Opening a new business location can be a daunting prospect, but with careful planning and a great digital marketing strategy you can ensure that your launch goes ahead without a hitch. Utilising social media and digital marketing means that you can gain more exposure and get your audience excited about your launch. Here are some ideas to get you started:
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How should I promote my new business opening?
Update your website
Make sure that your website is up to date before your launch and update it to include a “Coming Soon” listing for your new location. Not only will this let website visitors know that you’re expanding, but it will count as fresh content on your page which can help your page’s search engine result page (SERP) ranking, so more people can find your website when they make a related search.
Provide all the details about your launch, what customers can expect to find, your location, and how to contact you. Let them know if you are holding any special offers during your opening week, and make sure to create fresh, SEO optimised content.
It’s vital that your website can handle an influx in traffic; you may receive a lot of enquiries about your grand opening. Features such as a 24-hour chat bot, a fillable form, or an integrated email submission box could you help to efficiently manage any queries, meaning that you don’t miss any opportunities and none of your customers slip through the net.
Keep your website updated during the run-up to and after your launch. Your customers may come back to your website for further information, so make sure that everything is up to date to prevent any confusion.
Search Marketing
Search marketing encompasses two main strategies:
- SEO (improving your search engine rankings via organic methods)
- PPC (paid advertising/pay-per-click – where you place adverts in search engines)
If you’re not already using search marketing, now is the perfect time. Millions of people search the internet every day, and by using search marketing, you can make sure that your business is visible to them.
Incorporate SEO into your digital marketing strategy by ensuring that you have fresh, relevant content on your website that is optimised for SEO. Perform keyword and search analysis to see what your target audience is looking for, and make sure that you’re creating content that targets these terms. Using SEO can help you gain organic results on search engines, so make sure that your website is capable of being crawled by search engine bots. Click here to find out more about optimising your webpage for SEO.
Paid search marketing means that you can place a clickable advert on search engine results. For example, if you’re opening a new restaurant, you might decide to run a paid search advert that brings up your business when a user searches for the best local restaurant. When somebody clicks on your advert, you then pay a fee.
If you’re already running search ads, adjust your business’s geo-targeting to include your new location. Click here to find out more about running a search marketing campaign.
Collaborate with other businesses
Whether you’re new to the community or opening another premises, a new location is a great way to get involved with your fellow business owners. Are there any local businesses that complement yours well? Consider getting in touch with them and inviting them to your launch. Suggest a social media collaboration; you could offer a special promotion for both of your businesses or offer to promote eachother on social media.
Social media
Promoting your new business location on social media is a cost-effective and engaging way to make an announcement regarding your launch. Here are some ways to effectively promote your business location on social media:
1. Create new pages
If you’re not already present on social media platforms, it’s time to get started. Have a think about your buyer personas: who are you trying to attract to your business? What social media channels are they likely to be present on? It’s best to focus to the main social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram when you’re starting out; focus on generating interesting and valuable content and building your following, then expand out to other social media platforms when you feel ready.
Whilst you should have a main hub on each social platform for your business, opening separate accounts for each of your locations means that you can provide targeted content specific to customers in your new location. You can post about location specific offers or create location specific campaigns.
2. Create and promote the opening date as an event
Scheduling and hosting events can be extremely costly, especially alongside the overhead costs of opening a physical location. By using social media marketing, you can create and share events with your followers, which can be cost-effective and lucrative. Here’s how you can promote your event:
- You could create a Facebook event and invite your page’s followers. Make sure to include all the details that they will need to know about your grand opening, and offer them an incentive to take part, such as a free food and drinks at the event, or an opening day promotion
- For picture sharing platforms such as Instagram, you could create a poster for your event and share it with your followers, or post sneak-peek pictures of what visitors can expect to see on launch day
- Connect with other local business owners on LinkedIn, and extend an invitation to your event; this could help you to form valuable business connections and establish yourself and your business in your local area
- Use social media to perform market research and discover local influencers or bloggers that may be interested in your event. Connect with them and invite them – they might even promote your business or event on their own platform
Holding an event is an immersive way of introducing new customers to your business. If it goes well, you could consider holding future events.
