How to Attract Repeat Customers to Come into Your Offline Business

Brick and mortar is not dead.

Many people assume that all businesses are moving online. While that’s true in some regards, it doesn’t paint the entire picture. There are still a lot of brick and mortar stores that do not sell online for one reason or another.

If you have a business that relies heavily on foot traffic, you will need repeat business. Successful businesses utilize returning customers to sustain their profits since obtaining new customers is usually more difficult and costly, otherwise you’ll not see the revenues necessary to keep the doors open.

To help you get more repeat customers to your business, especially when the economy dips a little, here are some customer retention ideas you should incorporate into your offline business:

• Create a Loyalty Rewards Program

A surefire way to increase customers retention is to have a rewards program in place.

Have people sign up for this, give them a card, or have them use their phone number and give them points for every dollar spent. Once they reach a certain dollar amount, offer a significant discount or free stuffs. Some stores give 10% while others give a whopping 50% or more.

How you want to incentivize your loyal customers is completely up to you, but the main goal is to get more people to come back and spend.

• Set Up an Email Newsletter

Sales happen all the time, but many people don’t know it. When you want to bring in a lot of customers, work with an email newsletter service. All you have to do is collect emails from customers and tell them that they will receive valuable information in exchange.

One free service you can use until you hit a huge subscriber list is MailChimp. When you have a sale coming up, send out a newsletter with a “printable” coupon to bring in the store. This will help gain you a bit more foot traffic.

• Offer an In-store Second Chance Offer

Here’s another great way to ensure someone returns. When someone buys anything at full price in your store, give them a coupon with an expiration date that you set. That coupon should give them a significant discount on something the next time they come in.

The key here is that you make sure that there is a distinct expiration date on the coupon, so that the consumer is enticed to returning within a certain amount of time.

• Host Events for Customers

Announce events for customers by giving them a handout when they shop. When you have a special event and only invite those who have shopped with you before, they will come back, browse, and perhaps buy something else as well.

Special events can be coordinated with certain brands, sales, celebrities, musical acts, and among other things to bring something special to your business.

Remember, the goal is to give back to the consumer, as that will pay off dividends in time.

Here’s the kicker, offline business will never truly go away. Sure there are some advantages to going online, but customers will always feel more confident buying after seeing and feeling what’s in their hands than through a screen.

With all this being said, you should be utilizing both offline and offline marketing into your business because, why leave money money on the table opting for one approach over the other?