How to Attract More Customers to your Business
Your goal: to attract more customers.
You try everything, but for some reason, it does not yield enough results.
What is it?
There are many reasons why your shop doesn’t attract enough customers.
Sure, it’s simple to shout, “It all depends on that online sale!” But is that the case?
OR
Are there perhaps actions you can take yourself to improve your results?
To help you map that out, in this blog, I’ll take you through 7 reasons that, in my experience, negatively impact the number of customers who visit your store (and have nothing to do with that online sale).
#1 You Think Your Excellent Service does the Work for you
Is this your strategy: helping customers through and, seeing them leave your store, and then doing nothing but a hope that they will come back?
Then I have news for you: you are not doing enough.
Of course, it is important to help your customers well and to provide excellent service. And yes, that can undoubtedly help you get customers returning.
But where the problem arises in your strategy is that you wait and hope?
Today it is necessary to be proactive. Waiting for customers is the worst thing you can do.
And that means that you have to proactively remind your customers of your store after they walk out the door.
In other words: being active with marketing.
” Whether you use a newsletter, social media, Google Display ads, the old-fashioned telephone or newspaper for that is up to you. “
In any case, be decisive and take control to invite your customer to the next visit.
#2 You Give-up too Quickly
Have you ever tried something that didn’t work? And did you think: ‘I don’t do that anymore’?
Then it may just be that you have given up too quickly.
The first time the stores I know organized an event, it didn’t result in lines of waiting for customers (in fact, ‘just a few customers’ was a better description of the result).
The first time I posted a Facebook AD myself, it wasn’t a resounding success.
But that doesn’t immediately mean that that idea is worthless. Or does not work.
It is more likely that you will have to fine-tune your knowledge of how to approach that idea properly.
Experimental through social media, email marketing, google ads
And then you have to experiment a little further to find exactly the right way for your store.
Only then will the resulting yield. First, a little, and then a little more.
Button in your ears: setting up a successful strategy to attract customers consists of experimenting and refining.
Do not try something at once and immediately give up if that does not produce the desired result.
#3 You Don’t Setup Targeted Actions
One of the reasons why your idea might not work at all the first time is because your effort was not focused.
What do I mean by that? That your action not aimed at a clear audience, or a precise result.
An example: the Facebook ad:
I blurted out a few things because I don’t want to make the store recognizable, but in terms of text, there was no more than just the name of the store.
I’m guessing this store was thinking, “Facebook ads, let’s try that!”
But what exactly does the store want to achieve with this advertisement?
Do I have to visit the store? Why? What does this store have to offer?
Or is the store looking for Facebook followers? Then why should I follow them? What makes it fun and exciting to follow this store?
The ad doesn’t answer me.
All the ad does is show a photo of the collection and the name of the store. That should send me off my seat and get me into action.
Would this ad have yielded anything for the store?
I very much doubt it.
What this store could have done better is think carefully about what results from the advertisement should have delivered.
And then design that advertisement in such a way that customers are triggered to take that action.
Would you like me to follow you on Facebook? Then advertise with one of your most refreshing and highest-scoring posts, so I understand it’s worth following you.
Would you like me to visit your store? Then tell me what the reason is to get off my chair NOW and go to your store.
So think beforehand whom you want to reach with your event, your Facebook ad or your newsletter and what you want this group to do.
And make your offer irresistible, so that your potential customers take action.
#4 You don’t Know Your Target Audience Enough
That tip about thinking whom you want to reach, that deserves some extra explanation. Because that may sound simple, but it is not.
Many stores prefer to help everyone.
Have something to offer everyone. And they are getting all those people to the store at the same time because that delivers the most.
Warning: it doesn’t work.
Let’s take a drug store as an example. Of course, there are very different people from very different ages.
However, the need for an older lady with gout is entirely different from the lack of a teenage girl buying makeup for the first time.
It’s completely different from what you’ll have to do to get this older woman to your shop to get the teenage girl to your store.
If you want to bring more customers to your store, it is vital that you know your target group (or different target groups).
Know which different customers and which different needs you have.
Spend some time figuring out what drives those different groups of customers into action and bringing them to your store.
#5 You Show Noise
Another reason why customers don’t visit your store is that they think your range doesn’t suit them.
That does not mean that every customer fits your store, but that you have to ensure that your target audience understands that your store is the perfect match for them.
Sometimes the noise is created in that piece.
For example, if Your store is in the middle to the upper segment of the market, but the appearance of your store on the outside does not match.
The paint crumbles from your front, the products that are outside are all discounted, and there is a mess on the sidewalk.
Do you think your target group enters your store?
I bet not.
Because that customer gets the feeling based the appearance on the outside that what your store offers does not suit him or her at all.
Noise can arise in many ways. In the example I gave, the noise may be immediately obvious, but it can also arise in many subtler ways.
For example, your concept does not match what you communicate in your folder or on your social media channels.
OR
your communication material contrasts sharply with your range.
So check regularly whether everything you do is correct because noise can just make customers drop out.
Because where one may be triggered by a shop with wide aisles and legible communication material, the other will bounce at the idea that that shop offers a special event for her and her friends.
And when you know that, you can sharpen your strategy to get customers to your store a little further.
#6 You Keep Doing What Doesn’t Work
Where reason number 2 told you that giving up too quickly is not a good idea if you want to attract more customers, but continuing to do what does not work is not a good idea either.
An example.
Suppose you spend hours and hours setting up and maintaining a social media strategy, but your strategy does not yield visible results.
Then it is not a good idea to just keep going on the same footing.
Do you have to stop immediately?
No.
It is a good idea to first brush up on your knowledge of what works.
Have you experimented with that knowledge and the result is not forthcoming?
Then it is worth considering stopping with something that costs a lot of time, energy or money, but that yields too little.
In that case, it is a much wiser idea to pull the plug into those practices and spend your time and resources on what works for your shop.
Because precisely by focusing on what yields results, in most cases, you get much more out of it.
So do not keep pulling a dead horse for a long time, but use your energy smartly.
#7 You are Not Consistent
And the last reason why you may not be able to attract more customers?
That is that you are not consistent.
Anything you do once or only once in a while does not generate anything more than continuous action.
Let’s take your social media strategy as an example.
If you only occasionally post something, chances are you will see little result.
However, if you work consistently with your strategy and you post consistently several times a week, the chance of results is much greater.
So check with yourself:
what activities do you now undertake to attract customers, but are you not regularly doing?
There may also be an action point for you and your store.
Providing efficient customer service will ensure that the customers come back again.
