The Importance of Maintaining Brand Awareness During COVID and Beyond

In today’s world, the happy photos of puppies and memes we usually see fill our social media feeds are commonly replaced by heart-wrenching tales from all our favorite local businesses about how they’ve been negatively affected by the pandemic and need our support to survive.

Let’s be real: COVID-19 has been hard on all of us.

In fact, 80 percent of businesses reported that they’re concerned about financial hardships due to prolonged closures, and more than half said they might need to close permanently if things don’t improve (US Chamber of Commerce).

Data from a recent Yelp study shows that 60 percent of business closures due to COVID are now permanent (CNBC). The areas that show the most closures are restaurants, bars, nightlife venues, clothing stores, and home-decor businesses, whereas professional services like contractors and lawyers report lower rates of closure.

These numbers are simply too high to be taken lightly — but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

What We’ve Learned

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and as we continue to make our way out through to the other end, our team at OpticTour has helped tons of businesses understand the power of digital marketing in a changing world, and we’ve found that it’s absolutely vital for them to do what they can to keep their brand top of mind.

The biggest takeaway?

Those who have spent the necessary time and effort to put their name out there through paid and organic posting on social media platforms, Yelp, and Google coupled with other digital marketing tactics have been able to stay open, provide their customers with what they need, and continue to increase their revenue in a world that’s got “business as normal” in a chokehold. 

Brands everywhere have turned to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok, and more to do what they can to stay connected, offer updates and information about their operations, and continue to do business with consumers everywhere through regular postings, ad campaigns, and more.

In fact, 66 percent of consumers believe it’s comforting and reassuring to hear that a brand they follow is doing what they can to mitigate the dangers of COVID, and 46 percent said they look to brands for optimistic messaging about the future.

Let’s take a look at one of our clients, Clay Pit.

We’ve been handling their social media marketing, review management, and more for quite some time now — but we want to draw your attention to their Google Posts in particular.

Google Posts are essentially just updates and information that appear towards the bottom of your GMB listing, and they’re entirely free to create.

They’re a great way to further highlight your uniqueness and put timely information right in front of the eyes of potential consumers, whether you post about company events, promotions and sales, new products and services, COVID-related ongoings, and more.

Clay Pit usually averages at about 1,000 views for regular Google Posts (for example, ones that discuss ongoing promotions, new drink specials, updated hours of operation, etc.)

But when we made a post updating their audience on their decision to continue instilling their COVID safety precautions, they received over 7,000 views.