Are you a small business owner? Do you want more people to know about your business and visit your location? The answer is simple: get on Foursquare.
Foursquare is a social city guide for businesses to attract more customers to their locations. Unlike other marketing strategies, Foursquare marketing is directly in tune with customers’ wants. It is literally in the palm of their hands. The application is downloaded on smartphones including iPhone, Android, and Blackberry as well as accessed through the mobile site or SMS.
While mobile Internet users are out, smartphones are typically used for search queries. If your business relates to what a potential customer is looking for, then you can be found directly through this app.
How will it work for your business?
Before delving into Foursquare, start by claiming your business. You cannot do anything on Foursquare until your business has ensured ownership. When you set up an account, users can check-in to indicate that they visited your location. Once users check-in, the activity shows on their profiles, which can be shared with Foursquare friends, Facebook friends, and Twitter followers. This is where your business will benefit from the platform; friends usually trust other friends’ recommendations. If users are checking-in to your location, this may influence their friends to do the same.
How can you use the platform to attract customers?
Are you still wondering what sets this app apart from others? It boils down to one feature: Foursquare specials. The best marketing strategy in any case is to think of customers first. How do you do this? Use incentives. Foursquare specials offer existing customers and new customers the opportunity to connect with your business through rewards and discounts. Think about it: if there are two coffee shops listed on Foursquare and one offers 25 percent off a drink when a customer checks in, while the other doesn’t offer anything at all, which location do you think a customer would choose? Specials will keep you ahead of your competition. If you’re joining this app, then you need to consider implementing specials into your Foursquare marketing strategy.
How can you stand out on Foursquare?
Let’s face it. You have hundreds of other businesses to compete against on Foursquare. Offering better specials can help, but this may not be enough. How can your business shine through to potential customers? I’ll give you a clue: give more. Think of your Foursquare page as your own Perez Hilton or TMZ. This is the platform to use for sharing information about your business that will keep your customers engaged and aware. Sharing tips about your locations not only can be beneficial to your customers, it also allows you to be real. It gives a face behind the page; a person to listen to rather than a business trying to sell.
Want to stand out even more? Leave tips on other business’s locations to generate a community in your area and increase your brand’s presence on the social platform.
If you’re a small business owner and you’re taking initiative to connect with your customers directly, then you’re on the right path. Joining Foursquare will help you in your efforts to foster more customer visits to your location and build your brand’s mobile presence. What are you waiting for? Get those check-ins started!