Prime inner-city locations are often the candy stores of commercial success, driving passing trade and ensuring high-quality zip codes that provide consumer trust as standard. Unfortunately, all that shines is not necessarily gold, and these benefits come with a price tag that simply isn’t sustainable for many bootlace businesses or startup enterprises. Instead, out-of-the-way spots that cost as much as half of the price tend to be a much more realistic option. The trouble is that, when you’re out in the desert, no one remembers your name, and that can do real damage to your chances at ever competing with those big city boys.
In reality, though, while premises in the sticks does have undeniable downsides, it can also be a benefit for new companies who are willing to make a go of it. After all, while you would be literally going toe-to-toe with much bigger companies in a city location, your competition will typically be much narrower, and less direct, if you’re out of the way. What’s more, the fact that customers need to come to you specifically means that people who do visit are genuinely committed to what you, in particular, have to offer.
Unfortunately, before you can run with those benefits, you need to make sure that people can find you in the first place. Lucky for you, we have a few simple promotion ideas that could help you do precisely that.
# 1 – Get online
Online sales that have grown by 44% in the last year alone mean that companies have never been in a better position to expand their customer bases in a major way, regardless of where they’re based physically. Online stores, and marketing across social platforms and search engines like Google, can especially put you in prime city locations in an online world. Further to this, your ability to get online with things like a Google Maps listing and a generally good SEO rating means that people are just as likely to stumble across even your remote physical premises online as they would be to just pop in when they were passing if you were city-bound.
# 2 – Utilize signage
Regardless of how off-track your business premises might be, perfecting signage that catches consumer’s eyes can still see plenty of people coming your way. Admittedly, this might not have quite the same organic pulling power as a location that people are already walking past, but if you manage to get a good quality sign mounted on a prime commuting road, you can bet people will drive past it every single day of their lives. And, when they do come to need your services, that makes it far more likely they’ll at least stop by to see what’s going on. Pylon signs or post and panel signs like those offered by https://signarama.com can prove especially useful for this purpose, and work best when paired with additions such as lighting (for 24/7 advertising) or even digital boards that ensure adaptable, cutting-edge offerings that highlight you as a company worth converting with.
# 3 – Make your business premises stand out
Getting consumers to look in your direction through either online efforts or in-person signs is obviously imperative, but even these efforts will go to waste if your premises itself looks more like a shack in the outback than a reputable place to do business. Sure, you don’t have quite the same pressure to look the part as inner-city moguls, but you do still have a responsibility to make your business easy to find and appealing at the same time. For one thing, you’re going to want to ensure potential customers who have come looking for you can spot you straight away with the help of mounted wall signs or even sign faces placed at your car park entrance. Attention aside, ensuring customers stick around also relies on your ability to get your premises looking the part with professionally manicured lawns, roofing repaired and maintained by companies like https://jrcousa.com/commercial-roofing/, and even windows that are cleaned regularly. Take this focus on a clean, crisp business finish inside, as well, and you should soon find that the traffic coming your way increases regardless of your potentially questionable location.
# 4 – Collaborate with other local businesses
While it’s unlikely that your inner-city competitors will want to direct their business your way (though good relations certainly don’t hurt here, either!) taking a little time out to collaborate with complementary companies in a potentially better position than you is another fantastic way to boost sales overall. Leaving flyers in an inner-city store or premises is especially useful for seeing those higher levels of traffic coming your way without any of the high costs that you might pay for those same spots otherwise. What’s more, making this work is often as easy as ensuring mutually beneficial, respectful relationships with other local entrepreneurs who could also benefit from pairing like this. For instance, if you were selling software for shop owners, providing a free service to a local store could see them singing your praises, and putting your flyers out, for all of their customers to see. Equally, many companies are willing to provide advertisements for businesses who return the favor, and making the most of this benefit is a pain-free, fool-proof way of increasing sales no matter where you are.
# 5 – Use your evangelists
In business, evangelists are loyal customers who not only buy from you time and again, but who feel passionately enough about the value and offerings you provide that they’re willing to bring personal recommendations to that effect. The easiest way to create evangelists is to simply offer great products and trusting, tailored relationships that generally impress your clients. In modern business, further techniques like personalized discounts and money-off offers based on recommendations are also bringing these benefits within easier reach. For a company that’s out of the way and reliant on things like word of mouth marketing for higher levels of custom, making use of evangelists is especially imperative for expanding customer reach. There are various ways to do this, and they include posting sharable content across social networks, providing things like free totes, pens, and other merch during repeat purchases, or even just openly interacting with the people who seem the most excited about your brand. Over time, this should lead to way more people knowing who you are, and caring about that enough to go out of their way to see what all the fuss is about.
Conclusion
Poorly located business premises can put an undeniable hurdle in the way of business success overall, but as you can see from these pointers, it is possible to turn even this downside into a business positive if you play your cards right from the start. As such, before you’ve even set up shop in a new, and perhaps questionable location, it’s worth considering each of these steps to boost your reputation regardless. Whether or not you intend to expand into a city location or stay where you are down the line, succeeding in sending people out of their way to visit you alone can actually lead to a wide range of unexpected business plus points, including –
- An audience without competition
- Increased consumer loyalty
- Less general traffic for one-on-one sales
- Higher chances of conversion overall
- More efficient business processes
- Etc.
So, instead of assuming that no one will care about a business out in the sticks, take note of these genius ways to get selling regardless.
No comments yet.