Your Digital Marketing Efforts Can Drive In-Store Sales

As consumers increasingly rely on the internet to find, review, and make purchasing decisions, how you target your digital marketing initiatives can help you drive foot traffic to your physical stores.

[source: Response Mine Interactive] In fact, a recent Deloitte study found that over 47% of consumers use their digital device to compare products before ever stepping foot in a retail store. For digital marketing savvy businesses, this could represent a great way to connect and engage customers throughout their entire purchasing process.

With so much information at our fingertips, it is not surprising that 72% of shoppers already know what they want to buy as soon as they enter a store. If you’re not capitalizing on this trend by proactively positioning your brand in front of your target consumer, then you are missing out on a large opportunity.

Here are the three ways that a comprehensive digital marketing strategy can drive traffic and boost sales for your brick and mortar retail locations:

1. Engagement through promotion.
Keeping your brand in front of new and potential customers takes a concerted marketing effort. By leveraging the platforms your customers use and giving them the right messages, at the right times, with the right language, you can entice them to want to know more about your brand and spur them to purchase. Sending in-store only promotions or providing additional discounts for store shoppers can be an effective way to drive more traffic to your stores.3

2. Connecting after the sale.
With any purchase transaction, you can learn more about your customers buying habits and preferences. This point-of-sale information can help you position future products and services to appeal to your target audience. This increases the success of upselling and priming your customers to continue to buy from you. The key is finding what resonates with them and crafting your digital marketing messages to appeal to their needs and interests.

3. Capturing distant customers.
If you have a seasonal product or luxury service that is not always top of mind for your customers, then using digital marketing to reach out and remind them of your product offering can be key. For organic or healthy food vendors, re-engaging customers who may not have purchased in over 3 months can be an effective way of reminding them of the health benefits of your products and showcasing how your brand can seamlessly fit into their life and support their health goals.