How to get more local customers with little to no budget.

Show Notes

This episode focuses on how business owners can attract more eyeballs online and turn those views into in-store traffic. We'll have a special guest named Justin who will walk us through some tactical strategies to achieve that. 

What is Material Retail Dumps?

Material Retail Dumps is a short-form podcast with brief but valuable content for independent retailers selling clothing, home goods, stationary and more. As business owners we don't have time for a 30-minute lesson with a ton of banter, that's why we created our podcast. We get straight to the meat of the topic and aim to give you actionable information that will help you optimize your retail operations and make more money every day.

Welcome to material retail dumps episode six. I personally love this episode cuz it focuses on how you can get new customers to discover your business with no monetary ally. All you need is a little bit of time.
All right. So today's show is gonna be about, um, finding ways to get more local traffic. Um, a very special guest on the show today. Name is Justin. Um, Justin's an ex expert in exactly that. So, uh, I'll let Justin introduce himself.
Yeah. Hey, thanks for having me on the show Elliott. So I'm Justin and I've helped countless businesses get more local foot traffic, uh, in their doors by optimizing the easiest ways for small businesses to, uh, to market themselves locally. Uh, and I'm excited to share some info.
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, so we'll right into it. We like to keep it, uh, quick, straight to the, of the topic, few question and can't wait to hears. So as expert in getting more local traffic, tell me why it's important to focus on our online listings.
It's hugely important to focus on your online listings because nine out of 10 people now, when looking for any kind of business are going to turn to Google or Bing or apple maps, uh, or any kind of online search platform or directory and type in something like children's clothing store near me. Uh, and those are the most likely consumers to go and actually make a purchase. It's something like around 74% of people that search for something near them will actually go visit them within 24 hours or complete a purchase. And so you'll get your business right in front of the people that are most likely to become a customer, uh, when you focus on your online listings,
Uh, that's awesome. That makes a ton of sense. All right. So now that we understand that it's important, why it's important, where should we start? Are we better off like focusing on one platform like Google or should we spread out onto a bunch of different platforms?
It's a good question. Google's definitely the most important that's where about 90% of all search traffic happens. And so you definitely want to spend the most amount of time focusing on optimizing your Google profile because let's say, uh, you know, not all consumers will type in the name of your business or even clothing store. When looking for a clothing store, they might actually search, uh, start their search by typing in the name of a brand. And so when you're looking at optimizing your profile, you need to really think about all the different things that your potential customers might be searching for. So you can add that information to your Google profile so that Google knows to show you, uh, when someone's searching for that. So if there's a brand that you sell, you definitely want to let Google know, but even though Google's the most important platform out there by far, you still need to add your information to sites like Facebook and Bing and yellow pages. And that's because Google will actually cross reference your business information on various platforms online, just to make sure that what they have for you is accurate. Uh, so these, uh, these will add some confidence to, uh, to Google for your business, if everything is in sync everywhere. And so you, although Google's the most important, you definitely need to focus on optimizing your profiles on various platforms just to further help your Google, uh, rankings.
Awesome. That's uh, that's great feedback. So if I have a $0 budget, I wanna spend nothing on this. What should, what should we do?
$0 budget is enough. Luckily to get started with Google, their Google business profile platform, which used to be called Google. My business is entirely free and you know, you can take the time and fill that out yourself. Uh, you'll just wanna be very, uh, aware of what will help you rank. Uh, and so you'll wanna do some research if you're gonna do this yourself to make sure you put in the keywords that matter and, uh, and the proper images and stuff like that. So definitely start with creating your Google business profile, then moving on your Facebook, uh, and, and a bunch of other platforms that Google will look for.
That's awesome. That's awesome. All right. Now one that I, I definitely get troubled with is let's say we're in a really, really small town, you know, there's, we're the only clothing store or the only, um, restaurant or whatever it is in town. Why is this matter to me? You know, everybody's just gonna come to my business anyway, cause I'm the only game in town.
Yeah. There's a couple of good reasons for this, actually. So again, if Google doesn't know exactly what you sell or, or what services you offer, then you're not going to rank for those keywords. So let's say you are a boutique and you sell, you know, 30 different brands and you also do, uh, tailoring services. If you didn't tell Google that you are a tailor as well, that when someone searches for a tailor near me, they don't know that you can actually offer that service. So you really need to educate Google so that they can help you show up, not just for your primary keyword, like, uh, women's boutique, but also for things like tailors near me, or maybe, you know, shoe repair near me or other, uh, services that your business offers. Also, tourists go through towns all the time. And when a tourist is in a new city and they're looking for a, uh, for a business or a service or a product, they turn to Google, uh, and if Google doesn't know about your business and what you offer, then you just can't win that tourist business. So even if you're in a really small town, it's super important that you focus on your local listings,
Uh, that makes, that makes a ton of sense. Uh, thank you so much. I really appreciate, and I know we, our listeners will really appreciate the feedback. I think a lot of, uh, marketing and advertising these days is just to throw money at a wall. So it's really nice to hear, um, about some frees that you can get some more local customers and just new customers. Thank you so much.
Thanks for having me.