Make Your Business More Accessible and Get More Customers!

As a business owner, one of your main goals should be to increase your profits. In order to achieve that, you need to keep attracting customers to your business. If you are an online business, the strategies to do so are pretty simple – focus on online advertising and marketing.

However, if you have a physical business, the strategies you employ might be a little different. Alongside online marketing, you should focus on making your business more accessible to customers so that they may visit your establishment with ease.

A big reason online businesses are so successful is that they offer customers convenience; in order to compete with the online world, you need to make your physical business convenient for customers; make it unique, and stand out.

If you want to learn how to accomplish this, continue reading!

Invest in Signage

Having an excellent signature and standout sign for your business can leave a great impression on customers. Your sign and logo are the things that stay with customers, even if they are just driving by.

Using bright colors and keeping your sign whimsical will leave a lasting impression on passersby. It is also important to make sure your sign is reflective of your store, such as its theme or what it sells. For example, if you have a bakery, a cool sign you could invest in is one shaped like a loaf of bread! It would most definitely be eye-catching; customers will always remember it.

Think of this sign as an investment, so don’t go for a cheap one. Put in some extra money into developing a signature image for your establishment so that people are interested in visiting.

Take an example of this donut shop in Los Angeles, California – who wouldn’t want to visit after seeing this sign?

Keep It Clean

Although this is an obvious point, keeping the exterior of your establishment clean is one of the easier steps to attract customers. People do not want to visit a store surrounded by trash or is in a bad environment, so you must keep the exterior pristine.

Make sure that trash does not lie around outside your establishment; ensure that trash is picked up regularly and moved out of the way and view of potential customers. Line the exterior with lush greenery; plant trees and flowers to give your store a fresh look.

But most importantly, it is your store that should stand out! You should regularly clean and maintain the outside of your store – wash the windows, paint the walls, and keep your sign shinning!

A clean and organized exterior leaves a good impression on customers and gives them an idea of how your establishment operates. Remember, people eat with their eyes first; this applies to your store as well. If your store does not look good from the outside, customers won’t bother showing up.

Use Delineators

Delineators can be a great tool to divert traffic towards your business. You can attach your business signs onto them to attract potential customers even more.

Delineators are especially useful if you have a drive-thru at your business. Drive-Through offer customers’ convenience; they don’t even have to get out of their car to purchase something. However, it can be confusing for customers to know where to go; they could easily drive into the wrong lane or the wrong side and create a traffic jam. Using delineators can easily help them understand where to drive to. Customers appreciate the ease and clear instructions.

If delineators are not available, you can use retractable belt barriers in their place.

Invest in Parking

However, if your business does not offer a drive-thru or is not the type of business that can have a drive-thru (such as a grocery or a hardware store), you would benefit from creating a parking space for your customers.

Most customers will be coming to your business in their cars, but they won’t be able to enter your establishment unless they have a place to park. It won’t matter how attractive your sign is, how clean your exterior is, or how many delineators you use; customers cannot just leave their car out on the road to come inside.

But as a business owner, you should also try and make your business even more accessible. Alongside parking spaces for cars, why not install a few bike racks instead? It would not be very reasonable to assume every one of your customers will be coming in cars. Adding a space where people can park their bikes could be a way to attract more customers and increase your sales.

Online Marketing

Today, everything is online! Even physical businesses such as restaurants and grocery stores have opted for online and social media marketing. This isn’t to say you should be focusing on online marketing alone; the above points – investing in signage, maintaining cleanliness, installing delineators, and making space for parking – are all valid if you have a physical business and play a huge role in the number of customers you get.

Online and social media marketing is something you can do on the side. Some examples include:

• `Creating an Instagram page for your business and posting pictures and information of all the products you will be selling. You can also use this page to promote a sale happening at your store as word spreads fast on social media.
• A unique way to create media attention for your business is by using TikTok. A new form of social media, TikTok is an app where you make short videos with sound overlay; it has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years. You can use the app to make videos that are either funny skits, informative, or captivating dances – the possibilities are endless.
• Speaking of accessibility, why not create a website? As a physical business, you have an entire market segment that is not catered to: those who are elderly, disabled, or cannot travel independently. Having a website that offers to deliver your products would be a huge convenience for them. This would boost your sales as you tap into an untapped market.