Tens of thousands of people are no longer commuting into major urban centers every day, this means new customers for suburban businesses.
90% of NYC’s office employees have yet to return to the workplace ¹
Many people are continuing to work from home, leading suburban retailers to see a boom in business. People who used to choose city stores over local merchants are now enjoying the convenience of shopping locally.
With this, businesses have begun to rely heavily on loyal customer bases due to the changes in consumer appetites for goods and services. Repeat business has been extremely important for small businesses in suburban areas as some are finding that customers who came in for the first time during the pandemic are coming back along with long time customers who have been extra supportive during this difficult time as well.
But how do you identify these people?
Meet Maria, Your Ideal Suburban Shopper
Imagine you’re a suburban shop owner looking to get the word out about your business. Your business has been impacted by COVID and your main goal is to increase in-store traffic, drive sales, and increase revenue.
You know that people are out on social media and binge-watching more TV now that they’re home, but you have no idea how to get your message in front of those people.
So, where should you start? We will show you how in just three easy steps:
Step 1: Build a custom audience
A people-based marketing strategy will allow you to understand your customers best. You’ll gain insights on which of your consumers are in-market for your products, live within a radius of your location, are visiting competing stores, as well as their media preferences, verified email addresses, and unique mobile device IDs.
But what does that all mean?
Layer all touchpoints of a buyer’s journey to target actual, in-market consumers who are looking to shop locally. Unlike traditional marketing, which only targets “maybe” prospects, a people-based approach helps you target shoppers during the crucial time period of their buying decision.
Creating a complete picture of each customer by matching email addresses to robust information such as an individual’s mobile device and postal address, allows you to better understand and reach your target audiences, like Maria – across all of their devices – to drive local business sales.
Step 2: Deliver Your Campaign to Maria
Now that you’ve built your target audience and know who you want to send your message to, ask yourself the following: which channels are my audience engaging on?
Based on consumer data, you can run creative ad campaigns to reach your audience where they are most likely to engage. Example channels include Email, Connected TV, Programmatic Audio, and Mobile.
Maria’s data shows she has the highest propensity to buy when she receives messages through Email or Instagram. Real messages delivered to real people means no ad fraud, so you know you are spending your ad dollars effectively.
Step 3: Measure Your Results
From how many people saw your message to who visited your site to who visited your store, it is critical that you can see exactly how your campaign performed.
Know that the money you spent on advertising to members of your target audience, like Maria, actually were utilized for good.
Once your campaign is live, track results in real-time about your campaign, from the people you reached, who engaged with your message to who visited your site or your store. From there, you can make changes to enhance your campaign.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Sound too good to be true? We actually put our words to the test and were able to drive $13M in revenue and over 6500 in-store visits during the pandemic.
