How to increase the incoming flow of customers the original solution. How to increase the flow of customers if the institution is not in sight: the cafe experience

We talked about what the force of attraction of a store is, what factors influence it, and how to objectively assess the attractiveness of a store in the eyes of a buyer. Today we will tell you how to increase the flow of customers to your store.

There are not so many main criteria for choosing a store by a buyer - there are only seven of them. To form a constant flow of buyers, it is worth matching at least one. And if your store meets all seven, then sales will definitely go up.

Hold back prices

The main factor that influences the purchase decision has always been and remains the price. A store with cheap goods is more attractive to customers than a store with expensive ones. This rule applies to all categories of people - and with small, and medium, and high income. Read more about the correct pricing in the store in this article.

If the low-income simply cannot afford large expenses, then for people with average incomes, buying goods at low prices is a kind of sport and psychotherapy: the opportunity to save money gives the buyer a feeling of joy and satisfaction (“made bargain purchase"," Doing the right thing).

Wealthy buyers also take part of the goods daily demand in inexpensive shops. Firstly, because they know how to count money (“why pay more if the same thing can be bought cheaper”). Secondly, because in very wealthy families, a housekeeper often goes shopping. Thirdly, the fact that people can afford delicacies does not mean that they eat only them.

For the population from the low-income category, inexpensive stores with a large assortment are the most attractive. For the sake of savings, people will come to your store from afar and buy "in full".

Expand your range

If finances and space do not allow expanding the assortment to the desired scale, you can cooperate with other merchants who offer something that you do not have on sale. For example, moving a store from a separate building to a large shopping center or renting space on a shopping street. The flow of buyers of two closely located stores, which successfully complement each other, more than doubles (this is exactly what tenants of space in shopping centers pay for). By the way, read this article about how to choose and rent a place in a shopping center.

Deepen your assortment

Deepening is the expansion of the range of one product category. The buyer is more willing to go to a store where instead of three varieties of sausage, 30 are presented in different price groups. The more diverse the choice, the higher the likelihood of a purchase.

Simultaneous expansion and deepening of the range leads to the need to increase the sales area. Super- and hypermarkets with a huge and deep assortment create the largest flow of customers. We wrote earlier about how a small store can survive in the age of hypermarkets.

Think of any of the networks household appliances, in the assortment of which there are thousands of trade names and hundreds of models in each group. In those cities where their branches are open, smaller dealers in equipment are forced to close or change their profile due to the outflow of buyers.

The same picture is in the trade in building materials: large stores, where everything for construction, decoration and repair is sold in one place, are ousting small ones from the market.

To create a flow of buyers in the face of competition with a giant, you can look at one of the following solutions:

• Open a highly specialized store of one product group and provide the most complete and deep assortment, including rare and unique species goods. In order to increase the financial return from a thinning stream of customers, one should move to a higher price segment and attract buyers with something that a hypermarket cannot offer;
• Develop the “Everything for the Home” or “Thousand Little Things” direction, offering residents of the microdistrict various household trifles: light bulbs, clothespins, soap and other inexpensive small-sized goods;
• Sell ​​products through catalogs and through online stores. In this case, you can save a large assortment and save on trading space. For example, to equip a showroom of samples in the former premises of the store, and deliver goods to customers directly from the warehouse. Enterprises of this format successfully sell furniture, books, fashionable clothes, children's things, electronics and much more. How to properly organize and arrange shopping room in the store you will learn in this article.

Offer something special

The majority of Russian shopping centers have the same assortment, so, other things being equal, the flows of their customers are divided equally. As it turned out, there is only one way to stand out from the mass of monotony - to put up for sale something that is not found anywhere else.

Unique products form a special flow of buyers who are ready to travel many kilometers for them, sometimes from another area or even a city. And it is these goods that make the shopping center a sales leader in its territory.

The owners of large retail space in the United States they are hunting for sellers of rarities, attracting them in every possible way with preferential conditions, because special offer even one tenant brings profit to the whole store. Uniqueness is a powerful attraction factor and lack of competition.

Make your visit fun

Shopping can be a daily routine, or maybe a family holiday. Entertainment stores are often visited by the whole family and spend more time there.

The tools for creating a customer flow in the shopping center will be theatrical performances on weekends, games and competitions with the participation of visitors, attractions, cinemas, cafes, restaurants, children's complexes, etc.

