For small businesses with brick-and-mortar locations, it can be a constant challenge to attract new customers to your door. How do you hone your marketing efforts so that you get more foot traffic and more sales? Here are three strong ideas to increase your small business’ sales this year.
You’ve heard of digital content, but when you need to bring people in, offering your great content online can be a mistake. Instead, encourage people to come into your store to get the information they need. The secret to making this successful is simple: offer truly valuable information that resolves your customer’s pain points or excites them.
For example, let’s say that you sell GMO-free, local produce and you’ve created a guide that helps your customers eat seasonally, based on what’s available in your area throughout the year. Great idea, but don’t give this valuable content away online! Set up a workshop where you hand out the guides, show customers how to use it, and give out other tips about how much healthier your produce is compared to your competition. Customers in your store are more valuable than clicks.
Depending on your business, you may be best suited to host events, workshops, makeovers, hack-a-thons, seasonal celebrations, or something entirely different. Whatever you choose, remain true to your brand identity and values. In order to convert customers, you need to be your authentic self so that they can connect with you.
You have something that your online competition doesn’t: a physical space. Make the most of that space by focusing on the experience it can give customers. Go beyond clear signage and interesting décor, and offer something unique that makes your location stand out.
One option for an experiential space is art. Creating an art piece in your store makes it a more interesting and engaging place. This is especially true if the art is interactive and invites people to take photos of themselves with it. Imagine a more sophisticated version of the country-fair staple: a cardboard cutout of a character with the face cut out so that people can put their face in and take a picture.
If your business participates in community events, head to them with experiential engagement in mind. If your business’ booth is an experiential and exciting space, it will be more memorable to your customers and effective for your business.
Now that you have an event or space that you know your customers will love, how do you tell them about it? Use direct mail to tell people about this reason to visit your store along with other reasons such as promotions or new products and services. Direct mail is a great way to boost local awareness and promote events to the people who are most interested in them. If you’re attending a community event, see if you can get your business’ name included as a participant or sponsor on their direct mail campaign as well. This will allow your business to get the highest reach possible.
When you create your campaign, be sure to include specific calls to action to attend a workshop at your store, check out your most recent promotion, attend an event, or any other engaging activity you are promoting.
DRMG has expertise in assisting small to medium size businesses with direct mail marketing campaigns. We can help you achieve your goals. Reach out to us to get started.