Running your own small business as a brick-and-mortar store can be difficult, especially today. With the digitization of business and the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be hard to get customers in the door. If you feel like your current business strategies aren’t working, here are some ideas for increasing customer traffic for small business owners.
1. Utilize digital channels
As a small business owner, if you want to drive sales and traffic for your store you need a strong team of goal-oriented employees. OKR software can help you unite your team, organize information and goals and track your progress towards your business goals. OKR means objectives and key results, and OKR software is a powerful tool for streamlining company goals and increasing employee engagement.
Workboard’s OKR software keeps your team members connected, especially if you have a remote team of employees, and it’s a great OKR tool for goal setting and goal management. Using their next level OKR framework is a great way to find beautiful templates for creating different types of OKR visuals. Their company-level OKRs prioritize and promote growth for the companies that employ them. Using Workboard’s OKR software can help you create a detailed plan for connecting higher-ups with team members to make sure communication within your business is strong and that there is an alignment between the goals of the company and the individual goals of your team members.
2. Improve your curb appeal.
As a local business owner, you want your storefront and interior to be aesthetically pleasing and stand out from others. Having a beautiful and unique storefront will catch the eyes of potential customers passing by, and it’s the best way to increase foot traffic. Something as simple as upgrading the doors is an easy way to entice passersby.
CDF Distributors has a huge selection of beautiful and durable commercial wood doors that can meet any business owner’s different needs. They offer fully customizable commercial doors and instant price quoting, so you won’t have to wait to see if your ideal architectural wood door is within budget. They offer classic styles of commercial wood doors as well as steel and aluminum options. CDF Distributors also prioritize your safety along with style. It’s a good idea to consider their commercial fire-rated doors that can last up to 3 hours during a fire and safety hardware like durable locks and hinges. They also offer incredibly fast shipping so you can take care of your business needs quickly and get customers through your new doors.
3. Work on your web presence.
In this digital age, having a strong web presence is critical for any business owner. The thing is, there’s so much involved – from Claiming your Google business listing to making sure your web page is search engine optimized. If you’d like to increase your web presence but don’t know quite where to start, consider hiring a media company. There are many digital marketing services that can increase web traffic for your business, but you should look for a full-service digital marketing agency to make sure your social media and web presence is as strong as it can be.
Central Florida Media Solutions (cflms.com) is a marketing agency that does it all. They’re an SEO company, a web design services company and a digital marketing company wrapped up into one agency, and their goal is to increase business traffic and ROI. Central Florida Media Solutions’ (CFLMS) web design specialists will help you optimize the UI (user interface) and UX design (user experience) of your site. For any small business owner that wants to make a great first impression on customers, it’s a good idea to employ a web design expert to consult on the design process.
Their SEO consultants will perform a site audit for their keyword research and site analysis. CFLMS’ consultants find your target audience and analyze your site’s backlinks—as well as those of your competitors—to ensure your entire site is optimized and will have high placements on the first page of Google search results. They also make sure your site is optimized for mobile devices and desktop viewing.
4. Offer discounts and rewards.
By offering regular discounts and rewards you’ll be bringing in new customers, as well as creating lifelong customers who keep returning to build their rewards. Email marketing campaigns are an effective way to bring back customers, but be sure not to overwhelm your new customers’ inboxes.
Email marketing can be more than just coupons. You can run campaigns to announce promotions or offer customers bonus points or rewards if they purchase a certain amount of gift cards. This way you receive a large sale immediately, and they build their rewards that can be used at a later date. This basically guarantees they will come back to shop again.
Another useful tool is the mobile app. By creating a mobile app for your small business, you are constantly on their phone screen. With an app, customers can easily track their rewards and available coupons, they can shop and be alerted of new products and they can be easily accessed to announce any promotions or events you may be running.
5. Offer in-store pickup.
Because so many businesses are operating online today, you can find an entirely new audience of potential customers by offering in-store pickup for online orders. People are used to doing all their shopping online, so having a website or mobile app where customers can shop will increase sales. By offering in-store pickup your metrics and conversion rates will automatically improve because the customers picking up orders are always a sale.