Entertainment and interesting things can be organized in small shop. For example, in a fish store you can put an aquarium with live fish, in a pet store you can create a living corner, in a store children's creativity or computer technology- organize a corner for children to get acquainted with technologies.

This approach will increase the attractive power of the store even in the absence of unique products. Your assortment may be no different from the assortment of the neighboring outlet, but sales will go better for you.

Increase comfort and safety

The shop where the buyer feels comfort and safety has a greater attractive force. This applies to both the internal environment (friendly staff, cozy interior, wide aisles, no queues, reliable luggage storage) and external details (large parking, comfortable porch, clean and well-groomed area near the entrance).

The absence of a cart ramp or the need to wait for the storage room to leave the bag will redirect part of the flow of your customers to competitors.

Be experts in your business

A seller who knows the product well and can give expert advice on it is more trusted by buyers. Therefore, to increase the attractiveness of the store, be experts in your field.

Many people like to ask questions about a product that caught their attention, and their satisfaction with the answer often determines their purchase decision. Therefore, work on improving the competence of your staff - conduct training seminars or hire those who have a professional specialization in your field.

In addition to verbal consultations, it is useful to provide customers with audiovisual information about the product - from text plates on the shelves to videos on large screens on the trading floor.

Text by Tatiana Blagovidova

Photo by Inna Ptitsyna

MangoStudio. What is interesting about the project

My story is about how I tried with all my might to leave the field in which I worked for many years, and how I eventually managed to find huge business potential in it, fall in love again and launch my MangoStudio project.

Today my team creates turnkey websites. It's no accident that I say "my team" and not "my company." Because our interaction is more like a partnership, and not like "the boss said, the boss found a client - everyone else did." Each employee can bring a customer himself and get his own percentage from this. Such a scheme of work allows us to work very harmoniously.

At the same time, clients often find us themselves - I just learned to attract their attention on the Internet. Customers also contact me through special exchanges - there are also interesting features here, which I will discuss below.

Disadvantages of office life

I created my first website in 10th grade. Then, after studying at the university, she got a job as a programmer in a bank, then in another. It's been 7 years. Outwardly, everything was fine - a stable salary, paid vacation, and so on - but every year some kind of discontent and resistance grew in me.

I was strained by the office system - come to 9, leave after 6, sit these hours, even if work is this moment No. If you need to go somewhere, you have to ask. Neither personal nor professional development and there was no question.

I was so tired of everything that against this background I decided to do away with web programming altogether and began to look for options for what to do. I couldn’t go anywhere: I lived in Moscow without relatives, I provided for myself, and it would be critical for me to be left without money.

Reboot on maternity leave

With my boyfriend, we thought it would be cool to launch our own online store. And they began to think about the niche. They thought, probably, for a couple of years - everyone was afraid to take on the unfamiliar, to invest in some unknown product. I even wanted to create a site for the future portal myself, but I didn’t know what products to count on. In the end, the idea fizzled out.

At this time, everything in the bank began to strain me completely. Every day - stress, headache. We understood that I needed to leave this job. And they decided, while I was at a crossroads, to bring to life what we had been thinking about together for a long time - to start a family and give birth to a child. For some reason I was sure that I would find myself in the decree. I’ll take a break, catch my breath while my husband provides, since he doesn’t mind.

We organized our own wedding. Everything turned out great, and I immediately wanted to establish my own wedding agency. Thought I was interested, leafed through beautiful blogs organizing girls, admired their work and dreamed of the same beauty around.

I didn't have a portfolio, so I started by organizing a marketing forum for wedding professionals (by franchise). The members came to hear about how they can promote themselves. I also spoke there, but most of the questions for me were not about weddings, but about creating websites. After all, I have a huge experience in this, and as it turned out, the meeting participants really lacked a person who could explain everything to them.

It was on that day that I realized that I did not need to go far from programming. I am a specialist, and I can really help people in solving their problems. Apparently, this maternity break really became a good reboot for me.

Business course and launch of your project

I decided to return to my field, working for myself. However, I didn't quite understand what to do with it. I took orders on stock exchanges, but earned little money, about 20-30 thousand rubles a month. But a lot of time was spent on them, and this worried me a lot - after all, I could stay with my baby.

A girl I know told me about the business course of Galiya Berdnikova - “Life. Business. Success ”(now it has been expanded and is called“ The Way of the Dream ”- ed.). She was delighted with the training, and I decided that this was a sign for me to gain the missing knowledge about self-promotion and earnings.

