Growing Your Brick And Mortar Business in The Digital Era

By Priya Kalra

In this day and age where everything is available online, brick and mortar businesses are finding it very challenging to stay afloat. Companies like Amazon are taking over the product industry, making it easy for people to sit on their couch and order things to be delivered right to their doorstep. If large companies like Toys R Us are shutting down, why are small businesses still opening up and how are they growing?

My experience as a successful small business owner taught me that being involved in my local community and strategically using social media are the best and fastest ways to grow.

Strategies to Help Your Business Grow

Gain The Goodwill of Your Community

When you’re the go-to person in your community, word of mouth referral is the best compliment your business can receive. Great reviews and referrals by others are quick ways to get more foot traffic into your store.

Empowering Other Business Owners

As a business owner, I was curious how other women balance their business and home lives. Running a business has its own set of challenges and trying to be the best version of you at home and in the professional world is a struggle many women go through.

I decided to interview women in business and share their stories on social media. Finding common ground and using the power of Facebook helped me to increase my fan base while supporting other small businesses.

Create Meaningful Relationships with Networking

Business owners often forget to work on their business, and not always in their business. Going out to network and meet people helps to develop long lasting relationships. When meeting people face to face, finding things in common to talk about is a good way to ‘break the ice’ and get an interesting conversation going.

“Brick and mortar businesses grow when they put the needs of their community first.” #TheGrowthHackingBook #GrowthHackingMovement #GrowthHackingDay

Case study: Sponsoring a Community Event

Objective

Bringing the community together through a community event to raise awareness about my business.

The Event

I really wanted to throw an event that would bring the whole community together. I decided to put together a Children’s Business Fair. Children were required to come up with a business idea and sell their products to the public. The kids set up their own booths, talked to the public and sold their products. They also had the responsibility of marketing the event and inviting their family and friends to come and support them.

Making it Special

I invited community influencers including the Mayor and city council members to be judges and hand out prizes to the top three winners.

I also asked local businesses to sponsor the event by donating raffle prizes, which helped spread the word about their businesses as well.

Results

We had an amazing turnout. Everyone who attended couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had and how much they are looking forward to the next event.

Growth Hacking Lesson

People who had never heard about my business became customers. I was able to connect with families and we talked about our common interests, which are helping our kids learn the value of money and seeing them experience entrepreneurship.

Brick and mortar businesses are always going to be here because face-to-face interaction is still valued, especially in the service industry. In today’s digital age, reaching out to the public is much easier by using social media platforms in the right way, by paying attention to detail and by being actively involved in your community.