Use online tactics in your physical shop

Online ideas in your shop can inspire how customers discover and experience it. In this 2011 video, I talk about signs, hotels and restaurants I’d seen on a trip to the USA.

Online ideas in your shop: Build anticipation

A sign advertised a cheesesteak long before we’d reach the place. At first, I laughed. But afterwards, I started thinking about the food.

I imagined I’d be more ready to pull in if I later saw the same message closer to the restaurant. That was my reaction and thought experiment, not a measurement of the sign’s effect on sales.

See your business from the customer’s distance

I suggest looking at the shop or hotel as a passer-by sees it. Can you read the sign? Is something blocking it? Does the place look inviting?

You know the business from the inside, but the customer may only have a moment to understand what’s on offer.

Tell customers what they can do

I wondered about motels that could clearly show they were full, but didn’t make the same effort to say they had rooms available.

It made me think of clear calls to action in online shops. Could a physical business also make it easier to understand that you were welcome and what the next step was?

I was very optimistic about transferring lessons from the internet. The video’s percentages and claims about numbers of exposures are my statements from 2011, not evidence of an effect in every shop.

My encouragement was to examine the message, visibility and overall impression, and draw ideas from other ways of selling.

Also read about the small signals in a shop’s signs.

Online ideas in your shop: A thought from the roads of the USA

I sit down by the car park at the local Starbucks in Hangtown. We’re driving around California and a little of Nevada, and we’ve passed many shops, hotels and restaurants.

It strikes me how much money some of them might be missing out on. Some do it really well, such as McDonald’s. Others do it really badly in my opinion. Often, it’s the small places that aren’t part of a chain.

I work primarily online. I don’t know much about running a hotel, restaurant or ordinary shop. But I do know about online business, and I think more of that experience could be used in the physical world.

Online, we can measure and compare

Physical shops have existed for a very long time. In the video, I wander off into something about Rome and thousands of years, joking about whether dinosaurs had shops too. The point is simply that there’s enormous experience in selling offline.

But online, we have a special opportunity: We can measure, measure and measure. Does putting a banner here help? What happens if the button is blue instead of green?

We can run a split test. Half the customers see one version, and the other half see the other. Then we can compare the response.

That’s harder for a small shop. You can’t just tell passers-by: You need to see the blue sign, and you need to see the green one. Separating the influences isn’t as simple.

I know supermarket chains do a lot of measurement and space management. But I’m not sure that knowledge reaches the small hotel or local shop.

A cheesesteak still 45 minutes away

What set the thought going was a big roadside sign. It advertised the best cheesesteak and said we’d be able to get it in forty-five minutes.

Forty-five minutes? That was a long way. At first, I laughed. But then I actually started feeling a little hungry. It was around eleven.

We weren’t going quite that way, so I didn’t try it. But if I’d seen that bloody cheesesteak after forty-five minutes, there’s a strong chance I’d have pulled in. My expectations had been built up. My thoughts had already been circling around the food.

Even smarter, they could show me the sign again halfway: You’re nearly there now. And at the restaurant: Now’s the time.

Otherwise, the opposite can easily happen. You see an appetising picture as you pass the place. You think it could be nice, but then you’re already past. Now the car needs turning round. In my case, it’s a thirty-foot motorhome, which isn’t exactly easy to turn. So you think there’ll probably be something further on.

Give customers time to decide

Online, we work with repeated exposure. In the video, I say you might need to see a banner three or four times before taking action, and mention five, six or seven exposures to get more from it. That’s how I describe my experience at the time.

That’s also why I think in terms of newsletters, Twitter, Facebook, banner advertising and Google AdWords. Each contact can bring the customer closer to a decision. One exposure often isn’t enough.

Why shouldn’t a small hotel use the same idea? Perhaps rent space for a sign from the farmer a kilometre before the hotel.

McDonald’s is good at it. You’re told there’s a restaurant in a kilometre. Then you have a little time to think about whether you’re hungry. When you arrive, you can pull into the car park or use the drive-through.

If you only see the message right outside the restaurant, you may think it’s a good idea and still have driven past. Then there must be something further along. You probably know the feeling yourself.

Look at your business from a hundred, two hundred and three hundred metres away

I’m also thinking about the overall impression. When we visit an online shop, we almost automatically assess: Is this a decent place or isn’t it?

Hotels, restaurants and shops should work on the same thing. Try driving past your own business and looking at it from the outside.

Does it look sloppy or well kept? Does it look appealing? What image do I get? Which customers do you want, and does the appearance fit them?

You know what your business looks like close up. But what does it look like from a hundred, two hundred or three hundred metres away?

Is there a tree or some bushes in front of the message? Is something else in the way? Do shadows make the sign hard to read? Is the lighting right?

Drive past from several directions and check whether customers can actually see what you want to tell them.

Say there’s room and customers are welcome

The other day, I passed a motel with a sign that could show "No vacancies". In other words, it was full.

But why didn’t they have an equally clear message when there was room? Why not say there are rooms available, that you’re open and people can sleep here?

It makes me think of our online calls to action: Buy now. Do it now. Click here. We work on making the next step clear, and I’m convinced that idea can be used offline too.

In the video, I say very optimistically that ninety-nine percent of online techniques can work in the physical world. That’s my belief from the trip, not the result of a study of all shops.

If you have a shop, restaurant, hotel or amusement park, read about selling online. Visit successful online shops and see what wording, colours and techniques they use. I’ve collected my experiences of online selling in E-pusher.

I think you can transfer many of the ideas. Start by looking at your business from a distance and from every angle. Think about the message, signs, colours, signals, accessibility and the clear invitation to come inside.

Then I think you could generate significantly more sales. That was my thought here in beautiful Hangtown. Perhaps you’ll hear more from me tomorrow, perhaps not for a week. Take care.

Best wishes, Martin

Original event mention from 2011: PS: Remember Aminotastic on 10 September:

http://www.amino.dk