On the course, I was still stormy about the choice of direction. But Galiya then said something surprising in its simplicity: there is no need to look for one niche for life. Life changes, and today you can do one thing, and after some time open a new business. And I understood the root of my problems: I was always trying to find a life's work, so I thought for a long time, sorted it out, looked to see if it suits me exactly and whether I will live with it until old age.

It clicked in my head: you just need to shove in some direction. It's time to act, not to think. And since websites are what I do best, it makes sense to start with them.

I wanted to start my own web studio with several specialists to provide different services. But during the training, I realized that I have a weak point: if in terms of programming I understand what prices, what standards, then I don’t know another important part of the site - design - at all. That is, even if I hire freelancers, I will not be able to manage them and evaluate the quality of their work.

And I decided to study design. I thought that if I like it and succeed, I will take over this direction, and I will start delegating the program part. Just because I wanted something new. And if it doesn’t work out, then at least I’ll learn everything about design, I’ll be able to distinguish good from bad in order to manage hiring specialists.

Learned, learned. And fell in love with this new sphere in full. At first I thought to provide only design services. But then I decided to talk with my target audience, to find out what they generally need.

My clients are businessmen. I communicated with them in various business communities in in social networks. And I realized that few of them need just a design. They want to turn to a person who will solve their problems completely. That is, he will make a website and at the same time will be engaged in its promotion.

So I hired programmers, a marketer, and a copywriter, and started designing myself. We started building websites.

Not a company - but a team

I position myself not as a studio owner, but as a team manager. The guys and I are equal, everyone is just like self-employed. Any of us can bring a client and receive a reward for this - 10% of the total order. I just distribute the work and be responsible for the result.

And although each of the performers can work with third-party customers, our team turned out to be very well-coordinated. Moreover, we now have a constant flow of customers. We will be expanding more soon as I want to take on more projects.

As a result, for a year of work, we have reached a monthly turnover of 300-400 thousand rubles. We work with clients on a project-by-project basis, and each performer receives his share from the order.

My income now is 80-90 thousand rubles a month. This amount includes my salary and net profit, which I then use to further promote and pay for domains, hosting and other expenses. I get paid for both design and project management.

I lay the price for management immediately in the cost of the project, because it really takes a lot of time - to coordinate everything with customers, distribute tasks to everyone, monitor their implementation, show everything to the customer, and so on.

2. Exchanges where you can find orders or leave your contacts so that the client can contact you.

I use two exchanges.

• upwork.com. Foreign clients come to this resource, with whom I really like to work! First, they require more high level quality. In order to meet it, you have to constantly replenish the piggy bank of your knowledge and skills. And due to this, my professionalism is growing very quickly.

Secondly, they are ready to pay a lot for this level, which, unfortunately, differs from domestic customers. We believe that creating a site is a matter of five minutes. And foreigners understand that quality work needs to be paid adequately.

• Behance.net. This is a designer portfolio site. There you can set your tags, describe skills, and the customer finds you. I have an unpromoted profile there, but at the same time, large clients contact me.

The "secret" of my success is that I constantly read various paid articles and reports (mostly in English) on creating convenience for visitors to online stores and increasing conversions. There are many nuances: home page, both in the basket and in the product card - if all this is taken into account, then the user will be pleased to use the resource, and the conversion will become higher.

So, in my profile, I indicated from which cool sources I take information. The data is valuable because it is not in the public domain and not every designer knows it. And this acts as a magnet for customers who want to improve their users' interaction with the store and increase sales.

Sphere Features and Delegation

Website development is a very large field. At the same time, some people think that they can make the entire site on a turnkey basis alone. But programming, design, copywriting, promotion are very different areas. Positioning yourself as a human orchestra is a mistake. So you will never be able to achieve a quality result for the customer and good pay for yourself.

That is why I immediately counted on delegation. It was scary at first, of course. But I began to delegate programming - the part in which I myself am well versed. Thus, I knew that if the programmer made a mistake somewhere, I would do it myself. I delegate copywriting to performers whom I have known for a long time and whom I trust.

But the design is more difficult. I have already tried to give part of the work to another specialist, but the result did not satisfy me. However, I will look further to expand the team.

Where to get strength if you need to work hard

Now my husband and I already have two children, and every day I try to spend time with them. But sometimes difficulties arise, because it is not easy to combine motherhood and work.

