Here are tips from business experts pointing out viable ways to help physical stores stay in business when things become difficult in the physical space.
1. Optimize Your Brand for Local Searches
Physical stores hugely depend on local patronage for most of their products. These days, it has become routine for most shoppers to do local searches to source their needs online. This makes it imperative for these small business owners not only to take their businesses online but also to optimize such businesses for local searches. Since about half of all searches on Google are local, it makes smart business sense therefore for these businesses to optimize their brands for local SEO. They tend to get better patronage as a result.
2. Have a Strong Social Media Presence
Yeah, nearly everyone is now on social media for one reason or another. Taking your physical business on social media is a good thing to do. It means taking your business where your customers are. Having a strong social media presence for your store helps to easily increase patronage for the business. With a strong presence on social media, you can easily promote your products by way of SMS marketing, emails and social media interactive activities.
3. Always Remember Your Loyal Customers
Yes indeed! Repeat customers are always the best customers. Remembering to reward their loyalty is good for business. Discount coupons, thank you notes and other loyalty benefits can always be of help in your rewards program. The more a customer feels appreciated, the better the chances of repeat business from him.
4. Showcase Your Safety Policies
As our world becomes increasingly dangerous, safety has become a main consumer concern. Store layout, physical location, product types and ease of shopping now play major roles in where customers decide to shop in physical stores. It helps to highlight the safety policies of your physical store as a way of addressing customer safety concerns.
5. Use Video-Based Content Marketing
Studies have shown that video-based content marketing is hugely effective for getting leads, customers and sales. Studies also show that a huge percentage of new customers are acquired when businesses merely post marketing videos on social media. The is one very good reason physical stores need to embrace video-based content marketing strategies. By creating mobile-friendly video content that strategically differentiates your physical store business from businesses that only exist online, you can easily develop meaningful and mutually beneficial interactions with your customers.
6. Promote Your Products Online
Promoting your products online is in addition to the physical promotion of your store. The target of this promotion is mostly local customers searching online. This is because more and more people are increasingly using digital channels for shopping in their local environments. Even if initial contact is made online, a physical store remains the ideal place to view products before buying, to pick up products ordered online, for more inquiries/consultations, for product returns and or additional services as needed.
7. Showcase the People Behind the Store
Every customer always wants to know the people he/she is dealing with. Every business is built around trust. The real human touch and personal approaches are unique features of physical stores. They display the real human angle of doing business. Most people always crave human interaction because it allows them to know whom they are dealing with and to build trust fairly quickly. This is the reason why physical stores with a long history of family tradition of doing good business tend to do better than others.
8. Leverage Multi-Channel Communications
The internet makes this possible with very huge advantages. When physical stores engage customers via a multi-channel personalization approach, they tend to influence customer behavior better. When these stores crave expansion into digital commerce, they can use a mix of multi-channels to get good results. These are channels like personalized social media, marketing videos, emails and website communications that help to create seamless interactions with customers and potential customers.
