While every business owner wants their marketing campaigns to be wildly successful, not many know how to lay the foundation for an online presence that drives in-person sales. Here are two things you must do to help social media and inbound marketing drive traffic to your brick & mortar store.
- Get on board with popular location based social media platforms: Prospective customers rely heavily on their smartphones for accurate and current information. Especially when away from home, the smartphone is an essential tool for navigating an unfamiliar town, discovering new places to dine out, and connecting with local businesses to meet their needs in real time. Your customers can’t find you if they stumble upon missing or incorrect information as they search for the answer to their question on their smartphone, tablet, or netbook.
Take some time to verify that your business address, phone number, and profile is correct on popular social media and review sites like Yelp, Google+, and Foursquare. Claim your location if you haven’t already, and realize that having control over the information listed about your business on these popular sites gives you an advantage when it comes to turning your virtual visitors into real customers.
- Provide quality content and interact with your online customers: Quality is everything when it comes to Google search rankings. Offering your customers relevant, up-to-date information in the form of a regularly published blog, how-to videos, and a helpful FAQ page makes you a hero in your niche. Both Google and YouTube rely heavily on reaction to content when they formulate rankings.
What’s the best way to get a reaction? Ask for it. That’s right, ask your customers, potential customers, and everyone who peruses your online content to provide feedback and share your content. Encourage questions, and be sure to answer them in a thorough and timely manner. Treat your online customers well, and they’ll soon be in to visit you in person.
For more ideas about how to get the most local traffic for your brick & mortar location from online searches, please Contact 82 West Marketing & Video Production.