For example, one day my one and a half year old baby, who is now constantly with me, allows me to work productively, and on the other he is naughty, and I do not have time for anything. On such days, I start to panic that I will not have time to meet the deadlines. Or vice versa, there is a feeling of guilt that I need to pay more attention to the child, and I think about work.

So sometimes I have to work at night when everyone is asleep. This is one of the most difficult states for me in work, because some kind of resentment turns on - everyone is resting, and I plow. And then a doubt comes - and maybe I don’t need to develop my project at all. Why all this, if it's so hard.

1. Stop being afraid and overthinking. Decided - it means that we must immediately get down to business. The longer you think, the more you find some minuses and fears, and it becomes more difficult to start.

2. Prepare for the fact that at times it will be difficult, you will have to figure out many things on your own, but the result is worth it.

3. Work should bring pleasure, then it is easier to experience failures, get up and move on. You must first fall in love with your product or service yourself, then customers will fall in love with it.

If you start to understand the topic of increasing sales efficiency, then in the first place, I think, there will be trainings on "cold" calls. I myself, as an entrepreneur, began my journey in business with these trainings. Then, as a trainer, she led these trainings, and until recently, as the head of her consulting company drummed into her account managers that cold calling was the most effective method sales.

But let's face it, who loves these cold calls.

Personally, I can’t stand them, but I resign myself to the need to do them, arguing: “Where to go?”.

Why do we dislike them so much?

It's probably no secret that it's very unpleasant when you are "sent to hell" at the other end of the wire. Of course, this comes in different forms. It happens that they answer like this: “Not relevant yet!”, “Thank you, we already have it,” or “We will think about it,” or something else like that. Sometimes you run into outright rudeness, rudeness. And you also have to overcome the so-called secretarial barrier. And yet, I noticed that responding to cold calls became even tougher, secretarial barriers even stronger. One director of the company admitted to me: “Yes, if I answer all the calls, I will have no time to work. Do you know how many of you are calling a day!” The same thing happens with advertising, people close themselves from advertising, stop responding to it.

All this is happening because of the information overload of our time. We are closed from obsessive informational pressure. A kind of cocoonization occurs, i.e. we try to protect ourselves from unnecessary information, we create a kind of cocoon around ourselves: company management puts up a secretarial barrier, does not answer unknown calls, does not read promotional offers. While watching TV, we turn off the sound during commercials, change channels, set spam filters to email And. etc. According to experts, the process of cocoonization will intensify. And in this situation, it is necessary to change the methods of business promotion, apply other marketing strategies and tools.

And "cold" calls and advertising are already dying marketing strategy- push strategy. In the age of abundance of goods and services and information overload, and this is our age, the time in which we live, in order to “push” something, more and more efforts and time are required, and the result is minimal.

The push marketing strategy is being replaced by the pull strategy.

The main goal of this strategy is to create a need for a potential client in your service or product. To do this, a completely different tactic is used, here it is necessary systems approach, and not a set of some popular chips.

1. We find out who our potential client is.

2. Instead of aggressively imposing information in which we are interested, we analyze what our potential client needs.

3. We establish contact with a potential client.

4. We form confidence in us from a potential client.

5. We offer what the potential client needs, competently leading the client through the stages of the sales process.

At each stage of this tactic, different technologies are applied. And in subsequent articles on this topic, I will talk about them, but for now, watch my free video course "How to increase the flow of customers without cold calls and advertising." To receive a video course, fill out the subscription form on the main page of the site or on the "consulting and training" page.

19.07.2009 23:54

For a long time I worked as a confectioner and a pastry chef, and then as a manager in a network of coffee shops of an all-Russian scale. Today I own a coffee shop located in a small (25 thousand square meters) shopping center. When the institution first opened, it was not yet operating at full capacity (about 15% of the area was occupied), so there were few visitors. Moreover, it is located next door strong competitor- a huge operating shopping and entertainment complex.

At first, no more than ten people a day came to our cafe, the monthly revenue was about 150 thousand rubles. We puzzled over how to attract customers, tried a variety of ways, many of which did not give any result. Departments in the shopping center, which were created simultaneously with ours, began to close after some time. In the end, we managed to increase attendance to 50-60 people a day, and the monthly turnover - up to 500 thousand rubles.

I’ll tell you which marketing measures turned out to be a waste of money, and which ones made sense (see also: What factors influence the attendance of the institution).

