Establishing an in-person presence for your business might sound like an outdated thing to do, but this is still a great way to start building your brand. The majority of people still prefer to shop in-store, after all, and in-person interactions can help brands with everything from building trusting connections to boosting local loyalty.
In the modern age, however, there will come a time when you’ll probably want to branch out online, both for the sake of expanding your audience and providing additional ease to the shoppers you’ve got. This can feel daunting as it means embarking on an entirely new way of business atop what you already do. Luckily, you’ve already established your audience. Now, it’s simply time to think about how you can get them on board with what you’re doing online, too.
In this article, we’ll consider just a few of the best techniques for attracting a physical audience to your online space.
Tip 1: Design a Website They’ll Recognize
Developing an online store should never mean redesigning your brand. If you change things like your brand color choices and general design focuses on your site, then there’s very little chance that your in-person shoppers will recognize, or connect with what you’re trying to do. Not to mention that opting for different branding in these two spaces can significantly impact the brand continuity you should always aim towards.
Instead, it’s worth making sure that your online store sticks to the exact same brand guidelines as the ones you use within your physical space. This is true even if you’re entrusting the specifics of web design to out-of-house experts like those at The Genie Lab, as your brand guidelines will be key to ensuring they produce content and website designs that fit perfectly with your overall vision.
As well as generally keeping your messaging and color scheme the same online, you’ll also want to think about mimicking the overall impression that your in-person space gives. For instance, if you have a sleek, stripped-back store finish, then an equally minimal and sophisticated online store design will immediately help your in-person shoppers to feel at home with this new way of doing business.
Tip 2: Find New Ways to Utilize Your Following
Even if you’ve largely operated in an in-person capacity until now, the chances are that you’re already connecting with your audience online in some way. Whether that’s through an email newsletter that shoppers can sign up for at the till, or via a social media page that documents daily happenings in-store, never underestimate the power of that following in an age where some businesses go as far as buying online followers for benefits like visibility boosts.
Your challenge is simply to discover how you can utilize that following to branch into a new way of doing business. Your best option is to simply let people know about your online efforts through methods that include social media updates or even an email newsletter with a direct link to your online store. You could also incentivize online signups for existing customers with benefits like unique discount codes within an announcement email or, perhaps more effectively, money-off offers for any of your followers who recommend their friends to your newly opened online store.
Tip 3: Provide In-Person Incentives
Speaking of incentives, even if in-person shoppers aren’t currently following you online, providing incentives to do so at point of sale could have a major impact on your online sales figures. Even something as simple as an in-bag flier that informs them of your new web address and benefits like free shipping may see more people heading to your site.
As with the pointer above, you may also find it beneficial to provide tailored incentives to encourage your in-person audience online, like a loyalty code for money off their first voucher when they shop in store.
Tip 4: Connect Whatever you can
It could also be useful to link your in-person systems to your online platform whenever possible, allowing you to sign reluctant consumers up for an online account at the till, and also ensuring that they receive relevant online recommendations based on whatever they’re buying in your store.
Equally, you should aim to make things like loyalty schemes available across both in-person and online stores. Within your online customer service, you could also provide personalized options to speak with sales assistants that your physical customers may already be familiar with.
This is a relatively small step, but this level of cross-platform ease could prove vital for in-person customers who are liable to turn away from your online experience at the first sign of friction.
Tip 5: Put Your Audience in the Hot-Seat
Starting an online store after you’ve already established an in-person presence can be undeniably difficult, but it also provides the benefit of already having an audience on hand for suggestions and improvements. Putting your audience in the hot seat by, say, conducting in-store surveys or sending out suggestion boxes on your social media, can ensure you’re creating an online space that your in-person consumers will enjoy using. Giving your audience a say in how your online store turns out can also increase their loyalty, and leave them more likely to visit.
Suggestions that you may especially want to float or research could include things like whether your audience would prefer home delivery or in-store click-and-collect, and also simply whether they’re more likely to shop in-store or online moving forward. This will give you the best possible idea about what to expect, where design priorities should lie, and whether or not your in-person audience will convert online at all.
Conclusion
It’s never easy to embark on a new mode of operations, especially if you’ve established a great business presence already. Realistically, though, business growth and development are reliant on your ability to prioritize changes like going online. Make sure that change runs as smoothly as possible by getting your existing audience on board in these key ways.