Hey Local Retailer - Are You Ready To Use Your Customers Cell Phones To Get More Sales?

Since I bought a new phone I’ve kept Foursquare on. It’s pretty neat. I’ get alerted when I’m near a restaurant or other retailer and encouraged to check-in, get a deal or just get information about it. I like this and think this version of “privacy invasion” is good.

Are you using Foursquare or other tools and services to boost engagement with local traffic to your local business?

Imagine the thousands of people streaming into a mall every day, or visiting downtown. Did you know how you can leverage local marketing tools and services to encourage customers to visit you?

As with any marketing it’s critical to MEASURE the return on your marketing investment.

Spending $5,000 on marketing and making $1,000 - means you are losing money. Of course for some marketing there is NOT a direct line between a sale and an advertisement. However, as you test your local marketing you should definitely look for a direct line between your advertising spend and a new (or repeat) customer.

There are solutions that compete with Foursquare as well. The Wall Street Journal writes “”Instead of offering a general promotion that may or may not hit a nerve, we can promote specifically to the customer’s taste,” says Mr. Zhang. He recently emblazoned workout tank-tops with his restaurant’s logo, based on the data about his customers’ gym visits”

Check out Foursquare advertising here.

For current customers make sure you are CAPTURING their information so that “for free” you can market to them over and over again and encourage them to buy from you - again and again.

After you ATTRACT customers make sure you have a system in place to regularly nurture and reach out to them. A CRM system is the ideal tool for this. Here’s information from Infusionsoft on attracting traffic and leveraging CRM to do it.