Ineffective measures

Advertising on city radio. We paid for the rotation commercial at the Hit FM radio station broadcasting to Nizhny Novgorod. Moreover, we sponsored various games on the radio, as a prize giving out a certificate (1500 rubles) to visit a cafe. About 40 thousand rubles were spent on the campaign, but the effect turned out to be zero.

Advertising in magazines. We started with a full-page ad in You and Your Child magazine. They also published my article about what desserts can be given to young children and how store cakes can harm a child. Although the magazine is actively distributed in antenatal clinics, kindergartens and children's goods stores, these publications did not affect attendance, and 20 thousand rubles. were wasted. Then I wrote two articles for the Nizhny Novgorod magazine Love, Family, Home. The first is about what a wedding cake should be like (not just how it looks, but how to cut it beautifully, etc.), the second is about what desserts are appropriate at a wedding. The return was very weak: the magazine has a lot of advertising for similar services, and it is very difficult to stand out even with expert material.

Using the internal broadcasting of the shopping complex. Placement of advertising did not cost us anything, it took about 3 thousand rubles to create videos. I explain the absolute inefficiency of this measure by the fact that it is very noisy in the shopping center and visitors do not listen to advertising.

Advertising on receipts for rent. Not far from our shopping center there is a new microdistrict "Bear Valley"; there are many young families with children. It seemed to me that a coffee shop with desserts, where they do not smoke or sell alcohol, should have no end to such customers. I arranged with the local HOA to print ads on the back of rent receipts. The costs amounted to about 10 thousand rubles. (HOA considers them as advertising revenue). However, I did not take into account that in the microdistrict the apartments were received mainly by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. When a local visitor approached the window with a child and saw the price tag “150 rubles”, you could often hear something like “What are you doing! It's a bottle of vodka!

Effective measures

Fortunately, most of the methods we have tried have worked. Moreover, many of them turned out to be even less expensive than those that did not live up to our expectations. Here are some steps that helped attract customers and increase revenue.

Business lunches. At first glance, it is unprofitable for a coffee shop to feed guests with lunch for 180 rubles. - at best, we just compensated for the costs. Therefore, we tried to sell the client something other than a business lunch. Unfortunately, additional order did only one or two people out of ten. With a full load of the institution for a month, the margin from this service was about 50 thousand rubles. However, despite the economic inefficiency of the idea, we were able to attract the target audience. Daytime visitors, accustomed to the institution, began to come in the evening - to drink coffee and eat dessert. Some time later, we abandoned the business lunch, but left inexpensive hot dishes on the menu. There was no churn of visitors.

Breakfasts. We offered three breakfast options - from light to very dense - costing from 99 to 399 rubles. Usually, the guest has more time for breakfast than for lunch, and almost always he takes more tea or coffee, not limited to the drink that is included in the price. Breakfasts attracted new customers and taught the staff to be in good shape from the very morning.

Tastings at the mall. This method works only if you can buy something that is offered to try somewhere nearby. We set the table in the shopping center and treated everyone to a cake and a drink, inviting them to look into the coffee shop. On average, five people out of 50 came in - some just looked, others ordered something. The cost of one tasting is about 3 thousand rubles. Later, we began to hand out flyers with special offers and short-term discounts on certain goods. In this case, the result was better: about half of those who received the coupon came to the cafe.

Inexpensive branded product. We are the only ones in Nizhny Novgorod we make sweets self made. Although the labor costs are high (I cook caramel myself), they are justified. We place a showcase with sweets in the shape of a cockerel, a gun or a heart at the entrance to the cafe, and it works like a magnet for customers. At the cost of candy about 2 rubles. we sell them for 50 rubles. And we give candy to the holders of the permanent guest card, regardless of the amount of the order. By the way, visitors who have collected checks of our institution in the amount of 5000 rubles receive a permanent guest card, this card entitles you to a 10% discount.

Permission to bring your own alcohol. We do not sell alcohol, but we allow visitors to bring their own, paying 200 rubles per bottle. “for the cork” (in other establishments, this service is called the rental of glasses). This is beneficial for customers: for example, a bottle of popular rum in a store costs 900 rubles, and in another institution they will ask for at least 3 thousand rubles.

Servicing guests of a nearby hotel. The hotel does not have its own dining room, so we agreed to install our own advertising with a menu and flyers for a discount there in the lobby. The hotel guests really began to come to us.