3. Countdowns
Social media means that you can always access your audience without sending out heaps of emails that may end up in their junk folder. You can stay connected with them every day, and one of the best ways to generate a buzz about your opening is by creating a countdown. Some social media platforms such as Instagram let you create interactive countdown widgets for your profile, where users can opt in to be notified when your launch draws near. You could also create a posting schedule, where you share a post every day counting down to your grand opening. Make sure that everybody knows when you’re opening to maximise footfall.
4. Giveaways
Hosting a giveaway can be a valuable tool for social media promotion. They can improve brand awareness, and they can help you to exponentially grow your following in a short period of time.
Choose a reward that will inspire people to enter your giveaway, for example, a free pair of tickets to your in-store event, or a voucher for a service that your new location will be offering. Set rules for your giveaway, for example, you could ask your followers to share and tag their friends in your post as a mode of entry – this will improve your reach. Or you could ask your followers to create user-generated content as a mode of entry, meaning that they will be talking about your business on their own profiles.
Run social media advertising
Social media can help you to spread the news about your new business opening but running a social media ad campaign will help you to expand your reach beyond just your followers. If you’re hosting a grand opening event, have any special promotions lined up, or just want to promote your business, use advertisements to share this information with your target audience.
Social media advertising offers a range of benefits. Adverts can help you to reach potential customers who may have never heard of your business before, and this can improve your brand awareness and recall. Platforms such as Facebook can run extremely effective campaigns by only targeting to a specific audience based on demographics such as interests and location; it’s up to you how specific your advertising targeting is. This is a cost-effective way of marketing your business – by only showing your adverts to users who will likely be interested in your business, you’re not wasting money on reaching an audience who may not be interested in what you have to offer.
Advertising on social media is likely to improve your website and social media traffic – this could create a spike in your engagement, help you to sell more tickets to an event, or improve footfall to your new location.
Make sure to advertise on the social media platforms that your target audience are present on and set SMART goals so that you can track your progress and determine the campaign’s success.
Online Listings
Getting your business listed on online directories is a simple process that can help to promote your new location. Use your listings to give your customers vital information about your business, such as a contact number, address, and business hours. This can improve your search result because this information will help search engines to find your business. Local listings make it easier for visitors to find you, especially with directories such as Google My Business that have a map functionality that will pinpoint your new physical location.
Utilise email marketing by placing a call-to-action (CTA) on your website that encourages users to sign up to your email subscription list. Growing your email subscription list will help you to keep those who are interested in your business informed about your new location opening and any other news you may wish to share.
Send your subscribers an email announcing your new location and include details about your grand opening event. You could also run a targeted email campaign, that could help you to reach new members to add to your mailing list and spread the word about your opening.
Consider print advertising
Combining traditional print advertising with digital marketing means that you can tap in to your target audience both on and offline. Print marketing can help you to enhance your current marketing campaign; many people turn to locally ran publications to find out about news and events in their area. By running an advert in a local publication, you could see an increase in footfall at your new location. Whilst social media and search marketing can help you to find a targeted, specific audience, you can cover all bases with print advertising by reaching new potential customers that may not be as active online. Using magazines, flyers, banners, and newspapers, you can promote the opening of your new business location by creating a tangible advertisement that people in your vicinity can see and interact with.
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When should I start promoting the grand opening?
Whether this is your first physical location or the newest in your chain, it’s never too early to start planning for your grand opening. At least a few months in advance, decide on a launch date and make sure to have a strategic and thorough plan in place detailing how you will promote your new physical location.
Make sure to:
- Create a budget and consider advertising costs
- Perform market research to see how your competitors are promoting their locations
- Create buyer personas and find out what your target audience might want to see
- Decide on what kind of advertising campaigns you want to run
- Reach out to local print advertising companies and discuss how you can best promote your opening
- Plan and schedule your opening event
- Ensure that you have reached out to your email subscription list and alerted them
- Created your social media accounts and start teasing your followers with sneak peeks into your new physical location.
