One of the hardest things for any business to do is get themselves noticed. There are so many competitors out there that it’s hard to stand out from the crowd. This is especially true for brick and mortar stores, who must compete with the ever growing popularity of online stores. With that in mind, here are five tips you can use to get your physical store noticed and start driving in customers.
Choose the Right Location
For some of you, you already have a store set up and ready to go. But for those of you who do not have a store yet, make sure you take plenty of time to consider where you’ll put it. You don’t want to choose some place that doesn’t have a lot of foot traffic, is hard to park at, or isn’t a place where your target audience doesn’t go. Where to place your business is one of the biggest decisions you can make, so don’t make it lightly.
When considering your options, take everything into account. What’s the local community like? What competitors are nearby, and how close are they? What’s traffic in that area like? And finally, how much does it cost? Create a list of pros and cons for each property option. From there you should be able to make a smart decision about where to place your new store.
Decorate the Outside
Once you have a location, now it’s time to start drawing people in. One of the best ways to do this is by decorating the outside the right way. If the outside of your building is boring, or if people can’t tell what kind of store you are, you’ll have a hard time bringing people in. You want people who are just driving by to know exactly what you have to offer with just a quick glance.
However, decorating both the inside and outside of a store is about more than just putting up as many signs as possible. You need to do it in the right way, so that you provide information without appearing unprofessional. For some examples on how to properly add signs up around and outside your store, the deployment solutions company Bdyanmix provides some great examples.
Market Yourself Through Social Media
The next thing you should focus on is marketing yourself online, specifically social media. Social media has become one of the most effective ways to get attention to your business, no matter how large or small you may be. In fact, if you’re not using social media regularly, you’re likely to fall behind your competitors.
To start, make sure you have both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Once you have them up and running, use them regularly. Post updates about your store, or let your followers know about any sales you’re having. If you want, you can provide a special one-time discount code to your social media followers to encourage more people to follow you. You should also use your social media accounts to interact with your customers, providing them with suggestions on products that might work for them or answering any questions they may have.
People spend a large chunk of their time browsing social media sites, so if you want to get your business noticed, you need to go where they are.
Run a “Can’t Miss” Event
The next thing to try is running an event that no one will want to miss. For instance, you could host a huge-one day sale. Or, on your grand opening, you could turn it into a giant party or festival, complete with live music and games out in the parking lot. Another idea is to hold a contest, with the prize being so good that everyone will show up.
Online retail has a lot of advantages over brick and mortar stores, but there are some things it can’t provide. One of those is an experience, so this is what you want to give your customers. Think of an event you can host, something that everyone in the area will want to check out. Once you decide what that is, do everything you can to market the event. If everything goes well, this one event will generate a ton of return customers who will keep coming back in the future.
Encourage Referrals
Finally, one of the best tools you have at your disposal is word of mouth. The best spokespeople for your store are past customers, who can recommend it to their friends and family. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to give them a little encouragement to do so.
For example, you could offer a discount to anyone who refers another customer to you. This gives your original customer some incentive to go out and promote you, but it’s something they wouldn’t do unless they were happy with their experience. This means that only the people who have the highest opinion of you are going to refer you, making for some excellent spokespeople.
If you can do all of the above, you should have no trouble bringing in customers. Just remember to always look for new possibilities, and keep at it. You may not generate a ton of customers over night, but if you’re persistent, they’ll accumulate over time.
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