Surviving in the digital age as a local brick-and-mortar business is tough, especially if you aren’t comfortable navigating the online world. However, thriving online is the key to driving traffic to your physical store.
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Creating a mobile-friendly website and filling it with valuable content is just one of the many digital marketing strategies you should implement to reach a broader customer base, increase engagement, and provide an omnichannel shopping experience.
Keep reading for six ways to build solid customer relationships with online marketing methods that incite loyalty to your physical location.
Take Pride in Your Website
Around 547,000 new websites are created daily, which equals about 380 new sites every minute. With statistics like these, it’s hard to see the value in creating a website of your own, let alone putting in the effort to stand out. However, if you want your brick-and-mortar store to be successful, an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly website is a must.
Many of your customers will want to learn more about your business and brand before traveling to your physical location. Your website is likely the first place they’ll go. Use it to enhance your physical store’s image by creating a digital storefront — even if it’s not a fully functional e-commerce store to start with. Hire a professional website designer to create a quality site if need be. Otherwise, use a website builder to design your site.
Use the same visual branding elements, brand personality, messaging, and signage that you do in your brick-and-mortar location to tie your online presence to your offline presence. You should also share events, sales, and updates related to your physical store on your website and vice versa.
Start a Blog
A blog is an intelligent way to drive traffic to your website and your brick-and-mortar store. You can provide valuable information to potential customers about your business and how it can help them solve some of their biggest challenges. You can also talk about what’s happening in your store and provide incentives, like coupons or exclusive items, for in-person visits.
4.4 million new blog posts are published per day, globally. Any old blog post won’t do. Instead, you should approach your blog with a strategy.
Hammer out the following details to help you create a meaningful blog:
- The topics you’ll write about;
- Who’s involved in creating the blog;
- How often you will publish new posts;
- What visuals you’ll make to accompany your posts;
- How’ll you’ll approach maintenance and data analysis;
- How you’ll present information about your brick-and-mortar store;
- Individual campaign ideas to drive traffic to your physical location.
Take Advantage of Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Local marketing is essential on your website if your goal is to get people through your doors. Local SEO strategies help your business appear in search engine results whenever someone searches for your type of business or the products and services you offer in your area.
Focusing on reaching a local audience digitally is vital as these individuals are more likely to visit your store in person than any other group. The following five tips can help you rank online with local SEO:
- Ensure your website is mobile-friendly;
- Fill out your Google My Business page;
- Create budget-friendly Google Ads campaigns;
- Make customer reviews visible on your Google My Business Page;
- Use local keywords and phrases in your website and blog content.
Being active on social media is also critical for getting more people to visit your brick-and-mortar store.
Be Active on Social Media
If you really want to have a steady flow of customers walking through your brick-and-mortar store’s doors, you must establish genuine relationships with your customers. This means showing empathy, practicing effective communication, and being honest with current and potential customers.
Social media is one of the best digital marketing channels to use for the above. Social media allows you to engage with your customers more deeply with direct conversations, comments, live streaming, and page posts.
You can also use social media to drive traffic to your brick-and-mortar store. For example, you could offer coupons and discount codes to followers participating in your live streams. You could post flyers about upcoming events at your store. You could also share behind-the-scenes content about your store’s day-to-day operations in your stories.
Create a detailed social media marketing strategy to start. Determine which social media platforms your customers spend most of their time on and create a presence on them. Next, detail the kind of content you want to create for each platform, when you’ll publish, and how you’ll track each platform’s performance.
Then, engage with your followers daily. Answer comments, direct messages, and shoutouts. Go live to answer questions and chat with customers. Also, encourage in-store customers to share their purchases on social media and tag you in them.
Experiment With Event Marketing
Events are another avenue for driving traffic to your physical location. Promoting your in-store events on your digital channels can inspire more people in your customer base to visit your store in person.
Brainstorm various events you can host at your brick-and-mortar store with your team. They can be industry, customer appreciation, product launch, or anniversary events. Consider how often you want to host events and who would be a good fit to design them.
Then, focus on marketing your events on your digital channels. Create social media content with incentives for attendance attached. Make landing pages for your events that connect to your website to learn more. You could also create an email list and promote your events there.
Create an Email List
Email marketing is still one of the most profitable digital marketing channels. When people willingly sign up for your email list, they want more from you. That can include content about what’s going on in your physical storefront.
Create a signup page on your website and share the link on your social media platforms and in your store. Then, think about the email content and campaigns you want to create to drive customers to your physical storefront and keep them engaged with your brand online.
With an email list, you can keep in touch with your customers and keep them updated on everything going on in your physical location to spark their interest in visiting.
Conclusion
Without online marketing, your brick-and-mortar store won’t last in this increasingly digital world. So, use the tips above to leverage digital marketing and get more people to visit your physical location.