Cooperation with neighboring cafes and restaurants. We have established a free partnership with a restaurant that is located in the same shopping complex and sends their customers who are going to have a banquet to us for cakes to order (their chef does not prepare desserts). We offered the partner establishment 10% of the amount of each such order, but they refused: it is enough for them that their customers can receive a service from us that the restaurant does not provide. In this way we receive up to ten cake orders per month.

Free advertising on Channel One. On the air of federal channels there are regional advertising inserts. Our shopping center bought time for a commercial and gave us the opportunity to tell about ourselves completely free of charge. Especially for this occasion, we began to prepare a megalatte and a mega dessert weighing about 1 kg - a treat for the whole company. Guests who saw our ads started asking about these special offers from the doorway.

Banner on the fence. We printed a colorful banner with the call "Try it!" and a bright photograph of the dessert (the cost of a banner is about 500 rubles per 1 sq. m) and hung it on a fence near the shopping center. And although it did not last long, the flow of customers in those days increased markedly.

Summer terrace. I calculated that placing a sign on the facade of the shopping center will cost us almost as much as building a summer veranda, on which we can also hang our sign for free. So we did. Moreover, we had to pay only for the veranda itself (180 thousand rubles plus the cost of equipment and a banner - only 300 thousand rubles), and the administration of the shopping center did not take money from us for permission to install it. The veranda with a beautiful sign has attracted many new visitors to us.

Practitioner tells

Anastasia Gutkevich Marketing Director of the coffee chain

Reference

Traveler’s Coffee LLC (Traveler’s Coffee)
Field of activity: catering business, coffee production
Territory: management company - in Novosibirsk, office - in Moscow, representative offices - in Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg, dealers - in the Volga region, Siberia, Central Russia, Kazakhstan; coffee houses - in 37 cities of Russia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Ukraine
Number of staff: 70 (in coffee shops - 400)
Number of coffee shops in the network: 70

If the coffee shop is in good place, it will be visited by 200 people a day without much effort to promote. For establishments in sparsely populated areas, additional measures are needed to attract guests. Let me tell you what we do.

1. Map of the trading territory. We make a list of organizations (business centers, banks, beauty salons) that are within a ten-minute walk from the coffee shop, that is, places where customers can come to us from. Coffee house managers go around all these organizations, communicate with managers and employees, give them bonus cards and sometimes coupons with a deposit. In this way, not only individual customers are attracted, but also entire companies.

2. Flyers. Experience has shown that coupons for the second product for free are most effective (it doesn’t matter what exactly is offered - a cup of coffee or a dessert). The cost of these promotions (printing flyers, the work of promoters and sometimes a trainer) does not exceed 0.1% of the coffee shop's revenue. The response rate when using such coupons is 2-7% (and in small towns, where such offers are still new, it reaches 70% - word of mouth works).

3. Announcements in social networks. The offer must be exclusive - this acts like a magnet on our page subscribers. For example: “We have brought a rare coffee variety” or “Our Michelin-starred chef has created a new dessert.”

4. Tastings in shopping and business centers. We sample our soft drinks or coffee and distribute discount coupons or bonus cards. This results in an influx of new customers. You can arrange a free tasting. The maximum payment to the management of the center is a package of coffee as a gift or a bonus card with a small deposit for one or two cups of coffee. The cost of tasting is less than 2 thousand rubles. If at the same time coffee or syrups are sold, then the event fully pays off.

5. Master classes. Employees of our coffee houses conduct master classes in latte art, alternative ways of brewing coffee, making desserts or sandwiches. We post the schedule of master classes on social networks, we take invitation cards to companies located nearby. The response to such invitations is up to 15%. In small towns not spoiled by such attention, managers hold such events every weekend.

6. Cross promotion. In some cities (for example, in Surgut, Nizhnevartovsk) we agree on a partnership program with a local cinema: with a cinema ticket, a guest can get a 5-10% discount from us, and with our bonus card - a discount on a movie ticket.

7. Flash mob "Take it with you." We are only planning this event, but we are counting on a good effect. We will attract 30-50 students to the action. They will walk through the city, take the subway, ride the tram, holding glasses, sandwich bags, cake boxes - all with our logo.

CEO speaking

Alexey Chukhlantsev Executive Director management company

Reference

OOO " Management Company"RestProfi"
Field of activity: confectionery production, restaurant business (chain of coffee houses "Pitkofe", author's establishments - cafe "Refined", confectionery house "Bushe H.O.", network of Italian cafes "Mama Pizza")
Number of staff: 700

In 2000-2003 I worked in a European level restaurant Fashioncafe. It was located in a sparsely populated area, and the main task was not just to increase the flow of visitors, but to attract those who are ready to order a full dinner or business lunch, not limited to a cup of coffee on the go.

