If you own a local business, or you advise local businesses, you may wonder what the average customer wants and how to make the business more profitable. After all, there’s a lot of competition locally from the big box stores as well as online.
How Your Business Can Attract More Customers
Yodle, an online marketing group, recently released the results of a 6,000+ survey on what consumers want from local businesses. Here are some of the highlights of what they found and how you can use that information to improve your business:
Local shops aren’t expected to compete on price. People are willing to pay more for unique items of higher value. However, customers do expect better service and quality. That is a local business’ competitive edge so make sure you’re providing both.
Offer special incentives for return business. Local businesses don’t have to adhere to corporate marketing rules. They are free to create their own incentives. Local shoppers expect a reason, in addition to good service, to keep them coming back. Loyalty cards, coupons, return discounts, thank you gifts, and free services, provide additional reasons to buy in the future.
Ask for online reviews. Satisfied customers are happy to oblige, but often don’t think about writing a review. Don’t be hesitant to ask for them. When you know a customer is satisfied, or you know you provided excellent service, ask that s/he leave a review.
You can do so casually by inquiring on whether they ever write reviews on sites like Yelp and when they say “yes,” ask if they’d be willing to write one for you. Stress the importance of those reviews and how people make decisions based on them. They’ll be more apt to do it if they think it will have a great impact on your business.
Have an online presence. Most local stores do not embrace social media and digital marketing in the ways that they could. A lack of time and resources are the main causes of this. However, these tools can increase revenue and loyalty when used correctly. Do everything you can to make a personal connection with your audience and they’ll be more loyal.
If you’d like to read all of the survey findings, check them out here.
