Do you own a traditional business with a physical location Do you have an online presence to go along with it If so, your website can serve dual purposes for your business: it can be an additional source for your customers to shop and buy your products and services, or it can simply act as a supporting branch of your brick-and-mortar location. Either is a valid use for your online presence, but many traditional businesses use theirs for the latter to drive traffic to their business physical location(s). So how can you use your website to drive customers to your store
Use Your Website to Encourage Repeat Business from Current Customers
One of the biggest mistakes that most businesses make is constantly pursuing new customers and forgetting about existing customers. Avoid this at all cost. Your current customers have purchased from you in the past and they know your business. You simply cannot find a more qualified pool of people to market to, so take advantage of your relationship with them. Not only will your current customers be more likely to buy from you, but theyll be more likely to recommend new customers to you, so keep them close by treating them well.
First youll have to collect their information so you can stay in touch with them and alert them about news and specials, etc., but once youve got that out of the way, there are several ways to encourage repeat business. Since an active customer base is the quickest and easiest way to boost sales, Im going to focus on that aspect of using your online presence to drive offline sales in this article, but most of these ideas will work with new customers as well.
Use Your Website to Build Credibility
One of the simplest ways to use your online presence to drive offline sales is to build credibility with site visitors. There are many, many ways to do this here are a few.
Become a member of a reputable service organization - and make sure both your current and potential customers are well aware of that you are a member. Once you become a member of an organization like the Better Business Bureau, for example, you can put their logo on your site. This will give you a lot of credibility. Every chance you have to let your customers know about what a stand-up business you run, do it. You can do this with professional organizations, industry organizations, and chambers of commerce as well.
Use customer testimonials wisely. Most savvy business owners already know how valuable testimonials can be to establishing credibility. Well, what if you take a slightly different approach Try using customer testimonials that focus on the benefits of your brick and mortar store. You obviously have customers who already shop at your physical location ask the ones that love your products and services to help you with some testimonials about the virtues of your store.
With any testimonial, its best if you write it and then ask your customer to approve it. That way, youll get the testimonial you want when you want it without hassling your customer. All they have to do is sign off on it not spend time writing it for you. Make it easy for them to help you out, and reward them when they do.
Testimonials that extol the great qualities of your store might include details about how personable your staff is, what great customer service you have, and the convenience of your location. You can probably think of fifty reasons why people shop at your store. Start making a list and then compose ten testimonials based on the list.
Pick one at a time and ask a loyal customer to sign off on it. Keep doing this until you have endorsers for all of them, and then rotate three or so every couple of months on your site. As you get more customers, revisit your list and write new testimonials to be approved. Your loyal customers will love helping you out, and their testimonials will help you solidify your relationships with new customers.
Remind website visitors about the benefits of shopping in your store. If your business derives most or all of its profits from in-store sales, remind your customers about the benefits of shopping there. When customers visit your store, they dont have to pay shipping, they can take the product home right away instead of waiting for it to be delivered, they get hands-on customer service, etc.
As with any of these promotional ideas, theres surely a long list of benefits to visiting your store. These things might seem obvious to you, but posting these facts on your website will remind your customers that there are many benefits of shopping in your store and increase visits from new customers who might otherwise purchase products online.
Start implementing ideas like this into your marketing strategy, and youre sure to see an increase in in-store traffic. Next time Ill include even more great tips for driving customers into your store from your online presence.
Copyright 2005 Tom Swanson
Author: Tom Swanson
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Phone: 563-323-4609
Tom Swansons experience in sales, marketing, copywriting, multi-media advertising, and publishing have given him incredible insight into the world of marketing both online and off. Tom writes articles to help local businesses learn to strategically leverage their Internet presence and capture easy online profits. His articles include thoughtful, down-to-earth explanations of various marketing media and philosophies, and local businesses can take away simple tools, ideas, and techniques that they can implement to shape their local Internet marketing efforts.
2005 Low-Hanging Fruit
FREE!
Its one of the most powerful words in advertising and marketing. Grabs your attention. Gets you curious. Stimulates your desire.
Even if you were NOT interested to start with!
Just think about it. How many pieces of software, ebooks and reports clutter up your hard drive. And you only ever downloaded it because it came at no cost - as a gift.
So why do marketers give away stuff And how can you profit from giving away things too Youll learn exactly why, how and when to use gift give-aways to grow your business - and make new friends.
Always Give Value - Always
We live in a cynical world - especially on the Internet. People are critical. They demand high value.
Offer it - and you become their trusted friend, ally, go-to person. Fail to, and youll do yourself great harm.
So if you plan to give something away as a gift, make sure it has high value. A simple rule of thumb is - If you cant sell it, dont try gifting it away.
Why does this matter Look, one of the major reasons for gift-giving as a business building and marketing tactic is to lay the foundation for a trusting, lasting relationship with your prospects.
Their perception of you, your business and your brand begins with your gift. You dont get a second chance to make a good first impression. So make it your best - by giving high quality gifts.
Sell Them - Even If Youre Giving It Away
A big mistake beginners make is to assume that just because youre giving it away, folks will fall over themselves to grab it.
Wrong.
You need to sell them on the value... and then let them have it at no cost.
Highlight the effort you put into creating it. How many hours of research went into it How much money did you spend How many people were involved What were their skills, qualifications, efforts
Tell them how they will benefit from it. What will the product do for your prospects How will their lives be better by using/reading/applying what youre giving away
Show them just how valuable it is - and then give it away. That packs a powerful punch!
But why give stuff away in the first place
Profit Strategies From Gift Giving
There are many ways you, as the gift-giver, can profit from your efforts apart from the intangible benefits like gaining goodwill and building positive buzz around your brand.
* Make the gift a pre-selling tool for your main product. It can educate your prospect about the value of your primary product or service. It can offer a sample, a trial or a glimpse of the power of what you are selling. It can raise hopes, open avenues of possibility, reveal potential advantages - and bring prospects back to do business with you.
* Make in-context offers. A short report about avoiding the pitfalls of cheap web hosting can recommend a specific web host. A guide explaining how a particular tactic is executed can mention a software or service that makes the process simple or faster.
* Build in back-ends. You could give away a complete product - and sell them more of it, for a longer period, or another related product that enhances the value of what you gave them. Or you could give away a basic version - and offer to sell a deluxe or premium.
* Make it viral. By giving away high quality gifts - and offering recepients an incentive to pass it along - youll grow a monstrous marketing machine that will explode your business and profits as it keeps growing and growing.
* Go wide and far. Recruit others to help you give away stuff. Find affiliates and joint venture partners. Make it attractive for them to participate in giving away YOUR gifts.
As long as you have a mechanism in place to identify and follow up with recepients of your gift, you can expand your efforts extensively - and the more you give away, the more you will benefit in the long run.
I hope this short article has given you some ideas to use when you plan the next give-away. And please let me know about it - I LOVE gifts :)
Dr.Mani Sivasubramanian is webmaster of Opti-Biz.com Join his Early Christmas gift give-away and get FIVE cool products that currently sell on his websites for $156.38. You get it all free - no strings attached!
Download them from:
Or send any email to: mailto:drmani-gifts05@aweber.com