8 business mistakes in the area that prevent you from attracting customers

Any business should ideally start with an analysis of the target audience. Who will come for a product or service, why, and so on. And a hairdresser, a coffee shop, a flower shop in a sleeping bag on the outskirts of the city will reveal their own characteristics, due to geography.

Let's take a cafe. If it is located in the center at the intersection of pedestrian routes, its regular customers will be there, but casual visitors will also often come by. The flow of the latter will not dry up, as the inhabitants of the whole city come to the center. At a point in the area, customers will be mainly locals and their friends. And the number of potential guests here, alas, of course, is determined by the number of nearby houses.

Therefore, to ensure that there are enough customers, you have to work. For example, these mistakes should be avoided.

1. Ignore offline ads

It is obvious that the inhabitants of the area constantly walk or drive along its streets. They also know where they are. Therefore, people often note on their own that there used to be a grocery store on the corner, and now a flower shop, or that a new bakery has opened, you have to go. However, it's best not to leave things to chance and help potential audiences learn about your business.

And for this, the outdoor is well suited. advertising in the classic version - banners, posters and so on, as well as various remote chalk boards and other similar structures. Your goal is to communicate that you exist and to arouse interest.

Local businesses also often use flyers for advertising, which are distributed in crowded places or laid out in mailboxes. But here the opinions of entrepreneurs are divided.

For example, Lyudmila Pokutneva considers this a well-established format and advises offering some kind of discount or bonus - so, in addition to recognition, the motivation to visit will additionally work. Vladimir Kolpakov, head of Urban Free, a chain of fast food kiosks in Krasnoyarsk, was also not disappointed with the tool: “People in the area are unhurried, they pick up all the leaflets, study them, and save them.”

And the managing director of the creative agency MDK Creative, Maria Vylegzhanina, notes that distributing flyers and throwing them in mailboxes is a non-working and non-environmental story. Another businesswoman agrees with her.

Another entrepreneur has a similar experience.

And since everyone's experience is different, there is only one conclusion: you need to analyze how flyers can work for your business, and experiment. However, let's pay attention to Nikita Bukhantsev's comment: it leads us to the following mistake.

2. Do not work with social networks

Our hypothetical customers are walking around the area and should be looking at signs and posters. But in fact, many of them do not take their eyes off phone. A significant part of life has moved online, and this is not good, not bad - this is a fact. And it should be taken into account when forming a client base.

Do not write off contextual advertising either. It works about the same as a banner on the road. Only from an online ad can a potential client go to your site and study in more detail what you offer, at what cost, share your link with friends.

And that is why it is important to maintain your website or social media account, update information there, publish materials and show your usefulness and attractiveness in every possible way. Well, the aerobatics is to make your establishment photogenic so that customers not only come, but also post content in their social networks.

3. Avoid geotagging on maps

Let's say a person is looking for a place to get a haircut so that they don't have to go far. Most likely, he will drive into the search engine "hairdresser near me" or immediately open the map. And if your salon is not there, the potential client simply will not know about it. Therefore, it is important to take care of your presence in services, which work with geotags.

Lyudmila Pokutneva notes: “The first place you should definitely be is the online maps of Yandex and 2GIS. It is extremely convenient for the consumer to see what is in the area. And the services themselves provide opportunities for a full representation of the organization in the company card.

True, making a point on the map is half the battle. You still need to think more about what exactly to indicate.

4. Don't care about reviews

Potential clients often read reviews on the sites where your company is represented. At the same time, one must understand that good responses are unlikely to appear by themselves. If a client is dissatisfied with something, he has a motivation to leave negative comments on all the sites that he reaches. If a person is satisfied, he is unlikely to write about it. Therefore, it should be motivated.

Getting good reviews and being complacent will be a mistake. Even in a positive light, clients often describe the nuances they encountered while interacting with your business. Bad ones, if these are not the intrigues of competitors, are also based on something. Claims show you growth points.

Since the number of potential customers is not infinite, it is important for a business in the area to turn visitors into regular guests. And showing that you are growing and developing, including thanks to reviews, is an important step towards loyalty. Although working with responses is far from all that can be done.

5. Don't build a community

We have already found out that a good customer is a regular customer, so it is important to increase the loyalty of visitors. For business in the area, the emphasis on good neighborliness and a sense of community is ideal.

To form a good relationship, Maria Vylegzhanina, Managing Director of the creative agency MDK Creative, recommends using the following methods:

• Remember your regular customers. People like to be recognized, offered a product or service tailored to their habits: “Would you like a cinnamon latte as usual?”
• Connect loyalty systems through applications. Takes ten seconds of the client's time, but gives a returning audience for the sake of accumulating points and bonus coffee or baking.
• Make special offers for certain categories. Day of discounts for pensioners (if their share is high in neighboring houses), drawings of gifts for families with children (if you have a young area), and so on. Provide discounts for groups or events that will be noted just for you.
• Arrange weekly activities, themed holidays. You can not hold back your imagination and celebrate at least Sharon Stone's birthday in your hairdressing salon.

Vladimir Kolpakov also has several secrets.

This approach makes you not just a business, but a part of the community.

6. Neglect online booking

Some people don't like to make phone calls. It is easier for them to book a table, sign up for a service through the online form. If it is not there, I want to choose another institution where it is. And this should be taken into account so as not to scare off potential visitors.

7. Do not follow the atmosphere in the team

It is important in the pursuit of customer loyalty not to lose employee trust. You should not castigate them according to the principle "the client is always right", especially in public. Not only because it's inhumane, but because they're part of the community too. Often workers live here, not far away. And for business in the area, word of mouth is of great importance.

If employees are unhappy, they come home as if from hard labor - most likely, they will share this with their loved ones, and those with their acquaintances. And the whole area knows about the strangeness of the owner. In addition, it will not be easy for a person who hates work to provide full-fledged customer service. Therefore, the atmosphere in the team should not be forgotten.

8. Stay away from neighboring companies

Of course, making friends with direct competitors is unlikely to succeed. But you can try to enter into a collaboration with a business with which your interests do not intersect. In the end, everyone can be in the black.

However, before asking for a collaboration, it is important to think about the strategy. For example, if your point of sale is new and not yet popular, the giants of the area will not have an incentive to cooperate. A dental it is strange for the office to be friends with a candy store. Find and identify benefits not only for you, but also for other businesses.

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