13 Sure-Fire Ways to Bring Customers In Your Door Today

For clothing boutiques, restaurants, coffee shops, florists, salons, bakeries and every other kind of business that thrives on foot traffic, one of the most invaluable benefits of social media is the immediate access it offers to customers.

With a little creativity and flexibility, you can use Facebook and Twitter to bring more customers through your doors every day. Elicit a direct response without taking the hit for printing and postage to send a mass mailing, and broadcast frequent, time-sensitive updates without spamming your customers’ e-mail inboxes.

Just remember, in a real-time world, timing is everything.

What’s for lunch?

It’s 11:00 a.m., and your customers are feeling the mid-morning lull. As breakfast fades into a distant memory, hunger begins to creep in.

It’s the perfect time to post an update with your daily specials. After an hour of dreaming about your rich, creamy pumpkin soup, it will be hard to think of another option.

I saw it on Twitter

Offer limited-time exclusive sales and discounts for fans and followers who mention your tweet or repeat a special promotional code at the check-out counter.

The new fish bowl

Everyone knows the fish bowl on the bar where you drop your business card for a chance to win a free lunch.

Create your own virtual fish bowl by picking up the tab for a randomly selected follower who retweets your daily specials or likes your latest update on Facebook.

What’s hot now?

Driving by a Krispy Kreme store, it’s all but impossible to resist the sirens’ song of the “Hot Now” sign.

The same concept applies in the virtual world. Got a batch of warm peach pies fresh out of the oven, ready and waiting for a scoop of vanilla ice cream? Post a tantalizing tweet and reap the benefits of the power of suggestion.

Be their social director

When mid-afternoon Friday rolls around, water cooler talk turns to weekend plans. Capture the after-work crowd by posting your happy hour special or open mic night.

Never find yourself under the weather

Don’t let the rain dampen your sales. When skies are grey and temperatures are falling, your customers might not be inclined to venture out into the elements. But what chilly cube-dweller could resist the allure of a perfectly brewed espresso?

No such thing as a slow night

Is business unusually slow on Saturday evening? Turn your night around by tweeting “Hungry? No wait tonight @CornerCafe.”

Got a few gaps in your appointment book? Fill those empty slots by offering a one-day 2-for-1 special.

What’s new and what’s now?

Post a photo and tell us why your hot new arrival is this season’s must-have.

Even customers who stopped in just last week will be tempted to come back and make sure they’re the first to be seen sporting the latest trend.

Answer a question before it’s asked

Your customers may not be thinking about their holiday plans just yet, but you are definitely thinking about your holiday bookings.

Create a sense of urgency by sending out a tweet like “Jingle bells will soon be ringing! Book your party now while reservations are still available!” to spur them to action today.

While you're in the neighborhood

Is there a special event happening that will bring your customers to your area? Jump on the bandwagon by offering a promotional tie-in or themed refreshments that will entice them to stop by.

The race is on

Want a quick traffic boost? Offer a special freebie to the first few fans through the door who repeat a secret phrase.

Where everybody knows your name

Everyone likes to feel they’re part of the club. If you regularly post updates with photos of guests or shout-outs to loyal customers, others will be drawn in by the desire to get in on the action.

Don’t forget your manners

As nice as it is to hear the cash register ring, don’t use your social media megaphone exclusively for self-promotion.

To earn the lasting loyalty of your fans and followers, be sure to provide helpful, useful news, information and links, too, and keep them coming back for more.

 

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All Hail the Antihero!

As rogues and misfits gain an increasing share of the entertainment pie, TV shows like “Person of Interest” and “Dexter,” along with movies like the “Dark Knight” trilogy and “The Hunger Games,” are riding a wave of popularity that lands antiheroes at the top of the pop culture heap. Dark humor and complicated moral motives rule the day as these offerings push the boundaries of what audiences are willing to buy into – and who they are willing to root for. Now entering its final run of eight episodes, “Breaking Bad” stands as perhaps the purest portrayal of an antihero we’ve ever seen in mainstream media. The show follows protagonist Walter White (played by Bryan Cranston) as he turns from an unfulfilling career as a high school chemistry teacher to a life of crime, peril and big money, evolving into a ruthless drug lord over the course of the series. Everyone watching has a stake in what happens to White, whether they’re rooting for him to come to his senses and put his family first, to emerge as an invincible American meth kingpin or simply to reap what he has sown. So what is it about these unconventional protagonists that makes them so compelling? And how can we as marketers tap into the power of characters that we love-to-hate and hate-to-love to create campaigns with that can’t-look-away quality? Here are six great examples of antiheroes that have been the face of some of our culture’s most unforgettable advertising campaigns:

Allstate: Mayhem Guy

Allstate is getting a lot of viral mileage out of this character. For a guy who we’re supposed to avoid at all costs, Mr. Mayhem seems like he’d be a pretty good hang. It would almost be worth a costly disaster if we could just tell as cool a story about it as this guy does.

Dunkin Donuts: “Time to make the donuts”

What was it about this man that was supposed to sell donuts? His bland enthusiasm? His lack of clarity and alertness on the job? His doughy physique as testimony to the tastiness of his output? And, yet, you can’t get him out of your mind, can you?

Burger King: “Wake up with the king”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. Antihero, anti-appetite and anti-breakfast, if you ask most people after the first time they saw this spot. Yet, oddly compelling…must…eat…egg biscuit…

Reebok: Terry Tate, Office Linebacker

Undeniably funny – even for the Joe Cube-Dweller among us for whom Terry Tate recalls his most traumatic memories from junior high gym class.

Bud Light: “Mr. Way-Too-Much-Cologne-Wearer

With this series, Budweiser may have succeeded in making fun of every single person to ever hoist one of its beverages. Yet so many of us keep coming back for more, in denial that we could ever be too zealous in our touch football play or that we might ever bring too ponderous a cooler to the backyard barbecue.

Isuzu: Joe Isuzu

This long-running series kept the untrustworthy pitchman in front of TV audiences for more than 20 spots. Nobody would buy a car from this guy. But they might laugh and then go buy a car from the company that hired this guy. It just might be crazy enough to be crazy.

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