5 Proven Ways To Promote A Physical Location

Promoting a physical location can be a much different beast than promoting an online service. This stands to reason, right? Getting a 5-course meal in a restaurant is quite different from DoorDashing fast food. Why shouldn’t the marketing be different if the products are different?

The way you need to consider promoting your restaurant for in-store traffic needs to be especially convincing since you’re asking your intended customer to come into a physical location. If you’re asking your target customer to leave the house instead of clicking on your website, you’ll need to really make an impression!

Many small businesses, however, fail to differentiate digital and in-store revenue streams in their marketing and promote brick-and-mortar stores like they would a website. This approach just isn’t effective, and you’ll likely be left disappointed with your results. Luckily, there are some tried-and-true tips for marketing a physical location. We’ve compiled our favorites to help you reach your physical location goals. Study, learn, and implement these tips and tricks, and you’ll have a line out the door in no time!

Read Onto Learn More About Physical Location Marketing!

Do I Need To Consider Physical Locations?

Right off the bat, let’s talk about the situations where you need to consider location-based marketing. Not all business models need to consider physical location marketing. However, you should reevaluate your marketing if you fall into any of these camps.

• If Most Of Your Revenue Is Brick-And-Mortar: This is an obvious one. If most of your revenue comes from physical locations, it’s imperative that you consider this fact in your marketing. This encapsulates everything from your website to your referral programs and everything in between. If you make the majority of your money in physical stores, be sure to incorporate this fact into your marketing.
• If Your Industry Requires It: Some brands can be extremely effective in relying on online advertising, especially if their industry is a conducive one to the digital world. Online jewelry is a great example of this. You can rely exclusively on digital marketing between paid advertising, online order pages, and email remarketing if you sell and ship products. That isn’t true of all industries, however. For instance, if you’re a doctor or mechanic, there’s only so much that can be done remotely or digitally. You’re going to need to focus on getting patients to a central location to capitalize. Note that we don’t mean neglect one or the other. In fact, most industries require a combination of remote ordering and in-store revenue to be successful. Look at your business model and decide where you fall.
• If Your Physical Locations Are Out Of The Way: We’re not saying you should neglect to promote locations in the heart of downtown, but you can probably rely on a stream of off-the-street traffic for prime real estate locations. However, if your location is further out of the way or hard to access, you need a way to drive quality traffic to that location.
• If You Need To Qualify Customers: You can do much via the digital world to determine if a customer is a good match for your services. However, this isn’t a cure-all, and there are a lot of cases where you might need to meet with patients or clients face-to-face to see if this is a good match. Vets, medical offices, and mechanics are great examples of professionals who really need some quality facetime to diagnose problems effectively.

Here are the most common situations where you can likely eschew specific-location marketing entirely, even if you see many in-store purchases.

• If You Have An Extremely Recognizable Brand: Starbucks doesn’t need to remind you where their locations are. If you have an insane level of market saturation, promoting particular locations is probably best reserved for new openings or very special use cases. Everyone knows where the closest mass-coffee shop is, so you’re probably better suited to putting your dollars elsewhere.
• If Impromptu Purchases Drive Your Business: If impromptu purchases are a huge part of your business, you probably have enough in-store traffic at this point. Think Walmart or a large retail store. Promotions and the correct pricing will be much more impactful than incremental traffic to your locations if your brand is, in fact, this large.
• If You Have A Lot Of Well-Located Stores: Fast food stores near highways and main thoroughfares are great examples of this. Other than a billboard and a few signs, these stores probably require zero-to-none in physical location marketing.

There is an important caveat to remember when looking at our examples of business models that don’t promote individual locations as thoroughly. Note that none of these companies neglect digital advertising at large. Large companies with many physical locations, like Walmart and Starbucks, still invest heavily in their digital advertising to reach their customers and remind them that their stores exist. They’re less focused on any location unless it’s a new store. Even if you are well-established in your area, investing in quality digital marketing is always the right call to keep your customers coming in.

Our Recommendations For Location-Based Marketing

Alright, folks, it’s time to reveal our thoughts on the most effective tactics for promoting physical locations. Please note this is not to say that you should be ignoring other tactics entirely. Instead, we recommend viewing these digital and traditional marketing tactics as your foundation to build.

Physical Location Tip 1: Local SEO & Reputation Management

Local SEO is where we recommend you focus your efforts to begin. This is absolutely the building block to nail down before other marketing tactics. Here’s why.

Some 40% or so of all Google searches revolve around local searches, and the vast majority of searchers will find the solution they’re looking for in the first three search results. Optimizing your listings on sites like Google Maps, Yelp, Bing, and other map services is a surefire way to make it easier to be found online. Through high-quality images, correct information, SEO improvements, and high-quality reviews, you can rise to the top of your market’s Local SEO results and make it easier for customers to find directions to your physical locations.

Remember, people who are searching on Google for a business (i.e., restaurant near me) intend to make an appearance at that location. If you can get your listing via Local SEO near the top of Google, the likelier it is that they land on your listing and the likelier they are to visit.

Physical Location Tip 2: Refer a Friend Programs & Coupons

Your competition with online stores means that you need compelling reasons for your customers to come into your store. It will always be very easy to order on Amazon, so you must sweeten the pot for your potential customers. Refer-A-Friend Programs and coupons are two great ways to do just that. You’re letting your customers become your advertising by incentivizing your customers to promote you to their circles via Refer-A-Friend programs. The same is true of coupons with initial purchases. Both of these incentives dramatically increase the odds that you’ll see increases in the number of in-store purchases, as you’ve given the customer a reason to come to the store.

Physical Location Tip 3: Paid Advertising

Now, we know what you’re thinking. Why would paid digital advertising help promote a physical location.

Well, there are a few use cases we’d recommend you consider paid advertising for. The good news is that all three of these paid advertising options have geographic targeting options and are cost-effective ways of quickly reaching large numbers of people.

• Google Ads: Promote a location page on your website via Google Ads. Again, getting to the top of Google via paid ads is a great way to get in-store traffic.
• Google Maps: Use paid ad campaigns to keep your digital listing at the top of Google Maps and other map listings.
• Social Ads: Paid social advertising is actually pretty effective for physical locations! Run special ad campaigns for your locations to keep customers aware of your locations.

Physical Location Tip 4: Location-Based Content

One of the best ways to promote a specific physical location is to incorporate location-based keywords into your web content. If you can rank #1 on Google for “coffee shops Main street, Johnsonville,” you’re perfectly primed to receive online web traffic for people searching for that term. These keywords also help Google understand your physical location and help you rank for location-based keywords on Google Maps. If you can rank for these search terms, your content is likely to rank well and be found by prospective customers on search engine results pages.

Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design Today

Are you ready to grow your online presence for your physical locations? You’re in the right spot! Talk to an JSL Marketing & Web Design expert today to craft a custom marketing strategy.

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