Small shop owners guide to attracting customers in difficult financial times

It can be hard enough at the best of times to make enough money to keep your small shop running. Supermarkets are expanding into all specialist areas but fortunately there are many who still understand the importance of local, independent shops and enjoy using them.

The on-going financial difficulties do not make things any easier for you to attract customers. You might have an existing customer base but should always be looking to increase this to turn over the most amount of money, but what can a small shop do to attract new customers?

Flyers and posters

Flyers remain one of the cheapest and most effective ways companies can attract new business in your local area. Pick an area, perhaps a mile, say, of your shop and distribute a catchy, well-presented flyer to people’s doors.

Just telling people to come will not cut it, you must offer them a reason to try your store – a special offer or money off voucher should do the trick.

This old-fashioned way of drumming up business is a percentages game; many people will bin it without looking but even if a small amount of people come to your shop then it will have worked.

Use public announcement stores to put up posters advertising your new business too. If you ensure this stands out and offer a good deal, people should start to turn up.

Offer extras

Customers, particularly in times of difficulty, want more out of a deal and extra benefits with a purchase. This type of thing is good to advertise outside your shop, on a billboard or in the window, for example.

These extras can be anything from discount vouchers for returning customers, guarantees on the products you sell and referral rewards for customers who bring new interest to your shop.

Social network

If you haven’t already, you should sign your shop up to as many social networks as you see fit. At the very least your shop should have a presence on the two most popular ones: Facebook and Twitter.

Further to this, you should make sure that you post regular updates of things that will interest current or potential customers. Not only does this show that your shop is tech-savvy and appealing for the younger audience, but social networking sites can spread the word-of-mouth much further than your very small local area. A well-managed social network account should run competitions where people can win items from your store and offer limited-time discounts that are advertised only online. Both of these should increase the interest in your shop.

Make the window stand out

The window of a shop can so often be ignored by a storeowner but it is a valuable tool for attracting customers. Remember, this is the first thing a potential customer will see so if it is colourful and uncluttered it might well convince them to come in and have a look.

For the best results, rearranging the window every week will show that you care about keeping things interesting.

With all these new customers on their way, you’ll need to make sure that liability insurance is in place to protect you against any potential problems but, providing this is all in hand, you could soon reap the benefits of increased public presence.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Will Hemner .