With the rise of online shopping, some might think that brick-and-mortar stores are becoming a thing of the past. Services like overnight shipping and AI design features are impressive, but brick-and-mortar stores still hold a special place in the retail industry. Despite the buzz about the potential decline of in-person retail, it’s important to recognize that there remains a vibrant market for physical stores.
With that in mind, we’re excited to share some tips to help brick-and-mortar stores connect with customers more effectively. Even with the rise of online competitors, brick-and-mortar stores can still thrive by leveraging digital marketing techniques. To help you succeed, let’s explore some key strategies for using digital marketing to boost your furniture, appliances, and electronics store.
Optimize Your Website
Just because you are trying to market your in-person retail store doesn’t mean that you having an online presence is unimportant. Maintaining a high-quality and visually appealing website is crucial. Your website needs to market your store by providing basic information about your business and its location, but it can also offer more features as well. Your website can provide customers with a buy online and pick-up in store option, a chat function to answer customer questions, and other online features. Here are some website dos and don’ts:
- Do make your website accessible: To ensure that most people can access your website easily, design a website that is accessible.
- Don’t have a complicated domain: Try to make your domain as simple and as relevant to your business as possible.
- Optimize your website for each: Make sure your site can be found in search engines to drive traffic to your site.
- Do check your analytics: You need to stay on top of what’s performing and what isn’t. So, be sure to see what pages your viewers are clicking on and what pages they aren’t, by looking at your Google analytics.
- Don’t get too comfortable: Always update your website. You don’t want outdated information published, and you don’t want your design to become outdated, either.
Implement Email Marketing
Email marketing is still so important and one of the easiest ways to stay top of mind with your customers. Prompt customers to sign up for your email list on your website and in-store and send out a weekly or monthly email blast to everyone on the list. Email marketing allows you to give updates to your customers about what’s going on in-store, and you can even send out exclusive deals and promotions via this list.
Leverage Social Media
Social media is an excellent way to connect with your shoppers. While there are many strategies to market your retail store on social media, the key is to focus on the platforms your target audience uses most. Diversify your social media presence and tailor the content for each platform. Utilize Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and other relevant sites, making the most of all their features, such as posts, reels, and stories. Here are some ideas that will help you engage with your audience:
- Post a featured product each week: To get customers excited about coming into your retail store, try posting a featured product on your socials each week. You might even try posting a unique product on each social media site that you use.
- Have contests for followers: Customers will want to come into your store if there is an incentive, so you could advertise contests on your social media site. Maybe, the first one hundred people who make a purchase in-store are put in the running to win a gift card. Or maybe the first thirty people to buy a certain product receive a gift.
- Boost your promotions: If there is a promotion going on at your store, social media is the perfect place to advertise this. Customers see social media fast, so they might not know about your promotion otherwise.
Use PPC Advertising
Pay per click (PPC) advertising refers to the advertisements that are posted on Google or other social media sites/search engines. These ads are unique because you only pay the advertisement’s sponsor (usually Google, Facebook, or another large platform) after the advertisement has been clicked on and engaged with by a prospective customer. These advertisements can be a great way to market your in-person retail store, because when customers are browsing the web, they’ll be organically directed to your company.
Post Reviews and Testimonials
Your customers shouldn’t have to take your word for how great your company is. Instead, there should be plenty of visible customer reviews and testimonials backing up your account. It is more convincing when customers see that other shoppers have had a positive experience with your business, so post customer reviews and testimonials on your website or social media sites. Here are some tips for getting and displaying customer testimonials:
- Ask for reviews and testimonials after checkout: Give every customer the option to provide a testimonial by putting a link on the receipts you give out at checkout. The more testimonials you have, the better, so ask each customer to provide them.
- Make video testimonials: Provide your customers with incentives to give testimonials (maybe a gift card or payment) and then, with their consent, make videos of your customers sharing their testimonials to post online. Video testimonials are a great way to garner more customers.
- Give coupons in exchange for a review: Having positive reviews on Google, Yelp, and other sites is incredibly important. That said, put signs up in your retail store and post on social media that you’ll give out coupons in exchange for a review—always find unique ways to encourage people to write reviews.
Tailbase Can Help You with Your Digital Marketing
Your retail store has great potential to thrive! By embracing a few digital marketing strategies, you can significantly boost your brick-and-mortar store’s popularity and maintain its relevance. At Tailbase, we believe in the transformative power of digital marketing. For personalized assistance in marketing your brick-and-mortar store, contact us.