How to increase store footfalls using Digital Marketing?

Digital Marketing has led to a business transformation that isn’t limited to click and mortar businesses but brands with retail stores are also moving towards digital avenues to entice customers to visit the store. With the evolution of digital media, Brick and Mortar businesses are witnessing a change in their business strategy as they plan to make digital marketing an integral part of it.  In this new era of marketing, brands communicate with their customers in a very different manner and they aim to engage emotionally with them to build long-lasting relationships.

• Track customers Digital Footprints: Digital footprints are impressions or traces that users leave behind while using the web. Access to these footprints provides insight into user online behavior and interest. Retail businesses can track user’s behavior and intention for reaching out to them with personalized offerings matching their interest.  It gets extremely vital for brands to understand these micro-moments and provide users with an offer that provides them value.

• Location-based targeting (Hyperlocal):  Advent of mobile technology has made it possible to track the physical location of the users.  Retail owners and strategists focus on driving customers to stores through product offers which are specifically based on the user’s current location.  Brands can target customers who are near their outlet by providing personalized offers in the form of an invitation to visit the store to avail discounts.  Facebook Hyper ad feature is an advanced feature that displays an ad to users based on their location.  An ad featuring the brand store will always show the nearest store to customers and would vary as the location changes.  Brands must include local language and regional slants on the ads to make it more personal.

• Leverage Social Platforms: Social platforms like Facebook and Snapchat are extremely powerful and effective avenues for reaching a larger group of audience.  Brands can utilize these platforms to create brand awareness and promote their brand values.  A number of followers on these platforms enhance the reach and presence of the brand.  Facebook Events and Facebook live feature allows brands to organize product launch and demo through which they can attract new customers and expand their user base.  Flash sale is also launched by brands to target users from a specific location. Limited time offers to tend to create a sense of hurry and users are keen not to miss out on availing the discounts. 

• Click and Collect: This feature allows users to purchase the product online but instead of getting it delivered to their physical address they pick it from the store as per their convenience. Over 60% of online buyers prefer to opt for this feature which is why more brands are planning to include this feature in their marketing agenda.  Customers do not have to bear the delivery charges and don’t need to worry about being available at the physical address at the time of delivery.

• Email to customers: Brands can send customized offers and discounts vouchers to customers inviting them to visit the store.  After gaining insight into customers buying patterns and habits, they can be targeted via exclusive offers which could be redeemed only at the store.  Email marketing campaigns should be focused on providing value to customers instead of just bombarding users with random emails.

• Adwords Location Extension: Location extension via AdWords text ads is another interesting way to increase store visits. Considering an example, when a user searches for a red T-shirt, any garment brand can show their ad with the location extension showing the nearby store which has an offer to grab 20% on a red T-shirt. Such ways do help in increasing store visits.

• Content with a CTA: We all very well know that content is king and when the right content is targeted to the right audience, it works phenomenally for a long period of time. Direct digital media is a short team goal where content can be seen as a long term goal. The only important thing to keep in mind is to add CTA at the end of the content which could be a redirection to the brand store page where further details are available about the stores or offer the store is offering. We can surely add a link to store direction but that depends on the content that you are promoting.

• Advertise on Promotional websites or Apps: Another interesting way to help increase store visits is to advertise on promotional websites or apps like Groupon, Nearbuy, Grabon, etc. Basically you need to see the famous promotional website in your country to advertise on. The benefit of advertising on these sites is that we know the user is looking for some offers where adding our own offer will reach to the maximum intended audience. Now you can also do audience targeting on such platforms which will also reduce spillage. All we need to clarify to our users are that the coupon can be only leveraged in-store and not online.

• Engage your audience via Polls, Quiz: Run a quiz via your social channel or even partnering with a relevant vendor. E.g. For the laptop category, we can partner with Amazon or Flipkart to use their followers or partner with vogue, cosmopolitan for a fashion brand. In such a scenario we can ask questions around the brand which help in indirect promotion as well as whoever gives the correct answer can be given a coupon code that can be used in any nearby store. The user who could not give the correct answer can be redirected with a different question after a week’s time whereas we also need to redirect the users who haven’t used their coupon by visiting at the store. Since we can’t track the PI and can’t target them directly we can show a message like – “Hoping you enjoyed the extra discount” or “We love to pamper you, hope you enjoyed the visit to our store”. Something which just recalls the user to use the code if haven’t used it yet.

• Influencer Marketing: We can’t miss the most trending medium in digital today in Influencer marketing which when done perfectly performs the best for the brand, giving direct brand awareness and indirect performance. The relevant influencer can be chosen who will talk about their experience at the store and the things they bought. We all know word of mouth is the best marketing tactic and using such a model will surely increase the store visits.