Use these free hacks to promote your brick-and-mortar store today to grow your revenue this year.

One of the biggest challenges for new businesses is getting the right customers.

Of course, traditional promotion strategies can help you achieve this. However, they tend to be expensive and, sometimes, not affordable for start-ups.

For instance, according to Nielsen, in 2016, a 30-second spot TV broadcast nationally in the USA averaged around $123,000, while the highest cost placements for Super Bowl Ads can go as high as $4 million.

To put this into perspective, the average revenue of small businesses with no employees is $44,000 annually, while the average receipt of those with employees is $4.9 million, meaning traditional marketing is not feasible for most small businesses.

Thankfully, this article has compiled 5 ways to promote your offline store to your potential customers for free to get quality leads. However, some of them might require a one-time financial investment.

5 Hacks to Promote your brick and mortar store

Here are five ways to promote your brick-and-mortar store with minimal financial commitment.

First, get a website

With over 3 billion people already connected to the internet and a stunning 81% penetration rate for developed countries, connecting your business to the web is a sure way to promote your business and establish credibility.

A study by Blue Corona shows that between 70-80% of people research a small business online before visiting and making purchases,

While according to Google, mobile usage drives an average of more than 40% of revenue in leading B2B organizations, and the percentage of B2B search queries made on smartphones will grow to 70% by 2020.

These show that owning a website for your business is a priority, and making it mobile-friendly is a must. Plus, it is a relatively cheap hack to promote your brick-and-mortar store without breaking the bank.

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List on Google My Business

It is a Google business directory that makes it easy for people to find businesses and quickly view basic information about the business, like the opening time, contact, and customer reviews.

A properly optimized Google My Business page can help your business to appear for local searches, and interestingly, 4 out of 5 consumers perform a local search before committing to purchasing decision.

Luckily, 50% of people who perform a local search on their smartphone visit a physical store within one day, and 18% would buy within a day.

Leverage email marketing

This year, active email accounts are expected to hit 5.6 billion, and 93% of B2B marketers are already using emails to distribute their content.

According to Adestra, 73% of millennials prefer communications from businesses to come via email, while a study by DMA Insight shows that in 2017, 99% of consumers checked their email every day.

In a recent study by SaleCycle, 59% of the respondents admitted that marketing email influences their purchasing decision, and in a recent survey by Emma, an email marketing provider, over 59% of marketers admitted that email marketing is their biggest source of ROI.

So leveraging this can help you to reach a large section of your potential customers. Luckily, many email service providers can allow you to send an unlimited number of emails to 2000 subscribers for free.

Content is King

In 2016 over 615 million people downloaded Ad blockers and two out of every three young millennia currently have one installed on either their desktop or mobile devices.

This shows that consumers have inexplicable resentment for ads, so 84% of people expect brands to create content, and 95% of B2B buyers consider it trustworthy when evaluating a company.

Before making major purchases, an average buyer consumes about 11.4 content and another study shows that consumers who read a brand’s educational content are 131% more likely to purchase, and 48% will still purchase even after 1 week.

In general, content marketing costs about 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.

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Optimize your website for Search Engines

A study by GroupM reveals that 86% of buyers conduct non-branded search queries before making buying decisions, while another by Newscred shows that 85% of users prefer organic search results to paid searches.

This means that brands that fail to optimize for the search engine are missing out on potential leads and sales.

Search engine optimization has a lead close rate of 14.6% compared to only 1.7% for outbound leads (PPC, email, cold calling), and a study shows that search engines drive 300% more traffic to the website than social media.

Data from another study shows that, on average, inbound marketing (SEO, content) increases online visibility by 70%, and inbound leads cost 61% less than outbound leads.

Wrapping It Up

Making concerted efforts to incorporate these hacks into your small business’s marketing strategy can help you scale quickly, even if you’re on a tight budget.

The good news is that some of these tricks can yield instant results.

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