Barbara Wold has more than 45 years of first-hand retail experience, and is one of the industry’s most sought-after speakers and consultants. These are some of her top tips to attract new customers.
I know firsthand the pressure to attract new customers in a challenging economic climate. So you’ve set up your social media empire using Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and you’re blogging too. But how do you make it all work together? You want to reach potential clients and establish your authority online, but what’s your plan?
1. Create a Facebook Fan Page
There are lots of ways to get creative and engage your customers, and then their friends become your fans and customers too. Facebook offers a free tutorial on how to get started once you log in.
2. Tweet special offers or advice daily via Twitter
Sprinkles Cupcakes is just one business that encourages customers in its stores and on its website to follow the company on Twitter. Every few days, the company sends out messages such as "Celebrate National Chocolate Cake Day! The first 50 people to whisper ‘rich’ at each Sprinkles receive a free dark chocolate cupcake." That gets people into the shop – and most times they buy another cupcake and a drink.
3. Encourage customer reviews on Yelp
Some 90 percent of consumers say they trust recommendations from people they know, and 70 percent say they trust consumer opinions posted online, according to a Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey.
4. List your business on Google and Yahoo
When we want to find anything, we turn to Google or Yahoo to search – and you can’t get any bigger in terms of websites than these. Google has a Local Business Directory where you can register your business absolutely free. And here’s what’s most interesting: You don’t even need a site to have a strong web presence. It’s open to all types of small businesses – with hundreds of thousands posted. (Yahoo offers a similar service.) There’s no reason not list your business on both sites – whether you own a mom and pop hardware store or a bar, you want to leverage the extraordinary reach of these search engines. Check out Google’s tutorial to help you get started.
5. Be your own publicist
Finally, the website "Help A Reporter" is a free daily email service that delivers media queries three times a day right to your inbox from among some 70,000 bloggers, authors, TV reporters, and radio producers. Often the requests are for small business owners – recent listings seek small business owners to discuss creative financing in this economy; other queries are for gardening experts, jewellery makers; the needs are very diverse. This is a way for you to do your own publicity without the expense of a publicist to get your business mentioned in the media.
Taking Stock is Retail in Asia’s fortnightly column dedicated to showcasing opinions from experts in the retail industry.