How Can You Attract New Customers to Your Retail Business?

Gaining new customers is one of the most challenging aspects of retail. There are many different marketing strategies out there that you can use to attract new people to your business, but some are going to be more effective for you than others. Here are some of the top retail marketing strategies you can implement to bring in new customers and grow your business.

 

Leverage What You Have

If you already have a store, you have a number of assets you can leverage to market yourself. This includes your displays, your windows, the space outside of your store, and everything inside of it. Put up displays in your windows or, at the very least, posters and flyers advertising what you offer or what specials you currently have. You may be able to put some marketing items outdoors, too, depending on how much space you have and what’s allowed in your location.

 

Create a Referral Program

Using a referral program can transform your customers into your marketing team. There are a number of different ways you can do a referral program, but they all have the same basic concept: your customers refer others to you in exchange for a discount, free item, or other such incentive. The more people referred to you by a customer, the more that customer gets. It’s a great way of getting word of mouth referrals without actively doing anything.

 

Make Use of Free Options

There are plenty of marketing opportunities that cost very little, if anything. Social media sites may require a time investment, but they are free. The same is true of sending out email newsletters, putting flyers on bulletin boards, and handing out business cards. You may have to pay to print some of these items, but the cost of business cards is usually quite low.  You may also find a business related to yours that you could partner with. You might include a flyer or poster for the other shop in your store, while your partner advertises for you.

 

Training and Motivating Your Employees

Training your employees to upsell or to at least sell well is also a great marketing strategy. Your employees have the most direct contact with your customers, so they need to be knowledgeable about your products and services and know which ones pair well together. By doing so, they will be able to suggest additional products to customers and explain why those products would be helpful.

You also need to make certain your employees are motivated enough to do this. There are a number of ways of motivating them. You should already be providing a competitive salary and benefits package, of course, but you can add more incentives for upselling or for getting customers to sign up for your email newsletter. You may also want to bring in various conference speakers to motivate them. These speakers can bring an outside point of view to your employees and give them new and different marketing strategies to implement.

 

Appeal to Locals

Even if you ship world-wide, you still want to make certain that you’re appealing to your local audience. These are the people who may drop by your store simply because they see it or because they want to browse what you have. Your local marketing needs to include geotargeting for all of your online ads, including AdWords and social media. You also want to make sure your offline ads appeal to locals. This may include using images of local parks or other famous sights or creating products targeted to those who live nearby. You may even want to name your store or products with catchy names that connect you to the area.

 

Make Videos

YouTube isn’t just for watching videos of cute cats. You can create your own videos showcasing your store, your products, the way you make your products, your employees… anything that your customers might be interested in could be used in a marketing video. Post them to YouTube, share them on social media, or even play a few of them on TVs in the store. Just make sure you have quality equipment or hire a professional to assist you with filming and editing.

 

These are just a few of the different ways you can market your business quickly and effectively. If you’re not already using them, try adding a few into your next marketing strategy and watch your customer base grow.

 

Being a senior business associate, Peter Davidson strives to help different brands and startups to make effective business decisions and plan effective business strategies. With years of rich domain expertise, he loves to share his views on the latest technologies and applications through his well-researched content pieces. Follow him on Twitter.