5 Ways To Draw Customers to Your New Local Business

New businesses are starting up daily. This means competition becomes stiffer, and you’ll need to be on top of your game to stay afloat.

As a new SMB (small and medium-sized business) serving a location, you must build awareness in the minds of the people within that geographical area as quickly as possible as they are the ones on which your sales ultimately lie.

The question is, what’s the best way to get the word out to them?

Here are practical ways to draw customers to your new local business.

1. Leverage every trade show opportunity

Trade shows are an incredible marketing opportunity for businesses looking to showcase their new products and services, share ideas, or create awareness for themselves as a brand. Although trade shows are particularly for business owners or professionals within the same industry to connect, the press, consumers, and investors are also attendees.

Whenever any trade show for your industry is scheduled in your city, take part and maximize its potential to the fullest. Use spectacular trade show displays to draw the attention of attendees to your booth, and have your sales rep ready to engage whoever stops by. Gift out branded promo items and talk to the press about your business. Be friendly, be likable.

How well you engage people at your booth during the trade fair will determine how readily they turn up when they need your product or services.

2. Never neglect local SEO

Search engine optimization is key to gaining an online presence. And having strong online visibility is crucial to growing as a brand in today’s commercial ecosystem.

You see, 81% of customers say they search online before heading to a store. So, if you’re selling to a particular area, say, Queens County, you want to be findable when residents in this location search for your product or service on Google.

This means you have to rank on the search engine when users type in location-targeted keywords, such as “Dental clinic Queens County.” For example, if a user from California sees your website on the results page, they may not patronize you because you’re far away. So you want to optimize your website with location in mind. Learn the fundamentals of local SEO and Google My Business to get started.

3. Conspicuous Storefront signage

You’re one store in the midst of many in your town. So how do you stand out? How do you make people ignore their old go-to brands to give yours a try?

By showing you’re a force to reckon with! And this you can attain by making your storefront appealing. Put up conspicuous, attractive, and professional storefront signage reflecting what you offer. Let passersby see at a glance what you have for them, and make it stand out from the crowd.

4. Don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth

One very happy customer can bring you ten more customers. In the same vein, one customer you treat poorly can deny you ten more when you give them a bad experience.

Excellent service delivery every time is key to building loyal customers that would refer others to you. For example, they may recommend you to their friends and family. It’s also a great idea to give branded promo items to both customers and non-customers. Someone who doesn’t need your service may refer Someone else that does.

Finally…

Connect with other businesses near you. Referrals, insight, and expansion come from joining a business community. You don’t always have to walk alone.