Restricted to takeout and delivery, almost one in 10 restaurants across the country have been forced to permanently close. That’s according to Restaurants Canada, who says 18 per cent more could shutter by the end of this month.
A survey of 10,969 Canadian small businesses from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, released Wednesday, April 14, 2020, indicates about 22 per cent of small businesses have had their revenue drop to $0 during the pandemic, while only half are confident their business will survive to the end of May under the current conditions.
“The risk of otherwise healthy businesses failing is getting worse by the day as bills are piling up with little or no revenue coming in,” Laura Jones, CFIB’s executive vice-president, said in a news release.
Still, Jim Cormier, director of the Retail Council of Canada’s Atlantic chapter, said COVID-19 could continue to claim businesses even after restrictions are lifted.
“There are some retailers that won’t be able to rebound from this,” he said. “You’ll then be dealing with, potentially, slower sales as society is getting up and running again and maybe months’ worth of payments that are now due.”
If Your Business Does Survive
What are you going to do differently to:
- Get Your Clientele Back Quickly
- Get Customers To Spend More And/Or Return More Often
Do You Know Who Your Customers Are?
- Do You Have A Database With Their Contact Information?
- Can You Easily Contact Them?
- Will You Keep In Touch With Them On A Regular Basis From Now On?
It’s Your Business!
- It’s Your Job To Stay In Business
- Don’t Let It Get Away From You
Plan To Make It Successful!
- Keep In Contact With Your Clients
- Use SMS Text Messaging To Stay In Touch
- Open rates on text messages are extremely high — about 98%, which is among the highest open rate for marketing/promotional materials, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. This rate is three times more than email (with an average open rate of less than 25%).
- Send Them Meaningful Updates
- Offer Them A Special Offer • Sale • Celebration
- Tie It To A Special Occasion
- Holiday • Change Of Season • Graduation • Birthday • Anniversary • Engagement • Marriage • Birth
- Offer Occasional Tips & Ideas
- Tie It To A Newsletter
- Happenings In Town • Community Events
- Hold A Contest • Draw • Questionnaire With A Prize For The Best Answer
- Tie It To A Special Occasion
- Don’t Spam
- Do Not Send More Than 1 Message Per Week and Perhaps 1 Special Message Per Month
- In Most Cases Less Is Better
- The More You Send The More Chance They Will Unsubscribe Or Block You
- So, Unless You Are Providing A Service That Requires You To Message Often, Don’t Do It!
- Do Not Send More Than 1 Message Per Week and Perhaps 1 Special Message Per Month
- Start By Offering Something!
- A Mobile Coupon
- Collect Their Contact Information With Their Permission
- Have It Voided Automatically When Redeemed
- This Is The Start Of Your Database!
- A Birthday or Anniversary Club
- Offer Them A Gift On Their Birthday and/or Anniversary
- Free Birthday Dinner When Another Meal Of Equal Value Is Purchased In Their Group
- Free Gift or Free Gift With Purchase
- Loyalty Club
- Buy 6 And Get 1 FREE
- Get A FREE Meal or Dish with 100 Points
- Client Earn Points or a “Punch” With A Purchase
- 6, 8, 10, 12 Punches or A Tiered Card System
- Just Scan & Go • Scan & Redeem • It’s That Simple
- Our System Keeps Track
- A Mobile Coupon
If You Own An Independent Local Business
Join The Deal Locally Movement!
Contact Us Deal Locally Inc. Info@DealLocally.com
Or Contact Alberta Mobile Marketing Info@AlbertaMobileMarketing.com
Your Continuing Business Success May Depend On It!
