Trying to attract more visitors to a local business is not as simple as many think right now. The truth is that you need to take advantage of everything that you can because having a great offering is not enough.
Whenever you try to attract more visitors, keep in mind that you have to fully understand your target market and customer base. At the same time, it is a certainty that you need to build a good digital marketing strategy because more and more people use the internet on mobile devices in order to find what they are looking for. With all this in mind, here are some ways in which you can increase a local business’ visitors in a very effective way.
Invest In Amenities
When you have amenities, you say to your customers that you care about their comfort, well-being, and much more. Make sure that you offer something that you needed or something that can make the entire shopping experience better. This includes things that are not necessarily related to the actual shopping process.
As a great example, offering free WiFi is very effective for many local businesses, especially restaurants and other places where people would spend a lot of time. A Devicescape study showed that 62% of businesses had their customers spend increased time in-store because of the addition of free WiFi.
Offer Exclusive Rewards
Actively encourage customers to check in online when they visit your store. This is important because it can spread the word about what you offer. You can even take things further. For instance, you can tell people to post about the discount that they received and about the experience they had.
Usually, the best way to award customers is to offer some freebies for their in-store purchases. By doing this, you encourage people to reach the brick and mortar location of the store as opposed to just buying online. Make sure that you create a business profile on Google and use any other service that is useful for this, like Facebook or Foursquare.
Build Your Online Presence
Speaking about Google, you need to be sure that your website takes advantage of all possible local SEO opportunities and that the name of the business instantly pops out when people look for stores like yours. This is difficult to do and might require investment in an SEO service but it is something that helps a lot more than initially imagined.
People spend more and more time online. As a result, many business owners complain and say that the Internet actually drives people away from local businesses. This is not actually correct. Smart business owners actually take advantage of this and they build a strong eCommerce presence.
Create a website that properly showcases your current catalog. Make sure people can buy products online so that you increase sales and increase brand awareness. As more people become aware of your brand, foot traffic is naturally and organically increased.
Use Email Marketing
Are there some in-store promotions happening right now? Maybe there is an upcoming event that could be valuable for visitors. Whenever this is in place, it is important to let others know and email marketing is a great way to do exactly that.
Email marketing is very effective when you want to get more foot traffic. For instance, let’s say that you have a special in-store discount when customers buy something. In this case, you can let everyone in your mailing list know about it. As a result, some of the people will come to the store and will take advantage of the deal. However, this is impossible if people do not know about the deal.
