Downtown Recovery Trends August 2020

RECORD-SETTING ECONOMIC CONTRACTION in Q3 and growing unemployment numbers have taken the wind out of our summer recovery sails. Still, there are encouraging signs that carefully directing our resources can keep our downtowns growing.

RETURN TO WORK

When most office workers moved to work from home, many of the small businesses that served them shuttered during the day, from coffee shops to restaurants to professional services. Many of the largest Fortune 500 companies are extending their work-from-home policy through 2021, but many state and federal government employees are returning to the office. Mid-size offices are also coming back online at an increasing rate, but with new patterns: many businesses are staggering starting hours, flexible four-day work weeks, and relying on even more contractors than before. It’s been a long time since many of these people have been downtown and a lot has changed. Treat these workers as if they’re brand new to downtown. For example:

• Launch your new brand campaign now. Things have changed- embrace the change and make it fresh. Be sure to integrate a safety campaign.
• Continue your relaxed signage restrictions and increase wayfinding so employees can find businesses to support.
• Provide extra outdoor seating throughout downtown to encourage employees to eat outside. Consider branding or sponsorship opportunities with benches.
• Send an eblast once a week that’s hyper-targeted to downtown employees. Don’t include anything extraneous. Even if the list is small, word travels fast in an office.
• Switch up your swag. Branded paper napkins can be distributed to restaurants for delivery, towelettes can be provided next to parking meters and traffic lights, spray bottles can be kept next to seating areas.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION

“Link juice” is the idea that a popular web page passes on some of its prestige to other pages linked to it. It’s one of the great principles of the internet, and Google has just declared it dead. As we all create new content for these new times, focus on making it as easy to use as possible and stop trying to force it to work with your most popular pages.

TOURISM

Travel during the Fourth of July was higher than last year, and that trend is continuing. Traffic to business’ sites is slowly on the rise. The most successful strategy for businesses that serve visitors is to expand the radius of the marketing. For downtowns, create content for visitors like “locals favorite ice cream” or “the best regional dish you can only get here”. We’re seeing exceptional returns for small businesses whose districts are employing this approach.

EARLY BIRDS

People are popping in and out of their homes as infection rates and the economy changes. Downtowns that are investing in geo-located ad campaigns are seeing strong returns. By only targeting people who are willing to come out early, the campaign can pay for itself. As an additional bonus, it’s one more tool to use to track your recovery.

RESTAURANTS

Restaurants that are determined to stay open through rollbacks need to adapt to stay at capacity. Innovative restaurants are combining reservations and restaurant pagers. Guests are given a suggested timeframe, then their phone alerts them of their assigned time and when to leave home. This method reduces crowds of lines out front while filling slower hours. Yelp currently offers the best version of this technology we’ve seen.