Digital marketing is not just for online businesses. Consumers use the internet today for more than just online shopping. Brick-and-mortar locations can also use the power of digital marketing to drive new businesses. Most consumers will visit a brick-and-mortar location’s website before they head into the store. Businesses that learn to use digital marketing for their physical locations will increase sales and customer loyalty.

You can leverage online marketing to maximum offline sales- here are some helpful strategies and tangible takeaways.

Use Customer Data and Analytics

Customer data and analytics are the basis of competitive success and can help make a customer’s shopping experience feel truly seamless. If physical stores want to keep up with online retailers, they must take the same approach to data as web-based or direct-to-consumer brands. Go with a customer loyalty program and use that program to collect data on any customer that purchases at the store. These also get a chance for businesses to make personalized offers to shoppers and leverage digital marketing strategies effectively, like email blasting or promoting in another way for new arrivals in store. Small retailers consider accepting orders online or over the phone and fulfilling orders using buy online, and pick-up in-store.

In contrast, larger retailers can turn their attention to digital marketing channels like email marketing or social media. Retailers should pay attention to peak foot traffic times. Install data-collecting security cameras to count customer footfall levels at different times during the day, week, or season. This allows retailers to plan their staffing so that there is enough customer service support available during peak times and control retail sales strategies based on the average foot traffic at a given time of year.

Leverage Social Media

Seasonal store sales are key to successful retail customer retention. Seasonal stores are useless if no one knows about them. Social media has various tools for getting the word out, not just about retail sales but also about a retailer’s overall brand.

The retailer should select their social media platforms to strengthen their brand awareness-

• Primary Platform- Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
• Secondary Platform- YouTube, Pinterest, LinkedIn
• Tertiary Platform- Snapchat

If conducting a sale, leverage social media to get the word out and increase store traffic. This thing needs a third-party social media management company to assist in reaching the business’ target customer and other potential customers and developing a consistent strategy across platforms. Retailers can also leverage social media influencers to help market products more organically. The fact is, 71% of consumers prefer to make informed choices through recommendations, reviews, social media, and online searches. Mainly social media can provide an additional channel to sell goods. Retailers should ensure that social media advertisements inform consumers about other sales channels and allow loyal customers to easily make purchases directly through the social media channel or an online store.

Ways To Use Digital Marketing For Your Brick And Mortar Location

Agencies work with several local businesses, helping them increase their online visibility and in-store traffic. We’re ready to share how you can use your website, local SEO, social media, and email marketing to help grow your in-store sales.

Digital marketing isn’t just for online businesses. It could be very effective for traditional businesses as well as when you want to drive foot traffic, connect with your customer base, or even reach new customers and bring them into your store. There are several ways that you can use digital marketing to help you achieve your goals. However, people mostly talk about social media and email marketing and how we can use these three tools to help bring more sales to your traditional brick-and-mortar store.

If you’re an eCommerce site or trying to engage with people online, your website will matter a lot. It matters just as much for a brick-and-mortar store as well. The reality is that your customers are making first impressions about your company, and your business based on how they engage with your website. Half of the shoppers will research your website and check you out online before they ever step foot in your door. Your website is going to leave a good impression on a couple of people.

Another important stat- two-thirds of the shoppers in your store are using their phones to check for cheaper prices or even look stuff up online to compare the prices from in-store to what you have online as well. Brick-and-mortar businesses need to take their website more seriously than ever. Having a website with a tonne of value, prices, and understanding about the company, content, and your return policy, and adding all this value to your customers, helps them understand a little more about your store and can help them connect a little deeper. People will get to know about your business by how well it ranks online. Having a website and forgetting about it isn’t going to work; you need a local SEO strategy.

1. Local SEO:

Local SEO is a little bit different than a broader SEO strategy. You’ve got to make sure that all your listings are claimed and that your location is right because, again, when people want to find you, what are they going to do? They’re going to Google online. If you’re easy to find, there are higher chances of getting connected with potential customers. So you need to market that website by having a digital marketing plan and SEO strategy that’s going to make sure that you’re ranking for the localized keywords, that you’re ranking for the terms and phrases that people are looking for right now because they want to head into your store to shop.

2. Social Media:

Social media is a great tool for all types of businesses. You have to be more social and engage with more people, or start a dialogue and have a conversation. We have seen many perfect pictures of perfect people, and we’re starting to gloss over that because it’s become the norm. Describe more about what’s going on in your business and what you’re working on, or use Twitter to share information, highlights, and tips on shopping, and how to get better deals. Connect with people through social media, as this is a way to build trust with people. When you build trust with people, they’re more likely to come and buy and shop at your store.

3. Email:

An email is still a powerful tool. The key with email now is separation. Not everybody wants to see every single message you want to put out. So you have to segment your list according to different types of shoppers or different types of seasonal shoppers and give them the context that they want to see- letting them know about an upcoming sale for an event or a special event that you’ve got happening- that adds value in their inbox.

Here Are Simple Digital Marketing Tips To Embrace In 2021

1. Optimize your Email strategy-

Email marketing has been on the rise for years. According to the researchers, 80% of marketers have increased email engagement. And one of the most effective marketing tools is the ability to segment your email marketing strategy to match your customer base.

2. Use the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action)  Formula-

This marketing strategy has been with us for a while, and it still works as it is. AIDA works extremely well in almost all marketing channels to grab readers’ attention and create a sense of want and a solution to the problem. This is a proven formula that has been used in the past, is being used now, and will definitely be used in the future.

3. Embrace video marketing-

Video has grown into a driving force for digital marketing, and this trend doesn’t seem to be going anywhere else. 82% of people use video marketing to grab customers’ traffic or attention. Video marketing is an interesting way to engage audiences with video content. Optimizing the video you upload on YouTube with relevant keywords will increase the chances of your video getting more views.

4. Make good use of Local Services Ads-  

Local Services Ads are similar to Google Ads but have very different effects in promoting your products or services or increasing your sales. Local Services Ads are pay-per-lead ads that have begun popping up at the top of Google Search Results.

5. Be smart with SEO-

SEO will never go down in any situation. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is more important than ever when it comes to getting your website listed on Google. While SEO trends are changing, Google seems to be focusing on differentiating between search and intent.

Conclusion

In conclusion, implementing digital marketing hacks can greatly benefit brick and mortar businesses in today’s competitive landscape. By utilizing strategies such as search engine optimization, social media marketing, and content creation, businesses can effectively reach their target audience and drive more traffic to their physical locations. To take advantage of these digital marketing hacks and ensure success, it is recommended to seek the assistance of a professional digital marketing company that offers SMM services. 

Digital marketing is a powerful tool, and email is one of those tools that we often go with because we’re bombarded with it on a day-to-day basis, but the businesses that do it right have a huge ROI. Brick-and-mortar stores benefit a lot from using a digital marketing strategy by having a website that looks and works great and adds value to the clients, that it ranks well so that when people are searching for those key terms in your area, they can find you. Social media strategy builds on building relationships instead of just blasting out content that doesn’t matter.

Email marketing and separating your audience, make sure that you’re giving people the right message at the right time. Use these tools and put them together to work for your local business, your brick-and-mortar store, you’ll not get some visitors to your website, but you’re also going to drive more genuine buyers into your store. To learn more about how our team can help your business thrive in the digital world, please contact us today.

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