How do small businesses do marketing promotion?

Attracting users and increasing purchase return rates may be something that small businesses in fourth- and fifth-tier cities must consider in order to survive in the cracks. In this article, the author takes cake shops as the analysis object and offers suggestions on how small businesses can market and promote themselves. Let’s find out together.

Recently, a friend who runs a cake shop in the fourth or fifth tier cities came to me for advice. How can small businesses and users like them attract customers and increase traffic?

Before answering his question, let's take a look at the current business conditions of their stores.

This merchant user is located in a fourth- or fifth-tier tourist city in my country, and their store is located near the city square. I have been running the cake shop for more than a year. In a good month, I can make a profit of 6,000 to 7,000 yuan, and on a less profitable month, I can still make 4,000 to 5,000 yuan.

Who are the target users of small businesses?

How to market to target users of small businesses

How to split the target users of small businesses

Currently, we mainly rely on Meituan to get orders. Because the store is located on a street with less traffic near the square, there are very few customers who make reservations at the store.

The marketing methods of chain brand cake shops like Ji Yue are limited by their funds and cannot be invested on a large scale.

How can small businesses in fourth- and fifth-tier cities use effective marketing methods to increase store customer acquisition? Here are my marketing ideas for this type of entrepreneur;

1. Who are the target users of small businesses?
2. How do small businesses market to their target users?
3. How do small businesses expand their target users?

1. Who are the target users of small businesses?

my country's third- and fourth-tier cities cover a large number of user groups, whether it is from the cinema audience in terms of film and television, or from the potential market of Pinduoduo in using social networks to reach lower-level users, or the huge number of more than 600 million daily active users of the short video platform Kuaishou.

All aspects show that fourth- and fifth-tier cities have a large number of potential users in all walks of life. Whether it is technology products, film and television audiences, or short video creators.

From the above, we can see that the fact that there are potential users of various products in fourth- and fifth-tier cities means there is a huge demand. Small businesses open and operate in such cities. You also need to understand who your target users are.

During the conversation, the cake operator told me that 60% of their monthly users come from Meituan, 30% come from secondary transactions or introductions from acquaintances, and only 10% of users come from door-to-door consultations.

Moreover, the number of users from Meituan is sometimes extremely unstable from month to month, sometimes only 50%. However, the volume of secondary transactions from introductions by acquaintances has increased.

From the above data, we can easily know that if small businesses in fourth- and fifth-tier cities want to improve their store performance online.

Then, users who are introduced by acquaintances, friends in the circle of friends community and second-time purchasers in the user population will become potential user groups for future operations, and will have a huge incremental growth.

Why is this so?

In fact, the disadvantage of fourth- and fifth-tier cities compared to first- and second-tier cities is that science and technology have not been fully integrated into people’s lives, and the daily traffic in market stores and major supermarkets is not as large as that in first-tier cities.

Because of the low demand, there is a lack of purchasing power among people.

The people living in small cities and counties are mostly middle-aged people, the elderly and students of this city.

They are the main consumer groups in fourth- and fifth-tier cities. The decrease in the number of online shoppers has resulted in a decrease in the proportion of online orders at cake shops.

For all small cake shops in similar cases, their target customers should be neighbors who need cakes to celebrate their birthdays.

Students celebrating a classmate's birthday at school, and the general public buying and baking birthday cakes for banquets in a small hotel/KTV.

They are the main consumer group for small cake shops in fourth- and fifth-tier cities. Their common feature is that they place online orders at a low frequency, as young people all go to first-tier cities for work, resulting in their lack of online shopping.

Compared with products with a short shelf life, they are more keen on traditional secondary purchases, such as those introduced by friends or relatives. Products with authoritative experience are their first choice.

A small fourth or fifth tier city has a permanent population of about three million at the lowest and five or six million at the highest. However, the shopping needs of ordinary people in a city in their daily lives are limited.

For example; there are two cake shops on this street, but only one or two people place cake orders every day.

When the third cake shop appeared on this street one day, the people who placed orders were still those three or two. Demand and supply determine the sales volume of each merchant's products.

2. How to market to the target users of small businesses?

Since we know that the target users of cakes are students, ordinary neighbors and banquets in entertainment venues. How should a small business conduct customer development operations?

Old users bring in new users; the marketing technique of old users bringing in new users is a marketing tool for any product. In addition to the marketing technique of old users bringing in new users, its essence is that if old users have used a good product.

