More customers in your shop, showroom, or store

Your shop, showroom, or store is often the final step in the customer journey. Because even though the digital shopping basket is gaining popularity, for larger investments and longer purchasing processes, the sale still happens right there.

Because your customer can see and feel things there. And because you, as the salesperson, are playing a home game. No matter how personalized your website is, you can only provide truly targeted advice in a one-on-one conversation. You can respond to questions and doubts. Speed things up if you feel you can accelerate the decision-making process. Or do the opposite if you see that approach isn’t working.

But then you have to actually get that customer into your showroom, shop, or store.

We’ll start with the long-term tips.

In the long term: make your pond bigger

Today, the orientation phase mostly happens online. The days when your customer came to your showroom with a vague idea of what they wanted are over. By that point, the orientation phase is already largely complete.

Naturally, it’s those ready-to-buy customers you want. But that’s often just a small pond where your competitors are also busy fishing.

Broaden your horizons. Make that pond bigger.

How?

By aiming wider than just those ready-to-buy customers. And by also addressing those who are potential customers. Those who might not buy from you within a few weeks, but will within the year.

The sushi pond

An example: You’re a kitchen dealer with a showroom. Organize a live cooking session with a star chef. Or host a workshop on making the perfect sushi. Set up an event for young moms focused on healthy food for kids.

There are plenty of other initiatives you could think of. As long as it’s valuable enough for the local kitchen enthusiasts to come to your showroom: go for it. You might accelerate their dormant wish for a new kitchen. Or maybe not. But there’s a good chance you’ll be the one invited to make a quote when the time comes.

Musical notes

Even more out of the box? Then let’s move from edible nuts in the kitchen shop to musical notes in an instrument store.

We aren’t music experts ourselves. But we do know that you don’t buy, say, a guitar digitally. You want to hold it and strum it for a bit.

So, as a music store owner, you naturally display all your instruments.

But dare to go a step further. Set up a rehearsal space where starting bands can come to practice. Anything is better than jamming in a cold garage or plugging your amp in next to your mom’s cleaning products, right? This way, you don’t just stay in touch with the local music scene, but you’re also more than likely the first choice when one of those band’s guitarists has enough cash for a Les Paul.

In the short term

That’s all very nice, Expliciet, that bigger pond. But I need ready-to-buy customers right now.

Okay then. As long as you promise us to think about that long-term strategy soon.

Here are some tips to get more bites in that small pond we mentioned earlier. We’ll start with the quick wins you can apply right now and work towards things that will take a bit more time to implement.

1. Work with promotions and deals

Give visitors an extra reason to stop by. For the kitchen dealer from earlier: offer a discount on appliances. Or offer 10% off the entire kitchen for quick deciders.

For our music shop owner: capitalize on the start of the school year with a promotion on recorders. Or hook into a major music competition, to name something.

Make these promotions a structural part of your marketing plan. Together with the initiatives from earlier—the long-term ones. This gives you a good mix of sowing and reaping.

2. Adjust what you already have

Do you have a website? Most likely. Active on social media? Great. Do you write a blog regularly? Nice!

Then look at your pages, posts, and contributions from the perspective of your showroom. Because that should be one of the goals of your website: converting that online visitor to your showroom. To bring them one step closer to the purchase.

Where on your website does it make sense to add a call to action to visit your showroom? Do you highlight your shop enough on social media? And from which blog is the step to your showroom the smallest?

An example to clarify that last question. Suppose you’re a conservatory builder who blogs regularly, including these two blogs:

1. Extra living space: an extension or a conservatory?
2. A wooden conservatory: three types of wood compared

Readers of the first blog are still orienting themselves. Contacting them for an appointment at that stage is a bit abrupt. Readers of the second one have already decided they want a conservatory. They are already thinking about which type of wood is best. If you link to your showroom from that blog, it’s relevant to them. Add one sentence and you increase the chance of more visitors.

3. Create a dedicated webpage

Even better is to create a dedicated webpage for your showroom. To show your website visitor what you have to offer. Where you explain why it’s worth visiting.

And where you make the threshold as low as possible. ‘Book an appointment’ is okay as a call to action. ‘Leave your phone number and we’ll call you’ is a good variation. Same for your email address. Or work with an online calendar where an appointment can be booked directly.

This page will become the hub of your future online campaigns. The page you refer to from your social posts, blogs… The final step from online to for real.

4. Utilize online advertising optimally

With online advertising, you can target specifically for a relatively small budget. So that your message reaches your specific target audience.

Many companies post on social media. But we see that targeting can be improved. In addition, there are various other possibilities. Because online advertising is much broader than just social media.

For example, you can target advertising to everyone who visited your website last week. You can read all about it in our blog Online advertising: master the basics in five minutes.

5. Send out an email campaign

With that promotion we mentioned, for example. Or to announce that live cooking event.

If you’ve built up an interesting email list, put it to work to get more customers to your shop, showroom, or store.

6. Send out a direct mail flyer

But wait, I don’t capture email addresses on my website.

Then definitely come by. Because an email list is incredibly valuable.

Yes, yes, but again: it takes a while to build such a list. I want more customers in my shop, showroom, or store in the short term.

Okay. Then a direct mail flyer is a great Plan B.

Bpost offers various formulas to reach new customers. Formulas that go beyond just the postal code. For example, you can specify that you want to run a campaign for owners of detached houses. Or that you’re aiming at a certain age segment. Bpost then selects the mail routes from a city or wider region that are most relevant to you.

Conclusion?

So, feeling inspired to get more customers into your shop, showroom, or store? Ready to put some of our tips into practice? Then come visit our sho… uh, our office, and let’s get to work together!

Or if you want to know even more about how to align your showroom with what your customer expects: check out this Explivisie.