If you’re a small business operator it’s hard to keep up with every trend, particularly when it comes to Social Media and marketing your business.
Many are just getting their heads around Facebook, which is a great start as I know there are still many without even a website.
But if you’re adventurous enough then you may consider getting involved in what is called location-based marketing.
The main player is Foursquare. The platform has more than 50 million members worldwide who have checked in some 6 billion times.
There are a number of benefits for a small business using Foursquare, it’s a great opportunity to target potential customers already in the area, it allows you to interact with them before they even get to your business and hey it’s free.
As with many free marketing opportunities, it all comes down to attitude and creativity. If you have the attitude and can create ideas that inspire your customers then it will be a successful venture. That said, if you need some inspiration for Foursquare specials for your business here are five ideas that will hopefully inspire your customer.
Promote Regular Check-Ins
Reward customers when they reach milestone check-ins. Have a think about how much money a customer would have spent with your business if they’ve checked in 100 times and reward them appropriately. Have the milestone rewards promoted so that customers have something to look forward to and why not even, if it suits your business, have something that promotes customers that have reached a milestone. By doing this, you encourage customers to be loyal to your business, as they take pride in being acknowledged.
Communicate Specials/Distribute Coupons
Promote a special such as check-in to receive 20% off your purchase or buy one, get one free. Particularly if you’re in a concentrated business area, when people are looking for other venues, your special will stand out and hopefully encourage a sale. You may want to even use this to drive more traffic on a slow trading day, such as check-in on Tuesdays for a discount. Another great way to engage your customers and increase business is to promote group check-ins, for example a restaurant or bar can promote a check-in with two friends and receive a free bottle of wine special.
Celebrate Your Mayor
One of the more obvious strategies for business using Foursquare is to offer your Mayor a free coffee or the like, I’ve even seen a bar provide a Mayor with a free shot of Agwa on arrival (whilst the Mayor might come often I expect the visits are shorter). Let’s take this to another level and really celebrate the Mayoral role of your business.
This will all of course depend on the type of business you operate but perhaps I can throw in a few ideas that may work for you. Maybe you can change the offer each month for the Mayor (making sure it’s communicated ahead of time), this may encourage another customer to make a huge effort in the lead-up to the offer. Perhaps you can even promote them instore with their name above the bar, behind the counter, start thinking I am sure you will come up with something.
Encourage Customers to Leave Tips
In a social world consumers are looking to reviews and looking for referrals to make just about any decision from what movie to see, what sports shoe to wear, which restaurant to eat at. Use Foursquare as a vehicle to generate more tips for your business, it engages them in the short-term and the real benefit may be in the tips they leave, as they will be there for potential customers to read. Hopefully they are good enough tips to make that potential customer go into your business.
Promote Your Foursquare Presence
OK, so you’ve claimed your venue on Foursquare and you’ve posted a special, now you are looking to promote it and leverage the location-based marketing effort both online and offline.
One of the keys here is to ensure that your customers remember to check-in so you will need to do something to remind them each time they come into your business. Foursquare has window decals that you can have produced to let all customers know that you are a Foursquare venue.
Seriously, local newspaper advertising is expensive and you will more than often not get a return on your investment. Foursquare is as I mentioned earlier free and a whole lot more fun. Please claim your venue if you haven’t already and give this a go, it’s not going to double your sales but in a competitive world small business must continually do that little bit extra to inspire consumers and this is a great start.
If you have any other Foursquare ideas for small business then please post a comment or if you have any questions feel free. I would love for you to share this post around to all of your friends who operate small business as I honestly believe in the benefits and always love to see the little guy competing on an even keel with the big boys.