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We live in hard times. In the first two years since the economic crisis of 2008 began, more than 170,000 US businesses faced closure. The atmosphere is not much brighter these days and with inflation being high and customer confidence remaining low, it is easy to see why many businesses are still facing hardships and young entrepreneurs might be reluctant to start their own businesses.
With the following tips in place, however, and a lot of hard work and patience, there is no need to fear. We have put together a list of steps for you to take in order to increase traffic to your store.
Review the products you sell
With the current situation being a tricky one in terms of customers scrutinising their spending in higher levels and businesses investing large amounts in marketing their products, you might feel you are up against a lot of competition for what you offer. Whether your store sells books, flowers or jewellery, it is time to review your business plan and tailor your products to the current needs of the market. Whatever the product or services you sell, there is always a niche to serve. The trick is in identifying this and then customising your offering to satisfy this niche’s needs. These were the most profitable businesses in 2016; get to know them and see how you score!
Market your store appropriately
A study from 2015 showed that Google “near me” and “near by” searches on the web doubled in 2014. With 93% of sales happening in physical stores, as opposed to 7% happening on line, it is important that your website helps customers find your physical retailing space. There are a number of ways in which it can do so, with one of the most effective one being adding a store locator to this. Providing accurate store location and opening times as well as contact information is of paramount importance for your customers to be able to find you and get to you whilst the store is still open. This Store Locator Software: How To Turn Online Visits Into Physical Sales will help you drive traffic from your website to your shop.
It’s all about PR
Many businesses spend large sums of money on PR, just to get the word of their existence out there. They do so because PR is an effective way of reaching to the masses and because if a paper or magazine (let alone the more effective radio or television) share your story, this will be read (or heard and seen in the case of broadcast media) by the audiences you are trying to engage. Whilst it is true that you don’t need to spend money running an entire PR department, you need to be skilled at networking with the right media and publications and keep them in the loop with your store developments. In order to do so, you should meet the main editors in these platforms and send them press releases from time to time for them to publish your news in the form of readable stories. Here is a brief guide on how to conduct effective PR.
Get on the social media wagon
You might highly dislike social media and you could have a great reason behind this, but it still is one of the most powerful marketing tools out there. Ninety-five percent of Americans are now said to own a mobile phone of some kind and 84 percent of US citizens also own a computer. This means the world is becoming increasingly reliant on the internet. As a result, and with social media user quantities on the up, it is wise to think about creating Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. Take time to make your brand relevant on these and tailor each platform’s messages to the medium in which they are shared (e.g. Instagram should be about imagery and Twitter could be more news-related). Make sure you spend time following key players (the news contacts discussed in the point above) and they will follow you back. This way, they will be aware of everything you post and share interesting pieces of information with their audiences.
It is easy to get bogged down by the negativity of the news and the fact that we live in times of austerity and economic decline. Whilst the journey ahead might be a challenging one, the steps above will help you increase customer flow to your store for you to see your takings improve as a result.
