How to advertise your store for free

How to advertise your store? That is a great question as advertising your store is a key factor in it's success. Now how to advertise your store for free? It is do-able, but it will take some elbow grease. However if you put in the work, there will be a payoff.

One thing needs to be understood about running a business, it's easy to open up a business, set up shop, and sit back and wait for customers to come in through those doors. But how many customers actually even know you're there to walk in through those doors? And how many customers actually know who or what ABC Wireless even does? If you truly want to maximize your stores potential you must advertise your store. Well I'm here to show you a few ways of doing just that with no cost out of your pocket only time.

In no order of importance:

1. Google My Business: This is a very easy thing to do and will get you listed on google maps as a business and you will show up on the Google search engine and Google+. It will give you the ability to set store hours and information, give your shop a description, and allow for customer reviews. It is very important that you accurately describe what your shop is about. Do not add any additional info if it does not pertain to you. Why you might ask, well simple, it will effect your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Rankings. Keep it simple and to the point to asure that you come up correctly on searches that are relevant to your business.

2. Facebook Fan Page: Create a Facebook Fan page for your store. As with Google Places, Facebook Fan Pages allow you to set store hours and input your store information for everyone to see. However, with a Facebook Fan page you are given more of an interaction with your potential customer base. You are allowed to post promos, events, anything that you want for all of your fans to see. Another great thing about Facebook Fan Pages is the ability of it to crawl to the top of search engines thanks to Facebook's SEO. Sounds too good to be true right? Kind of, and that is because you start with 0 fans, it is your job to attain those fans. The more active you are on Facebook the better. That way you will give your Fan Page more exposure, and most importantly tell your customers who are walking into your location to follow you on Facebook.

3. Twitter: As with the previous two sites, create a Twitter account for your business. Input a brief description of what you do and your phone number. What makes Twitter different from Google and FB is the interaction with potential customers with out them being your fans or searching for you specifically. You interact via hashtags, and any customer looking up hashtags that you might have tagged on your post will see your post! Example let's say I dropped a post showing the Galaxy S7 at a sale price of $499.99, I would drop like this on twitter "Awesome deal one day only #SamsungGalaxyS7 for $499.99. Call us now for more info @ 800-555-5555 #GalaxyS7 #S7 #SamsungGalaxy" and add a picture. This way anybody searching any of those hashtags will see your post. Another great thing about Twitter is the ability to link it to your FB Fan page. This will allow you to post on Twitter and automatically re-post on your FB Fan Page without you having to do double the work. Like FB though you will have to work hard to attain followers but once that is accomplished it's free advertising to those followers.

4. Instagram: As with Twitter, Instagram works the same but picture oriented. It uses hashtags to give you maximum exposure and interact with potential customers. It is a very strong form of Social Media and must not be ignored. Again, post material that will be engaging and bring attention to your posts. As with FB and Twitter, you will have to work hard to attain followers but once it's all said and done you will be able to advertise to them for free!

5. Yelp: Get on Yelp! It's very similar to Google Places but it gets visited by a different type of customer. This is the type of customer who likes to read and leave reviews. With that said make sure to keep a high score as it can effect you. However I'd rather be listed and give my store some exposure than not listed at all. One big perk to Yelp is that it allows you to put up specials or coupons for your customers to clip off and bring to your store which is always a good thing. Another perk about Yelp is that it crawls on all search engines very well. I sometimes see locations that are not listed on Google maps but are on Yelp and theyre at the top of Google searches.

6. Yahoo/Bing/Ask: Talking about search engines, let's remember not everyone uses only Google. Windows machines come defaulted with Bing as their search engines and Yahoo is still a very popular option. Do you want your store to show up on those search engines? Then lets get them listed if you do!

7. YellowPages/CitySearch/SuperPages: Yes the book! Believe it or not there are still people who use that book and if leads to one sale a year because I set this up then I will take that one sale. But more importantly you want to be listed on those websites for the reason that they are 3 of the main local search engines and a lot of the smaller local search sites use the 3 directories for their own sites. The beautiful thing about this is that it literally a one time set up and your done.

8. Craigslist/Backpages/Offerup/Facebook Marketplace: These sites are easy money if done correctly. For one, they are free to post ads on. Make sure you use an accurate description and spell correctly as the search engines for these sites are keyword generated. Another thing to keep in mind is you usually have bargain hunters on these sites, so your strategy must be different from that to your walk in customer. Meaning you're going to more than likely make less and you should usually advertise to these customers at a discounted price. Notice how I said usually, that means not all the time, do some research before posting anything, no need to undercut yourself if no one else is advertising the same thing. When it's all said and done though, even if you make $0 off of this type a customer it's still a win win as you just gained a sale you wouldn't have made if it wasn't for these sites. I'll take a happy customer and turn him into a raving fan any day!

9. Follow up calls: This I have noticed is very effective. Notice how it does not say sales call, that is because it is not. One thing to remember is the best type of advertising is not paid advertising, it's word of mouth! This is why I have always seen followup calls as a very crucial part of my retail business. What is a follow up call? That's pretty simple, "Hello Mr Customer, this is John from Boost Mobile, I'm just calling in to check if you have any questions regarding your recent cellphone purchase?" It's that simple, I'm not selling you anything, just making sure everything is ok. If the customer has any issues make sure to take care of them, once the customer is ok to go, remind them of your awesome service and to send you their friends and family so you can take care of them as well. That is the key part to the follow up calls, ask for referrals!! Always ask for referrals! How often should you do these calls? I recommend about 25 days after their cellphone purchase, that way you can also remind the customer that their payment is due soon and to go to your store for that transaction.

10. Referrals: Some companies out there have what are called referral programs. For example Boost Mobile, they have a referral program that will give their existing customers a $25 service credit for referring their friends and family. At the same time, their friend or family member will also receive a $25 service credit. Make sure to get to know all the referral programs that are offered by these carriers and make sure to tell your customers about it. This isn't even your money that is coming out of your pocket to attain these new customers. This is coming from the Carriers/MVNOs themselves. I'm more than happy to spend their money to put money in my pocket so why not tell all of my customers about this? If you want to take ait a step further, create your own referral program to differentiate yourself from the cell phone stores around you. Give away a free accessory, a $10 discount, something to everyone who is referred to your store. At the end of the day, you made a sale that cost you a fraction of what you profited.

I hope this helps you guys achieve higher sales. It has helped me tremendously in my retail locations and best of all, they are all FREE TO DO! Your only cost is time Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter as I will be going into depth and set up of each one of the 10 points above in newsletters. Feel free to leave your thoughts, ideas, or maybe I missed one, and lets discuss below!

Happy Selling

Julio Castro

Wireless Dealer Group

IG @wirelessdealergroup TW @wireless_dealer