Getting customers to walk through the door is an incredible victory for any brand. It’s real-world proof that your marketing resonates with the right people, and that they want to support your products or services. Foot traffic may be an everyday occurrence, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy.
If your company is struggling to increase foot traffic to your locations, or want to know the impact of increased foot traffic on your bottom line, GroundTruth is here to help. We’ve put together a list of the most important channels for driving in-store visits and other real business results.
Why Do Brands Need More Foot Traffic?
Before we dive into strategies for driving foot traffic, let’s talk about why it’s a critical KPI for successful marketing. Despite the popularity of online shopping, 80% of retail purchases occur in-store. What’s more, 31% of shoppers who made a discovery inside a location made the purchase right away.
What does that mean for your company? Not only do the majority of shoppers make their purchases offline, but they also tend to make purchases more impulsively when in brick-and-mortar store locations. While online shopping is still an important part of your marketing strategy, investing in driving in-store visits can be what sets you apart from your competition.
Best Ad Channels for Increased Foot Traffic
So, where should you spend your marketing dollars to ensure that you’re top-of-mind with offline shoppers? The short answer is where your audience is. But this wouldn’t be a very helpful resource if we stopped there, so here’s a more specific strategy:
- Use CTV to capture new audiences: CTV ads provide an opportunity to reach people who may not have visited your location yet. Often used as an awareness campaign, they can provide incentive and limited time offers that will drive increased visitation and demand. Since CTV audiences are much more engaged than other audiences, this is an essential component of any performance marketing strategy.
- Leverage mobile retargeting to create loyalists: Retargeting ads are some of the most efficient ways to drive sales and conversions in terms of spend and results. Through showing ads to loyal customers, you can increase in-store visits, plus increase impulse buys with exclusive deals.
- Use hyper-local channels to connect with impulse shoppers: Most marketers know how to leverage the funnel for increased traffic, but they ignore in-the-moment, hyper-local campaigns that can connect with shoppers based on their locations. When you know a diner is on your block, for example, why not show them an ad to turn right for their best meal? A little investment goes a long way for hyper-local, location-based advertising.
- Send direct mail for lapsed customers: Direct mail is another overlooked channel that can be especially effective on churned customers. Reminding customers of products they used to love, or introducing them to new products can be just what they need to revisit your store.
Of course, how much you invest in each channel will ebb and flow depending on a variety of factors, but each of the above channels should give you what you need to start driving more foot traffic to your brick-and-mortar locations.
Multiply your Impact with an Omnichannel Strategy
Adding any of these channels to your ad strategy will help drive more customers to your stores and increase those real business results you need to grow your business. The best investment to make, however, is an omnichannel strategy that engages customers across all channels.
Retail shoppers, specifically, use multiple channels, both online and offline, to make purchases from their favorite stores. If you’re not showing up across all their favorite devices with new offerings and messaging, you could be leaving money on the table. If you want to build successful ad campaigns that work long-term, invest in an omnichannel ad strategy.
Learn How to Drive Foot Traffic with Digital Ad Dollars
To learn more about how to use real-world behavior to drive real business results, like increased foot traffic, contact us today. We’ll show you how easy it is to launch, manage and report on omnichannel ad campaigns using GroundTruth.
