Today, whatever your sector of activity, competition is tough. Social networks and the expansion of the web allow Internet users to compare nearby offers and, therefore, take advantage of all of them. But, these volatile consumers directly impact the turnover of companies. In fact, 10% is the average number of customers lost each year in all sectors combined. To combat this loss, it is essential to pursue two main strategies: building loyalty and prospecting. In this article, discover our 3 best practices for attracting new customers to your points of sale through local marketing.
Table of Contents
Targeting
Before setting up local marketing campaigns, it is essential to carry out good segmentation because successful targeting is the guarantee of sending the right message to the right person at the right time.
To move away from mass marketing and move towards personalized communication, it is imperative to segment your market according to different criteria:
- Demographic criteria: age, gender, socio-economic, ethnic, and family situation. Base your analysis on your already existing customer database.
- Geographic criteria: place of residence and work
- Psychological criteria: personality, lifestyle, activities, interests, opinions, etc.
- Behavioral criteria: situation, benefits sought, usage, loyalty, means of payment, delivery, time slots, channel used, etc.
All of this data will allow you to understand better the needs and expectations of your prospects to offer them the best marketing mix, that is to say, the right offer, the right product, using adapted and personalized communication. Especially since personalized and targeted communication will allow you to increase the performance of your campaigns and improve your profitability. Without forgetting that you stand out from your competitors, who generally communicate.
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Marketing levers to activate
Social networks
Social networks are essential communication channels today. In fact, they represent more than 1.28 billion daily users with an average usage time of 1 hour and 42 minutes per day. Each social network has its target. It’s up to you to see, depending on your sector of activity and your products, which one(s) suit you the most between Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin.
To start on social networks, create a page for each of your establishments, and it is important to have a local presence. Indeed, you will communicate on local news, and your subscribers will, therefore, be in the geographical surroundings, especially since a local presence will allow you to improve your SEO on search engines.
Once your points of sale have a page, you must encourage your teams to run them regularly to increase their visibility in their catchment area. Offer them to post between 3 to 4 publications per week in order to establish a connection with their nearby subscribers. Here are some examples of actions or communications to put in place: events at points of sale to encourage Internet users to travel, such as competitions or even partnerships with local influencers.
Do not neglect the importance of hashtags in your texts in order to benefit from better reach on the media. For example, you can use hashtags about your activity or your location in order to reach available and nearby Internet users. One last important point: to build loyalty in your community, respond to all comments and messages to show that their opinions matter to you.
Local advertising
Local advertising is an effective lever for reaching Internet users nearby and available to visit the point of sale. In fact, 55% of online advertising investments generate in-store sales. Discover three effective channels for your local advertising campaigns:
- Google is the number 1 search engine, and 91% of people use it to do local searches. Google Ads is Google’s advertising service; it allows you to appear in the first search results of Internet users.
- Facebook and Instagram belong to Meta, and they have 46 million French users.
- Waze is a GPS application used by 17 million motorists each month.
To start local advertising, it is important to achieve good targeting according to your catchment area. It would help if you created an advertisement for each of your points of sale in order to personalize your message. In your campaigns, you can show your local teams to reassure your contacts; moreover, now is the time to show your premises to make them want to come. Another campaign idea to implement is to highlight your local catalogs to show the products available in store according to your stocks.
Direct marketing
Direct marketing is an inevitable communication channel when we talk about local communication. It allows you to reach consumers who are nearby and ready to go to the store. Discover two relevant channels for your direct marketing campaigns:
- Email marketing is effective since 59% of consumers say that emailing influences their purchasing decisions.
- SMS marketing is the channel of immediacy. In fact, 90% of SMS are read within 10 minutes after receipt.
To successfully attract new customers to your points of sale, you can turn to hire intentional contacts in order to reach targeted prospects based on very specific criteria, such as their purchasing intentions, and send them discovery communications of your products or services in order to maximize your chances of sales. Moreover, address these prospects from several channels to increase your chances of conversion. But be careful to space out your communications over several days so as not to overwork them. They could unsubscribe.
Presence management
Presence management is the management of your online visibility and, specifically, the digital showcase of your points of sale. It is thanks to Google Business Profile sheets that you will be able to benefit from a local presence, provided you create one for each of your points of sale. Indeed, when an Internet user has a need, he will search on Google, and according to the keyword he types, several results will appear. It only consults the first results and compares the available offers. On these cards, he will be able to read online reviews, consult your website, your opening hours, directions to the store, and even your telephone number. But to appear in the first search results, it is essential to work on your local SEO.
Here is some basic information that you must complete to increase your local SEO:
- The name of the establishment
- The address
- The main category
- Opening and closing times
- Photos of your store
On social networks, make Google Posts to talk about your news, present your products, etc. Google’s algorithm favors businesses that use their features, so do yourself a favor.
Overall, by using all of these best practices: social networks, local advertising, direct marketing, and presence management, you are certain to generate more traffic in-store and see customers passing by every day.
Conclusion
To conclude, it is essential to put actions in place to compensate for the loss of customers. By following all of these best practices, you are sure to retain your customers and gain new ones. Start by targeting your communication campaigns in order to send the right message at the right time. Then, be present on different channels: social networks, direct marketing, local advertising, and presence management to maximize your chances of generating traffic at points of sale.
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