One of the most popular elements of my presentation at the India Retail Forum last week was my segment about using low-cost mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc.to drive people to your store and then once in the store be able to direct them and upsell them at a cash register. I spoke about the six ways that you can use mobile to drive your retail sales, pre buy, in transit, and location, delivering offers in the store, and then at point of purchase and of course, the all-important post purchase marketing extensions. I also spoke about how various retailers were using new media, J. Crew using Pinterest to launch the 2013 catalog, 1888 hotel offering free rooms to people with 10,000 Instagram followers, Oreos, famous “dunk in the dark” Facebook post, Coca-Cola’s use of YouTube with the unlock the secret formula promotion, Bonobos Men’s Tailors re-tweet incentives, Taco Bells QR code promotion and Scotty P hamburgers, mobile coupons to name just a few.
These promotions just demonstrate that if you are creative then new media is an unbelievably effective way to drive your business at low cost. Before you actually create the specific promotion there are five steps you need to take. Firstly, on Twitter you need to create an account for your business and possibly more importantly, for the most important people in your business. With almost no exceptions, people are more likely to follow a person than a business. By creating an account for both you and your business, you greatly increase your chances of engaging your audience. On Facebook, you need to create a business page and claim your Facebook place. You should also have a Facebook profile for yourself that is linked to your page. Facebook provides more tools and functionality for pages that are linked to profiles.
The second step is to build your audience. So before you can get someone to visit your bricks and mortar store you have to be able to get them to visit your Facebook page or follow you on Twitter. Once you have your twitter account and Facebook page set up you should spend time finding and building your audience. Because most businesses can only do business with people within driving distance you should focus on building your local audience first. On Twitter, you should visit the advanced search which will bring up all the recent tweets that meet your criteria with the handle and the avatar of the person who tweeted. You can then follow these people or click on their profile for more information. Because following a person usually creates a reaction where they in turn follow you, a significant portion of these people will become your followers. On Facebook, using targeted Facebook ads, leveraging your personal profile and creating a compelling landing page will build your fan base.
The third step is creating content that will engage your audience. You need to create a steady stream of content to engage them. It doesn’t matter what your business is you can create content that is compelling and relevant to your audience. On Twitter. You can use peoples handles in a tweet while on Facebook you can tag someone in an update. Always remember, if the main purpose of you taking someone is to drive traffic to your page. It will show and it will backfire. You need to be seen to give honest, sincere appreciation.
The fourth step is to leverage location-based apps. You need to realize that a rapidly increasing number of people are using location-based apps and usually they are linked to their twitter or Facebook accounts. This means that when they check in your place, they’re letting all their friends know where they are and that has to be good for your business. It would be worthwhile to encourage the checking behavior of your patrons by setting up tabletop displays with information on things like Foursquare, Gowalla and Facebook Places.
Finally, you need to incentivize your audience to visit you. Building loyalty and connections with customers is a long term success strategy. However, there are lots of ways to provide incentives to make an immediate impact. For example you can create Facebook or twitter only discounts or coupons that people can print out and bring in to your store, you can blast out last-minute opportunities for provide specific discounts.