All businesses face a loss of traffic, especially during crises – which we all witnessed during COVID. The problem of attracting people to your business is entirely subjective, and it completely depends on what your business is about.
In today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at improving business traffic and getting more customers.
Have a Sale
The four magic letters that get the heart of every consumer pounding – a sale is one of the most effective ways of attracting traffic. Without going into the numbers behind it, having a sale attracts customers.
You don’t have to give a discount for every single item in your store, but make sure that enough things are on sale to attract customers.
People will come in looking for a specific thing to buy, but they may find something else on sale that they wouldn’t buy if they had to pay the original price.
Let’s say you own a record shop and put a general sale – at least 20% off every record, while some records go down as low as 50%. As you can imagine, someone will come in for the most expensive of your records (which you’ll sell at 20% off), but they’ll find an old record that isn’t that hot anymore for 50% off and buy that one too.
This is, roughly explained, how sales attract customers.
You can expect to sell more items during a sale than you normally would. However, the traffic-attracting effect we’re looking for isn’t instant – it’s long-term.
Customers will remember the sale, and they’ll continue to pop by every once in a while to see if there’s a new sale on the horizon or even to buy records with no sale.
Don’t forget that in the modern era of the internet, you can have online sales, and make sure to market a sale at least a week before it starts.
Add Novelty Items
A simple way to stay on the customers’ good side is to award them with simple novelty items that they get either for free or for a discounted price.
Let’s revert to our record store example for this. You can award your customers free custom tote bags or discount mugs for every $30 or more receipt. Given that you can get these printed bags and mugs for very little effort, making it a cheap but effective way to ensure your customers remember you. Needless to say, the design has to be attractive for people to go crazy after these bags.
Of course, customers that spend more money, $100, for example, can be awarded bigger awards, such as a free record under $15 or something similar.
Posters, not only for your business but for artists, are another great way to reward a customer!
Organize Events
A simple way to attract people to your store is to organize an event that interests them. If you have a record store, you could organize an interview or a seminar with a professional from the music industry.
That way, you’ll attract just the right crowd. Organizing an event with a high-profile person in the same industry your business is in would be the best thing you can do, but that’s often very difficult as it costs a fortune to book these professionals.
Give Frequent Customers a Discount
A loyalty discount isn’t anything new, and the reason it’s so often used is that it’s so effective. If a customer buys a record in your record store every two months, you could see them spend more money at your store if they have a constant discount.
Make a loyalty card or discount system where a customer gets a discount on their current buy based on their frequent spending. If you give every customer with a loyalty card a 10% discount on every single item, they’re more likely to buy in your store.
Have Your Customers Market Your Business
How? By the power of social media, of course.
The easiest thing you can do is take a few items that you know customers will go crazy for and give them away. All the customers have to do is share your business on one of their social media platforms and tag you.
This kind of marketing is especially important for young businesses that aren’t yet established in their respective communities. Quite frankly, nobody knows about you yet, and the only way people will find out about you is if everyone talks about you.
Some stores use a similar system – they give you a 5% discount if you give them a 5-star review on Google – just something to think about.
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