As we all know, the lifespan of a business depends on the traffic you generate through your front door. If you find yourself staring at an empty shop or if you’re simply trying to prevent that from happening, it may be time to look at marketing ideas to help throw your business back into the spotlight.
The basics of marketing can be summarized into the “ 4 Ps of marketing”:
- Product: What are you selling, and what makes your product unique?
- Consider your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This will help you define why your customer pool should choose you over your competitors.
- Price: How can you leverage price to your advantage? Consider the competition and how you would like to be perceived by consumers.
- Place: Where is your customer? It’ll be most effective to go to the customer rather than having them go to you.
- Promotion: How can you reach your audience and what kind of message will be most effective for your business?
Today we’ll be focusing on promotion and how the investments you make now can lead to greater payoff.
One of the most important things to help with brand visibility is to get your customers to recognize your brand. This can come from advertising both online and offline.
Work Your Online Angle
Getting recognized online may seem like an impossible task with so many other advertisements taking over social media and established competitors drowning out your voice. But your online presence is not limited to social media and paid advertising. You can gain recognition for free by boosting your website to the top of Google search results, especially in the Google maps results. 92% of searchers will pick businesses on the first page of local search results. To get there, make sure to make a Google My Business account and keep your business listing updated with the most accurate information and reviews.
Social media accounts will also help boost your visibility and don’t necessarily require any budgeting. Strategic hashtags, trend following, and frequency of posts can up your chances of being noticed, and you can choose which social media platforms to use depending on your targeted consumer group. For example, TikTok is effective for younger consumers while Facebook would be effective for older age groups.
Offline Marketing
Windows:
Offline efforts can be just as effective in luring customers into your business. For example, custom window decals can help boost your brand by catching the eyes of potential customers walking by. Make sure your logo, font, and color choices are unified. Your window displays are also a great area to work on to catch a passerby’s attention, and you can incorporate your products in the window display to double as effective retail marketing. It could also be beneficial to periodically change your window display depending on the seasons, big sales, holidays or local events.
In-store:
Storefront and product displays are an effective way of showcasing your products while also grabbing the attention of your customers. Working on the aesthetics of your displays will make your products more appealing to visitors of your shop. You can combine these displays with fabric banners or standing banners that announce any sales or deals you may be having to create the ultimate enticement.
Curbside:
If you’re located in an outdoor shopping area such as a town square, outlet, or marketplace you can bring your business promoting out to the curb. A-frame signs provide an extremely customizable way to advertise any sales or new products. You could opt for printed a-frame signs for designs that can be used annually or dry-erase or chalkboard a-frame signs to have complete creative liberty over your curbside advertising. This method of advertising can capture foot traffic as they walk past your store whether it be by letting them know you’re open, what you have available, special promotions, or even just short messages.
Conclusion
A big business starts small. With a bit of investment in promotional gear, your business holds a much better chance of generating new traffic. This in turn leads to returning customers who go out and recommend your business to even more customers. You’ll be a thriving business in no time.
We hope we were able to help! If you ever need new signs or banners to help promote your business, make sure to check us out at banerNprint.com.
Sources
- https://neilpatel.com/blog/4-ps-of-marketing/
- https://www.shopify.com/blog/unique-selling-proposition
- https://seoexpertbrad.com/local-seo-stats/
- Postcard Mania
- HubSpot
- SEO Expert Bradley Shaw
- Shopify
- Brandastic
- Neil Patel
- Lightspeed