Hey, everybody. It’s Bob. And in this episode of Real Retail TV, we’re going to explore how you can drive massive amounts of traffic into your store.

So before we get into an exploration of driving traffic through marketing, I wanna share with you that today and tomorrow for Black Friday Cyber Monday, we are offering the marketing mentor program for one thousand dollars off. The marketing mentor program is the most comprehensive marketing program for independent retailers like you anywhere. So there’s a link down below. Check it out.

If you think it would be good for you, and my guess guess is it would register, and we’ll see you in the beginning of the year. So even if you don’t register, let’s talk about how you drive traffic. Let’s talk about marketing because marketing is the engine that drives traffic. Let’s just recognize that.

Marketing is what gets people in the door. Once they’re in the door, marketing has done its job. Then it becomes a function of your amazing displays, your great assortment, how skillfully you’re managing your inventory, and most importantly, how customer focused and how skilled your team is. But you gotta get people in the door.

So here is what we call the retail marketing system, the WhizBang! Retail Marketing System. And when you think of marketing as a system, when you can look at it strategically, all of a sudden, the, results that you the the results that you’re going to get will skyrocket.

You see, the biggest mistake that people make is what I call a little of this, a little of that marketing. You know, it’s like throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping that something sticks. It just I mean, yes. It’s better than nothing. But, no, it’s not nearly as effective as having a strategy, applying a system to your marketing to ensure that all of the parts are working together the way they should.

So what is the WhizBang! Retail Marketing System? There’s five steps. The first step is to get new customers.

And getting new customers is the most expensive, the hardest way to build your business, but it’s also necessary. New customers are the lifeblood of any business.

And, yes, you can advertise on social media, traditional media advertising, but you don’t have to. You don’t have to. There is lots and lots of low or no cost, highly effective ways for you to drive traffic.

We’re gonna put a link to a video down in the comments, and it’s to a a video about gift certificate marketing. So at WhizBang Training here, we teach lots of ways to get new customers without advertising, and they include gift certificate marketing, cause marketing, where you work with a local nonprofit, endorsed mailings, where you work with other local businesses to exchange customers.

So the point here is that getting new customers is important, but don’t fall for the fallacy of I just need to buy more ads on social media.

Don’t get me wrong. Love social media. If you’re an expert, you can get great results from advertising on social media. But what I am saying is you that is not the only way to get new customers, and it’s a lot less expensive. So the first thing is to get new customers. The second part of the system is once you get somebody into your store, you have to give them a great first experience.

And so this is not it’s it’s kind you could argue that it’s in store marketing. You could argue that it’s not marketing, but it’s part of the system. It’s part of the of the the the process. You see?

Because if you get somebody in the store and you have an indifferent or hostile team member, they’re not gonna come back. If you get them in the store and your people don’t know how to skillfully engage that customer, you know, go up to them, ask them good questions, get them what they want, get them to a perfect purchase, they’re more than likely not going to come back. So, what are you trying to do? You’re trying to get people in the store.

You’re trying to give them that great first experience, which leads to the third part of the system, the third step, and that is to get their contact information.

And this is also why it’s so important that you have a great team, that you have a customer focused team. Because if Indi gives me a great experience on the floor in my store, and then she brings me to the counter and invites me to join my loyalty program or her loyalty program because we have a good relationship. My answer is almost always, yes. I would be I would love to. And how do you get their contact information? It’s by inviting that new customer to join your benefits rich loyalty program.

Now this isn’t the place to talk about loyalty programs. Indie, can we put a link to the video for the six box program? You’re gonna get two links today. It’s double bonus day.

But the six box program is a a very, very simple intuitive loyalty program that we’ve been teaching for years that is being used by retailers all over the world. So but you have to have some sort of loyalty program. Because if you don’t have a loyalty program, the probability that someone gives you their contact information goes way down. So do you see where we are right now?

You got that person in the store. You gave them a great first experience. You brought them to the counter. You got them to join your loyalty program.

Now because you have their contact information, you can proactively develop a relationship.

And so steps four and five, and this is actually where the big money is, is to get them back in again. That’s step four. And again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again. That’s step five.

Five. You know, more transactions per customer. Getting your customers back in your store, you know, more often is how you build lifetime value, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to build a customer base of people that we can get into our store that will shop with us many, many times a year for many, many years.

And so how do you get them back in again and again?

There are lots and lots of ways, but the primary driver is lots of really, really great, special events, in store events, promotions.

Do things that are fun, fun, that your customers would love to participate in, and will come in. So there it is.

Had that there it is in a nutshell. But do you see what I’m saying about this idea of if you’re strategic, if you look at it as a system and you have tactics to get new customers and you have created a service culture that sells and you have a benefits rich loyalty program and you do send out regularly scheduled emails, once a week I’ll say, and you have regular postings on social media, and you have a robust, promotions and special events calendar.

When you do all of that, when you think strategically, when you build your marketing plan so that all five steps are engaged, proactively, strategically engaged, you’re going to see your business explode.

Guaranteed, this works.

So that is the secret to driving massive amounts of foot traffic. Now so I’m gonna go back to the marketing mentor program. It’s happening in the beginning of the year next year, but what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna take four half days. And what we’re gonna do is go through all of the steps, all of the strategies, all of the tactics. And when it’s done, it may not be totally dialed in. It may not be complete, but you will have the rough draft or even more perhaps of your two thousand and twenty five marketing calendar. Imagine what it would be like going into the new year knowing what you’re going to do for marketing, knowing why you’re going to do it, being confident that what you’re going to do is going to work.

So, again, save a thousand dollars. It’s today, Cyber Monday, then the deal is gone, but I would love to see you in the marketing mentor program. So if you have any questions, comments, put them down below. Otherwise, again, click down on the link and take a look at the, marketing mentor program. It’s guaranteed. You’ll love it.

I guarantee it. I’m Bob. I’ll see you later.