Attract & Retain New Customers With Google Mobile Ads + OnSpot Social
If you’re a brick and mortar store owner in today’s world, you know all too well the challenge of competing against e-commerce websites. With much less overhead and an international reach, online based stores are often able to undercut the pricing of location based retail stores. Because of this retail companies of all sizes, even industry leaders, have recently had to revamp their strategies. An example of this is Best Buy who shifted their focus from full sized stores to the smaller Best Buy Mobile outlets.
Smaller retailers and regional chains have especially felt the pinch. To compensate, it’s important they step up their personalized in-store customer service and give consumers an experience they can’t find online. Just as importantly, they need to use technology to their advantage to get new customers into their locations and then retain them. How would this be accomplished you ask?
Marketers have developed an interesting tactic for location based retailers that can be quite effective if used correctly – see below.
Step 1: Employ Google Mobile Ads + Mobile Website To Get New Customers In The Door
Smart phone usage continues to grow at an astounding rate. Consumers on the go do the majority of their web surfing on a mobile device. Especially important to location based retailers is the fact that when consumers are in travel and looking for a local business to meet their shopping/dining needs, they search on their mobile devices, whether through a search engine or app.
Google AdWords has a neat feature that lets business owners target only mobile devices and even specific geographic locations. For example, say you are a local shoe store and a consumer within 10 miles of your store searches for running shoes. With Google AdWords properly setup, your store’s mobile website would appear in the results. As the consumer is already close to your location, the chance of them visiting your store increases.
If utilizing Google Mobile Ads, it’s important to have a mobile website set up for your business as all of the referred traffic will be viewing your site from a mobile device. Fortunately today, there are companies that setup mobile websites to be used in conjunction with Mobile AdWords for a relatively low cost.
Step 2: Use OnSpot Social To Engage & Retain New Customers
Once you have step 1 above setup and bringing in new customers, you will need to figure out a way to convince them to return. This is typically accomplished by opening an ongoing communication channel with the customers, whether through email or social media. The challenge here is actually getting the customers to opt-in to an email list or to follow your business on a social media platform. Like Us On Facebook signs and paper/pen email sign up forms don’t seem to cut it these days.
OnSpot Social addresses the “How do I get customers to Like my Facebook Page and sign up for my email list?” question head on. OnSpot Social is an iPad app to Like a business’s Facebook Page as well as an app to capture email addresses. Simply set up an iPad with the app running at a checkout counter and convert all of your new customers into online connections.
Conclusion
In today’s competitive market, new & innovative marketing approaches are necessary for survival. Coupling the two different tactics mentioned above together can be an inexpensive and effective way to bring new faces into your business and turn them into loyal customers. What are your thoughts on this combined approach?
