As restrictions vary greatly across the UK we are hearing that for some footfall to businesses is falling. But there is no part of the UK where essential retailers such as pet shops are required to close.

So now’s a good time to remind your customers you are open and as an ‘essential’ retailer you are there to help them with all their needs for their pets, from food and kit to advice and support, just as you were throughout the national lockdown back in the Spring.

Back in full lockdown we came up with these 8 tips to help you connect with your customers – which focused on ‘digital’ ways to talk to your customers. Now might be a good time to resurrect some of these ways if you are finding that customers are not so keen to come to your shop. This is another article on digital marketing tips for pet shops that you might also find useful.

We’d also suggest that this is a good time to review your business against the Government’s advice for shops, to make sure that you are following the latest advice on being Covid-secure. Are you prominently displaying the certificate you can download when you’ve done that to reassure your customers? And of course make sure you share what you’ve done with your customers on any social media channels you have.

Now might also be a good time to think about doing some simple Facebook/Instagram advertising or post boosting if you don’t already do that. If you’re not familiar with this then check out Facebook Academy which is a huge resource from Facebook that offers free training on a whole host of ideas from creating digital gift cards for your business to creating a shop that allows people to shop from your business page and how to set up ads for your Facebook page.

Another simple way to help your business is to make sure you have registered for a free Google My Business account and make sure you have filled in all the information about your business. You can add opening hours, offers, updates, photos, street views and even do a virtual tour of your shop. Then encourage your customers to give you reviews because this really helps with local SEO to help people find your business when they search for local key word associated businesses. There are also loads of free courses to help you on Google’s learning platform Learn Digital with Google.

Check out the financial business support there is available here.