One of the methods of attracting such customers were events: tastings, fashion shows, presentations. For example, they agreed with an expensive lingerie store to hold a show in a restaurant, and the restaurant notified its regular guests about the upcoming event (as a rule, they were invited by phone). Another example is the cognac tasting of a famous cognac house. On the one hand, such events helped to promote the relevant products, on the other hand, they gave the restaurant an additional reason to remind guests of themselves, invite them to try cognac or watch a show. On the days when the events were held, the institution was 100% full, in addition, the number of regular customers grew due to those who were invited to the events by our visitors.

Doing business is aimed at increasing the income of the entrepreneur. No matter what sales figures you have now, there is always room to grow. In addition, representatives of even the most successful business daily care about retaining and attracting customers, since capitalism has provided the market with high competition. Offering even a very high-quality product or service, the business will not bring the desired income and success if no one knows about it.

There are three main areas of work to increase business income:

• Increase in the flow of customers;
• Increase in the average check;
• Increasing the conversion rate.

With the right approach and the use of these three methods, profits can even be doubled. But sometimes a simple focus on increasing sales is enough, which directly depends on the number of buyers. Sales volume is, in fact, the main indicator of business success, which many are guided by. To increase it, it is worth approaching the issue systematically and using effective solutions. The most obvious is advertising. Next come the wise marketing moves and a PR campaign, which are a little more difficult to deal with, but they guarantee a long-term effect. Marketing and PR are focused on the brand name and product quality, therefore, they provide the business with a constant client turnover.

Ways to attract new customers

First of all, any brand must declare itself: entering the market, the company occupies a certain niche, and the primary task is to attract new customers. Making the first sales and receiving feedback, it is advisable to think about improving the work to increase sales in the future.

The best and probably the only way here is advertising. Any interaction with the buyer can and should be regarded as advertising, because the effectiveness of such interactions is later analyzed by marketers to build a more competent promotion campaign. And it is not necessary to be a marketer here, because not everyone has the opportunity to contact such specialists, especially if it is a small business. But having certain knowledge in this area, the analysis of methods for increasing sales can be done independently.

If you tell your neighbor about your auto repair shop, this is also advertising. And in some cases it may be the best tool for entry than handing out flyers on the street or banners on websites. It all depends on the audience: it is better to present information about agricultural machinery in newspapers, or by word of mouth, and sell fashionable youth clothes on social networks like Instagram.

There are several ways to increase the flow of buyers through promotion. Most of these methods are implemented on the Internet, because it is still the best playground for marketing.

1. Contextual advertising is the most popular and widespread way to increase user traffic. It works in search engines and brings you the target audience. These ads lead to the company's website. But if you do not have a full-fledged site, you can use a business card site or a landing page (selling page). The most popular and working services: Google Adwords and Yandex.Direct.
2. Targeted and teaser advertising. Similar to contextual, targeted advertising works on social networks, attracting people with inline ads. Teaser - these are banners that are used on partner sites and carry information about your product and a link to it.
3. Placing ads on online sites like OLX, Bigl.ua, Prom.ua, etc. These portals usually have paid services placements for companies that include promotion and a guarantee of increased sales. Especially if your site does not have good SEO optimization, such sites will help shorten the path from the client to the product.
4. Newsletter. In mailings, it is best to report about company promotions and new offers. There are many programs that are responsible for the quality automatic mailing. But it is important to strike a balance here - too aggressive mailing scares and annoys users.
5. Placement in mass media and services of bloggers. Using information portals, it is easier for the brand to express itself, and the visible authority grows in the eyes of readers. The same goes for blogs. These two types of PR are on the same level, because bloggers are now very popular and have become an alternative version of the information flow. And although such services are paid, neither the media nor the blogger will review something that can frankly damage their reputation, so the reviewed products inspire confidence in the audience.
6. SMM - marketing in social networks. SMM is a whole system of thoughtful actions to promote a brand and increase sales. This type of marketing is more suited to the characteristics of PR than advertising as such. Working with an active client base and increasing the level of expertise with good content, the desired result will not keep you waiting. But before proceeding, it is worth studying the target audience of different social networks.
7. Promotions, discounts, sales. You can read more about them in the section on increasing the percentage of conversion, but for new buyers this can be quite an effective way. This method works especially well if the product is really of high quality, and the client, having met him during the promotion period, comes back to you again, and is now ready to pay the full price.
8. Calling the "cold" customer base, that is, those with whom the company has never worked before. This method can be called outdated, today it is not so effective and is rarely used, because in modern society even business issues prefer to be resolved in correspondence, and unwanted distracting calls completely piss them off. But with some groups of clients, for example, the elderly, this method still works.

