Everyday Marketing: Online Strategies for Offline Businesses

A friend and I have recently begun placing the final touches on the website for his salon and day spa business which kicked up a discussion that, naturally, lead to strategies for pulling in new customers using the web.

My experience with online marketing has been greatly focused around web-based products and technologies although I do have a background in working eCommerce for my old job that sold physical products.

Let me tell you, there’s a huge difference in the approach to marketing; you may not be getting a lot of great information from posts on marketing because they simply don’t fit your model.

I wanted to diverge from the usual “make a list” or “guest post on blogs” approach to online marketing to give you something concrete that works in the real-world – something along the lines of “everyday marketing”.

The Real-World, Online Strategies for Offline Businesses

Let’s take a look at what I’ve found to be effective in marketing, now that we understand the position offline business owners face when trying to adapt online marketing strategies.

Naturally, I began to take what I do when promoting online and bundled it up for my friend and his offline business. After a long round of beers and discussions, we noticed that not everything works because there are vastly different factors to consider such as long-term customers, local competition, foot traffic, holidays, employees and much more.

There is overlap when you think of these topics but it’s not necessarily the same; example: long-term customers for an online business could mean just 2 – 3 years but brick and mortar shops pull in clients that have been there for 20+ sometimes – these relationships are dramatically different.

Take a look at this infographic, first:

Okay, now that we’re on the same level, let’s dig in …

1. Always Be Closing

Always be on top of your game with business in mind whenever you’re out to a social event; most business deals will stem from the casual connections you make while having a beer or kicking it while waiting in line.

• Lead with Information. My friend at the salon loves to play the social engineering game when it comes to promoting his services. He’s the type to walk up to women at a bar and begin stroking their hair while commenting on their looks. What he’s actually doing, besides picking them up, is giving them a great conversation with helpful tips on how they can improve their hair which, at the same time, leads into an inevitable discussion about the salon and opens an opportunity to gain a client.

• Look for Leverage Points. While working at TRK, a printer consumables company, I would walk around at small shops and poke my head into their office areas to look at their printers. Over time, I’d mention that I work for a company that can save them money if they switched to remanufactured consumables rather than buying OEM. I would hand out a business card and even pull up their printer on the business website; from there, the sale was easy.

• Freestyle your Conversations. Every casual discussion usually gets to the inevitable “so, what do you do?” phase. When this moments pops up, I’m sure to mention my online work, freelancing and how being online can greatly increase the bottom line. After a few minutes, the other personal understands what I mean and often wants me to contact them and discuss my services.

What I’m trying to say here is that when you’re out and about – you always need to notice the little leverage points in marketing your business. These opportunities are frequent throughout the day.

2. Build a Site, Treat It like Ecommerce

The United States is shifting toward a service based industry; less physical products, more personal services. Our shift in this direction means that we take a dramatic divergence from marketing products into marketing ourselves.

• Make Services your Products. A service is a product; a product is a service in this day and age. We’ve been setting up the salon website so it acts like an ecommerce website rather than a freelance service style site. Rather than a single page for all our services – we’re creating individual, high content sales pages for each which not only adds weight to the website but also allows us to create an ecommerce feel when we replace “buy it now” with “request an appointment”.

• Work the Angles. Take full advantage of every holiday, event and happening to create some kind of deal for your website – just like ecommerce. Services are based around time so giving away 10% of your earnings to pull in new, long-term clients is well worth the small hit. Every occasion this year, we’ll be holding a discount that will have people talking, exploring the website, following the brand, and walking into the business.

• Create Verticals. The web gives you unlimited space to hold inventory so run with it and add an actual ecommerce element to your website via ‘shop’. You can use shopping carts like DPD to begin offering the products you sell in store to people visiting through the web. We’re doing this on a massive scale because there are dozens of products in the salon that only salon owners can sell; few ecommerce stores sell these products so we’re creating a vertical (and horizontal) opportunity to earn more.

For many, they throw up a website for their offline business and call it a day without realizing the incredible opportunity to create a content-rich website that acts like ecommerce. This simple shift in mindset can turn your industry on its head like we plan to do with the salon business.

3. Network with Unconventional Businesses

We all understand the importance of networking but we often just stick to our same group of friends, family and business partners. There is, however, a entire world of opportunity; even in the most unconventional places.

For example, here are a few ideas we were kicking around for networking the salon:

• Team up with a local photographer (we know a few) and work with them when they do glamour shots; my friends business would provide hair and beauty services so both parties win.

• Creating niche “package deals” that would appeal to certain, high-end businesses that could be passed down to their customers or employees such as a “Cloud 9” session aimed toward employees of local business which would work great for holiday parties.

• Use the business blog to do interviews, before/after and “meet the …” style posts that entice people to share on their social media accounts which, by definition, should reach other local business owners especially if the clients are local business owners in themselves.

Other things I’ve discussed, with another friend that runs a bakery, is how they should team up with local meat and cheese shops to provide bread and thus, completing the “sandwich circle”.

The businesses you network with don’t necessarily need to be completely relevant to your own.

In fact, many unconventional businesses may be your greatest asset because they have no interest in skimming your customers and it creates a wider circle of business contacts rather than sticking to the same group that most associate with.

For my own plans, I’d much rather work with local realtors, lawyers, car dealerships, or novelty shops because these are the business owners that are constantly talking to people which may lead to them name dropping my business; rather than only associating with other online business owners.

Final Thoughts

There’s billions of dollars in opportunity floating around out there; walking in front of your business every day – getting them in the door is where the real challenge comes to play.

Online marketing is very powerful but can be overwhelming and distracting when all you find is a collection of tactics that work closely to information products; this post, on the flipside, should be far more accurate in helping the everyday business owner.

Take an idea and run with it; put every bit of your business knowledge to its test. Leverage what you know but with the aid of the web.