Whatever your individual business does, and however well you’re doing at the moment, you can always benefit from increased foot traffic on your shop floor – and there’s always more you can do. Think about the style of your brand, the features of your products that bring customers in, and how much exposure your business is currently getting.
There are mistakes that small businesses tend to make, refer to this article from Multi Signs to ensure that you avoid making them. From your initial business concept, through to how you communicate with your customers, there are going to be challenges along the way; but there are proactive measures that you can take to attract more customers into your store.
Exposure
There are simple marketing tricks that you might be missing out on. Do you have your own bags printed? How about your pens? What about cardboard displays? You should have a logo or at least a consistent theme, and it should be communicating the themes of your product/service. How distinct is your store from the next-door buildings? It will be worth repainting the outside, and using external signage to increase your store’s visibility.
Style
However big or small your store or business address is, customers and clients will feel a certain way when they cross the threshold. They might be too hot or too cold; it might be too bright or too dingy, or it might smell either damp or too scented. These are all the basics that you need to get right to give the shop a basic level of comfort, but once you’ve made it a bearable room to be in, there are more abstract customer preferences that you need to attend to.
The most important part of your style, after comfort, is consistency. If you’re selling high-tech or sports equipment, you may want glass panels around the entrance to your shop and a minimalist theme throughout, perhaps with a color scheme that mixes plain and fluorescent colors. However, many businesses could benefit from representing themselves to customers as a traditional business – in which case, you’ll need displays with traditional signwriting, and the color scheme could be a blend of homely, earthy colors.
Product
How do people use your product? Is it something people are already familiar with or not? You could have a shop manakin frozen in mid-demonstration, or you could even have a sales rep demonstrating just outside the door. It’s important that customers know how the product you want to sell them will interact with their lives. Will it save them time? Will it be fun for them? Your products should be displayed in a way that emphasizes the usability of the product.
It’s also worth asking yourself which product best represents what your business is about, and which product you’re best known for – this should be the first thing to draw a customer’s eyes when they enter your shop and the last thing to absorb their attention when they leave. Why not ask a friend who’s never seen your shop before to spend two minutes inside before writing down their thoughts and feelings?
There are also local marketing and networking events all around the country, which you could be missing out on. Where possible, it’s always helpful to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship with other local business. Could you have leaflets for local events by the till? How could local businesses increase your exposure for you?