And the service and product quality are good. If his friends or relatives in the community need this product, they will actively recommend it.

This is the authority gained after relatives and friends have used the product, and they will make new users have a good sense of trust in the product. Because new users will only buy the products introduced by a relative or friend because they trust him.

This is what is lacking on online shopping platforms: introductions from familiar friends, because you never know whether the continued positive reviews for a product are from genuine users or something else.

This marketing method can also provide every old user who successfully recommends an order with a certain amount of shopping vouchers for a second order or a commission for posting positive reviews.

Imagine that your neighbor A bought a nice cake for his birthday. The next time his neighbor B’s birthday comes, he successfully recommends the product to B. Then A can also receive the referral commission and the ability to discover good products.

Being able to receive practical benefits can also help increase others' recognition of your abilities, which is a good thing for anyone, let alone your neighbors in fourth- and fifth-tier cities.

For fourth- and fifth-tier cities, the essence of old customers bringing in new customers is to use their authority in interpersonal relationships to recommend products to their respective social circles.

It may not be useful for young people in first- and second-tier cities, but it is a very practical marketing tool for traditional users.

The same applies to other student groups and small managers of various entertainment venues such as hotels/KTVs. For students, small businesses can use their personal relationships to contact the leaders of some school clubs.

If they successfully recommend their store products to students, they can also receive red envelopes. They can also enjoy discounts if they or their relatives purchase the goods, thus opening up the way for product promotion through school channels.

It is also possible to delegate authority to some hotels or medium-sized kindergartens to set up a "counter", and any place where children play can do some advertising or cooperation.

Let purchasing users use their personal connections to recommend your product to friends in need.

3. How do small businesses divide their target users?

When small businesses use the interpersonal relationships of purchasing users to attract customers and attract product traffic, how can they increase the purchase frequency of such users?

That is to say, how to attract more such potential users and make them pay for your products.

This is when social networks come into play. Merchants can put their WeChat in the box of the cake. As long as they post orders and recommend the products in their circle of friends, they can get a red envelope of a certain amount.

And you can get it later by adding the WeChat on the merchant’s small card.

In this way, every merchant store owner who is added can operate them as a member of the community. If their friends have needs next time and recommend them and successfully place an order, they can get a larger discount.

In this process, the cake shop owner obtains the user's WeChat and can also place his products in the user's social circle and social account. In this way, your users will continue to increase with each order.

For every order a user posts, at least 100 people in their circle of friends will see it. If ten users successfully place an order, 1,000 people will know about your product.

The discount given to every user who successfully recommends and places an order can be bigger, but there is a limit on the number of places. For example, ten digits a day or XXX digits a month.

Because many times, a user who buys a cake worth 70 or 80 yuan will not waste his or her personal relationships or come over to add you on WeChat for three or five yuan.

The above are users who have successfully purchased and placed orders. Store owners can use certain discounts and social means to increase their user base, but what about users who have placed certain online orders?

Online and offline linkage: In fact, some users who come to stores to buy have more or less some online shopping experience.

When they come to inquire about the products, the merchants can recommend the prepared small cards to them or directly recommend them to pay attention to their online stores, how much they can get off for the first online order, etc.

When offline users reach a certain stage of usage, offline users can be directed online. It is also possible to guide online users offline.

In this process, it can not only bring certain traffic to the merchant's store but also continuously expand the social circle of online users.

In addition to online and offline linkage, you can also place small advertisements based on various holidays or big promotions in some stores, or on authoritative platforms in the merchant’s own city.

The main purpose of this method is to occupy the minds of users, so that users will think of your products when they have any purchasing needs. If you want to continue to expand your influence in your small city, you should consider building your brand.

Because no matter how a small store operates, its profits will be limited. Therefore, all small supermarkets eventually become chains, and small stores are squeezed by the chains to the point where they cannot survive.

Conclusion

In fact, small businesses in third- and fourth-tier cities not only face the impact of local chain brands, but also have to face the swallowing of the Internet.

With the advancement of the Internet and the impact of the market, the profits for small businesses are even slimmer.

What small businesses need to do to break through this kind of predicament and gain market users is to know the users of their products, expand their social circles, provide them with better services, and then use some marketing means and operational methods to attract customers for themselves.

The above is the market operation strategy for small businesses living in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Author: Nan Sujian

Source: Nansujian