Photo by Christelle BOURGEOIS on Unsplash
Running an online business has its perks, but running a store where you can see the joy and excitement on your customers' faces is incredible. You can help them make purchase decisions for themselves or when buying gifts for others.
Carefully consider their needs and hand-select items for them. Or leaving the customers who like to be left to their own devices alone - but overjoyed when they find something they love.
Something that many brick-and-mortar businesses find, though, is that to get cheaper rent, you often need to be outside of the central city or town. And that can mean you have to double down on your marketing efforts to attract customers.
So how can you ramp up the footfall and see a better profit?
Loyalty
You need to give your customers a reason to come back. A great example is coffee shops that offer a stamped card - for each time they go, you get a stamp or two, and when the card is full - they get a free drink.
This is a great way to keep customers coming back. But what if you don’t sell something like that?
Nothing stops you from creating a loyalty card scheme that adds points to a card, and after a certain amount of spending, a discount is unlocked.
Loyal customers aren’t just lovely to have; they are an essential part of your business, as research shows that loyal customers spend more money per visit.
Social Media
Free to use, but not easy to master. Almost all small businesses could benefit from someone else handling their social media - and making it their full-time job. Many customers like to communicate that way when it comes to social media, and if you don’t have a presence, you will be missing out.
If you don’t want to hire someone to manage your social media, you will need to create and implement a social media strategy.
It will take some time, and you should be prepared to dedicate a few hours every day to creating content and communicating with your customers.
Social media, like Facebook Pages, give customers somewhere to leave reviews too. They are free to share their thoughts and tell other potential buyers what is excellent about your store. Just keep in mind it is just as easy to leave a bad review.
Use social media to keep people updated on your limited offers, discounts, sales, and opening times.
ATM
Almost everything is done by card, and in a cashless society, it might seem odd to add an ATM. But from time to time, there are issues with payment processing - and that is a nightmare. Typically these outages impact a couple of stores - and suddenly, everyone needs cash.
It isn’t just about cash sales though, there are more high street banks closing their branches, and this can make it difficult for people to access their money. But you can provide this service. You can buy or hire an ATM from an atm company and have it installed and maintained too.
Regular shopping evenings
If you are inside a mall, you will be required to open and close as the central mall does. Simple because people won’t be able to get in or out anyway.
If you have a shop front that faces the street, this can present a new and exciting opportunity. Of course, it will depend on what you sell and where you are situated, but many people struggle to get to some stores during the week due to work and family commitments.
The weekends can be too busy - but what about offering an evening once a month that is open a little later?
Events
As well as the one late evening a month, you can partner with other local stores to offer some events. You can make it a ticketed event or give away tickets to make it feel exclusive.
Depending on what you typically sell, you can offer a range of samples and tasters, goodie bags, and more. The idea is to introduce people to your brand.
You don’t necessarily need to host the event in your store; you can host a pop-up in a different location and afterward direct people to your main store. Pop-up events can be incredibly successful - so long as you keep the momentum going later.
Website
You can take a leaf from some designer brands and brands like Primark (UK). They don’t sell online. Instead, they use their websites as the window to the store. To buy anything you need to go into the store itself.
This can be a beneficial method if you don’t want to manage stock outside of what you have in your store and store stock room.
It can be more worthwhile to balance some products online but smaller products only available in store. It will come down to what works for your business and products.
Signage
Part of your marketing budget needs to go on great signage - help people find you and give them a reason to go there.
If you have a hand-scrawled sign, people will often not want to see what's in stock. Because while they know you’re there, they also know you didn’t care enough about your signage to create something meaningful and permanent.
Your main shop sign is just one sign in a list of many. Get permission to have signs further away from your store, or hire a billboard to alert people.
It is essential that you have a designer work with these things for you - so that the message you think you are getting across is coming from the actress well.
The signage you use needs to be eye-catching and let people know what you are selling immediately.
Your signage and marketing materials like banners, flyers, billboards, and others should all be part of an overall marketing strategy.
Increasing your footfall and ultimately your profit will take a little time, but once you start using all of these methods, it won’t take long before you see plenty of people - every day.
Are you looking to increase your business exposure? Check this: How To Get Your Business Noticed