How to motivate a client to return

It is not as big a problem to increase the flow of customers as to keep them. At a minimum, the mechanism of attracting attention is clear, with a more or less competent entry into the market, the desire to try something new will attract new buyers, but this is far from helping to increase sales. Constant client turnover and the size of the average bill ensure the success of the business. And in the first case, there is little simple advertising, and in the second, it is not necessary to raise prices. There are several ingredients that guarantee success:

• Quality product;
• Ease of use;
• Attitude towards the client;
• Loyalty program;

In Internet marketing, there is a convenient term “conversion”, which refers to the ratio of the number of site visitors and those who performed targeted actions on it (read the content, followed the links, purchased the product, etc.). This is very important indicator, which helps you find out what methods work and what needs to be improved. In general, it can be guided in the case of a business of a different kind.

Developing a permanent customer base and high customer turnover requires a competent marketing approach, work with the psychology of the buyer and constant product support. An increase in the average check should be achieved by a large number of purchased goods per person, and not by raising prices - this is an indicator of a successful approach to marketing work.

Subtle marketing tricks available to everyone

Marketers use a lot of tricks to increase sales, and learning the methods of action for everyone at once will not work. But it’s worth understanding the most interesting and effective ones.

1. Good design and positive user experience - focus on the presentation of information and strive for excellence in design - this is how you show care to the client, and he will feel it. In a world of high competition, a good website, beautiful design of the premises and pleasant staff can become almost the only and decisive distinctive feature product.
2. Loyalty program and gifts. This is so far a win-win way to win the hearts of regular customers and increase sales. The desire to accumulate bonuses, participate in closed seasonal sales and to receive pleasant surprises from time to time makes the store a part of the life of customers. This is not only a great way to retain customers, but also a good PR campaign to establish the brand.
3. Expand your product line. At the beginning of a business journey, the assortment of goods can be quite small, and with proper quality, it will win the interest of buyers. But in order to keep this interest, you need to constantly offer new products.
4. Be unique. Yes, this may seem banal, but at the same time, many neglect this item, considering it frivolous. But, as mentioned earlier, it is uniqueness that helps to win back your audience from competitors.

And these are not the usual words "we are unique in that we have high quality and inexpensive." This is probably the most non-unique phrase in the business. Better think about what unusual you can offer the buyer: perhaps these are small elements of the last century in fashion design; only pottery in the coffee shop; origami collection, which can be collected by buying a magazine issue every month, etc.

1. Check out your competitors. Someone may consider this method wrong or dishonest. But it's not. It's about not about plagiarism or copyright infringement, which are punishable by law, but about inspiration and following trends. Often it is competitors or even their failures that inspire brilliant ideas. You can notice what problem a person is facing at a competitor, and solve this problem for yourself.
2. Contact qualified managers. Always seek professional help when possible. If you run a small business and cannot hire a marketer or sales manager for a full-time job, attend all kinds of trainings, one-time consultations of specialists and follow the trends. But as soon as possible - expand the sales department. Good specialist can sell anything, but if you focus on quality, it will be a fourfold success.

Distinguish PR from advertising and use it

Advertising is a clear and precise message, a call to action. She is obvious. While PR is a subtle interaction tool aimed at the long term. PR (Public Relations) - this is public relations, influence on the mind of the consumer and activities to strengthen the brand. It is information about the brand, which entails fame, and recognition is associated with trust, which is main goal PR.

Participation in thematic events introduces the client to the company and gives it weight in his eyes. At such events, it is useful to arrange presentations and product testing.

Publications in various media, if presented correctly, are very productive PR. But such materials are much more expensive than the usual "custom" articles. The same can be said about the recommendations of experts in personal blogs - they inspire confidence due to the fact that the product is advised by a real, authoritative person, and not an advertising sheet.

PR means to increase sales include acting as a partner at various events, or, for example, in charity campaigns. Competitions with prizes are also included here. You can participate in competitions organized by other companies, or you can create your own, with real prizes - this is very effective for expanding your customer base.