Getting customers to physically come into your store isn't quite as easy as getting visitors to your web site.
With the Internet, there are endless marketing possibilities from SEO and link building to social media, email marketing, etc.
I'm not going to delve into all of the methods of direct marketing, but for any brick and mortar store, you have to grab people's attention when they are in your area.
How do you get passers by to take time out from wherever they are headed to come into your business?
Location
Location is of the utmost importance. An example that immediately comes to mind for me is the Lee's Famous Recipe chicken restaurant down the road from our office. While this falls into the national chain category rather than small business, it seems to lose a ton of potential customers because it is located right next to a KFC.
While Lee's chicken is delicious in its own right, it is hard to get customers in the door when the much more popular KFC brand sits 20 feet away. If Lee's has the backing of a brand that is a national chain, how well would you expect to have your local "Johnny's Chicken Hut" do operating next to KFC?
The lesson here? If you're going to operate your business near your competitors, you better be able to dominate. There are other factors that go into choosing the right location that I will likely discuss in a future article.
Signage
You're never going to get anyone off the streets if you don't attract some eyeballs. You need to have eye-catching signs. Your main sign should represent your brand with your logo big and clear.
Score "Counselors to America's Small Business" recommended the following five tips for good business signage:
- Provide ample lighting so they can be read easily at night
- think of your signs as a form of communication and get our message across
- keep that message short and simple
- make sure they are easy to read so people can take it all in as they are driving
- change the messages sometimes to keep it fresh
Host Outdoor Events
Back when I was in high school, I worked for a restaurant that had a big Cinco de Mayo event, in which it had several bands play and offered special food items in the parking lot. Let me tell you, in all of my time working there, I never saw so many customers in one night.
Not only does something like this attract immediate business, it can also leave a lasting impression on your customers who from that point on may associate your business with fun and good times.
You may not have the room or the budget to host anything like this, but when I say event that can really come in any size. Sometimes my bank will have a day where it offers free hot dogs outside the door. Simple little gestures like this can be enough to attract some attention. Another popular and cheap example would be a sidewalk sale.
There are a variety of ways to lure potential customers off the street into your store. Things like location and signage are crucial. Other things can be experimented with. Be creative. If you have other suggestions, please share in the comments.
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Comments
On-street Marketing
You need to have something attractive in your storefront or your window to pull in the passerby. This is why window dressers have such a lucrative career.
Not only must the "display" be attractive enough to see, but it has to have something that makes them want to come in.
For example, a cool display of widescreen LCD TV's with a - "Enter our drawing to win an LCD TV!" -- Now, people who are in the market for a TV will see the display, they'll be interested in the free TV, and then you get their contact information.
From this, even if they don't win, you can start up your marketing machine to get them to feel more comfortable purchasing their TV from you rather than anywhere else when they decide to make the purchase.
Great Point
Location of your business
Your comment about the location of a business is generally incorrect. There are various factors which could make a different location more valuable, but generally speaking it is preferable to be next door to your competitors.
You wrote that it is hard to get customers in the door even though their chicken is delicious, because KFC is right next door. I'm sure that this is a guess on your part and that you do not have any information that their business is not doing well because of KFC. To assume that you are correct, would assume that they have not been in the business long and will go out of business soon or that they are just squeaking by and are not evaluating their business.
An extremely high visibility and/or high traffic location could be preferable. However, I can provide countless examples where it is preferable to be next to your competition. Two examples should suffice. In New York City and other large cities, you will find small enclaves with competitors on top of each other, such as the jewelry district on 47th St., the flower district, the curtain district and many, many others. The second example you can find near you, wherever you are. You will likely notice that there is an area where you will find several different brands of car dealers within blocks of each other. Competition brings more business.
When a business chooses the location are way from competition, the business should make sure to choose a location that is in a high visibility and traffic location. Additionally, it becomes more important to devise ways and reasons for customers to come to your business. For instance, a Mercedes dealer may choose to relocate to a location away from other brands. It now becomes even more important to build a very aesthetically pleasing facility and to provide other means to attract customers. Of course, other brands may start to look for locations nearby.
In any event, competition is never a problem. It is an advantage which creates more business. One simply needs to find ways to stay ahead of the competition.
Philip L. Franckel, Esq., President
1-800-HURT-911, Inc.
Lawyer Advertising at www.HURT911.org
www.Lawyer-Advertising-Blog.com
It Can Go Both Ways
I can definitely see where you are coming from on competition driving customers to you. I suppose in this scenario it would really depend on the type of business you are running. The car dealership and jewelry examples make sense.
This is where the need to dominate comes in. A customer may leave your competitor's store to come check yours out, but if you aren't offering what they want in comparison, there's a good chance they'll leave and go back to the competitor or somewhere else entirely, unless you are lucky enough to be their point of giving up in which case they may buy from you.
With my Lee's chicken example, most people probably aren't going to walk into KFC, check out the menu and then decide to go to Lee's. Although several weeks ago in fact, I did walk into Lee's and saw that their buffet wasn't very fresh looking, which I assume was because the customers weren't in there eating from it, and then I walked out and went to KFC instead, where the buffet was fresh because customers were continually eating from it and it needed to be refilled.
You're right I don't have any concrete information on how well Lee's does, but I frequent both restaurants and while there are always customers in KFC, there are rarely very many in Lee's. I don't think they're to the point where they're getting ready to shut down, but I believe if they were in a different location without a hugely popular chicken restaurant in the vicinity, they would be getting more business because their competition is all the way on the other side of town.
You do make a very good case though. It can go both ways, and it is something for business owners to consider when choosing a location.
Brick and Mortar Gets Attention?
It's great to see someone actually address brick and mortar stores as if they still actually exist outside of Walmart and Costco. This whole internet adage has overtaken the tools and tips needed to survive in the 'old fashion way'. It will be great to read more of these posts.
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