It’s no secret that the pandemic has had a devastating effect on retail businesses. The last 18 months have seen one of the largest dropoffs in in-person retail shopping in recent history, with the vast majority of shopping moving online in a continuation of a decade-long trend towards e-commerce. This is not without good reason, of course. COVID-19 has made everyone a little more nervous to leave the house, and for many months made it illegal to even operate a brick and mortar business to protect the safety of consumers and workers alike.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and with the continued proliferation of the COVID vaccine we are beginning to see what promises to be a true return to normalcy on the horizon. This leaves many brand owners in a difficult position, however. With the world so overturned in the last year and a half and so much of people's confidence in retail shopping shaken, how can brand owners bring people back to the fray and through the doors of their retail establishments? Luckily for them, FieldTest is here to help.

The FieldTest Platform is designed to help brands of all shapes and sizes achieve success through digital marketing, not just those who primarily operate online. Our platform gives brands with brick and mortar locations a unique set of features to drive consumer interest and get them through your doors. Here are 3 ways you can use the FieldTest Platform to drive customers to your local business! 

Use localized targeting to attract customers to your retail locations

It’s a story we hear way too often here at FieldTest, a local business is interested in advertising themselves online but doesn’t have the footprint to advertise nationally and is concerned that their marketing budget would be better spent elsewhere rather than promoting their small brick and mortar business to customers across town, much less across the country. This is a perfectly reasonable concern, especially now where every dollar counts more than ever. Luckily, FieldTest has a solution for these companies. 

We’re not kidding when we say that our ad platform has some of the most advanced, professional audience targeting features in the industry baked right in for all of our clients. In fact, many don’t even know just how specific they can get with their marketing and simply assume that their needs couldn’t possibly be met with digital advertising. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does FieldTest offer highly optimized audience segments that reflect everything from shopping patterns to music and art taste to workout habits and more, we also offer geotargeting down to the zip code so you have complete control over who your ads get targeted to. 

Simply build out your audiences as you would in any other ad campaign, enter in the zip code you want to target, and that’s it! You’ve now ensured that only the people within walking distance of your business will be served your ads. This will also help decrease costs and increase your ability to personalize your messaging, often leading to much higher performance for your brick and mortar small business.

Promote your social media outside the walled garden

In this new digital landscape most brands can’t get far without some kind of social media presence. We’ve talked before about how many brands fall into the trap of relying exclusively on socials for their marketing, but there’s no denying that social media still has a huge role to play in the promotion of your brand the maintenance of long-term relationships with your customers. Still, if you’re only using social media you are only messaging to your customers 40% of the time they are online! This is where FieldTest comes in.

We built our online advertising platform to allow brands like yours to promote anything they have to offer, whether it be an online store or a social media post. This freedom allows any brand, from purely DTC online-only retailers to local gyms with no website and everything in-between. This means that if you don’t have much of an online presence, but do have a facebook page or even a particularly positive yelp review, you can promote it to interested consumers online everywhere they browse online! This type of promotion is vital to growing your brand, spurring consumer interest, and driving customers through the doors of your business! 

Give your existing customers access to unique discounts and offers 

The challenges of staying afloat during a pandemic lockdown don’t just apply to newer brands, even established companies had to figure out how to make ends meet while keeping their doors closed. These brands are in luck with the FieldTest Platform! We allow anyone with an email list or customer database to reach their existing customers through digital ads, meaning you have the power to message directly to consumers who already know how great you are. 

Many consumers may have been huge fans of yours prior to the lockdown but simply need a little push to get out their front door and through yours, this is where FieldTest’s retargeting capabilities come in handy. 

By taking your existing customer data and creating a series of retargeting ads with specific offers, discounts or coupons, you are able to give them the push they need to get back out into the world and back to shopping at your establishment. Consider reading our guides to full-funnel marketing to see how we recommend messaging consumers in order to reactivate them and bring them back into the fray as long-term customers.

The struggles of the last couple years have been unique to say the least, but with a return to normalcy - or something resembling it - on the horizon, now is the time to act in order to get your small business back up on its feet. You’re not in this alone and FIeldtest is here to help with a suite of robust advertising products meant to help any business achieve scale, including yours. 

Get in contact to find out how FieldTest can help you get more customers for your local brick and mortar business