. Additionally, it is easy to reach out to locals with print advertising sent via mail. 
• Safety Concerns: It is also a wise choice to let people know that you are abiding by safety guidelines. Advertise the measures you’ve taken to ease the safety risks. If you are sanitizing booths between customers, moving tables 6 feet apart. Anything that makes more people comfortable entering your store will be good for business. It will reach more people if this information is broadcast in print and digital media. 
• The Power of Tangible Items: For people who are “unplugged,” print advertising is the only way to reach them. Most people are accessible via digital options, but that doesn’t mean tangible advertising is dying. It is just getting better! Print advertising offers something real for the customer to hold in his or her hand. The psychological benefit of print advertising is not always recognized. Not only that, but it is a reminder of the way things used to be. People are comfortable with things that are familiar.
• The Ease of Digital Options: While print advertising still exists for very good reasons, the world is increasingly going digital. People research products online and go to the store to pick it up (webrooming). They also increasingly prefer online ordering systems whether products are delivered or picked up. If you want to reach your customers, you have to engage in digital marketing. 

Hire Someone Who Can Do Print and Digital Marketing

When brick-and-mortar businesses hire a company to provide marketing solutions, they need to consider print AND digital marketing. It allows businesses to reach more customers in multiple methods, and it can help them to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Let GMS help you plan, implement and maintain a strategy specific to your industry and location.