Using Your Online Presence to Drive In-Store Traffic in 2025

Posted June 24, 2025 • 4 Minute Read

Whether or not you sell items online as a business or rely solely on a brick-and-mortar location, new customers will often first find out about you on the internet. This could be through a Google search to confirm business hours, a tag on social media, or a glance at your website. That’s why more businesses are leaning into online-to-offline marketing: a strategy that uses digital tools to drive in-person visits and purchases.

Here’s how to use your business’s online presence to bring more customers through the door.

Use Online Tools to Guide Customers to Your Storefront

As a local business with a physical storefront, optimizing online resources to attract customers can lead to more personal connections and encourage visitors to spend more, according to First Insight. Customers don’t visit your business by chance; they’re looking for a solution, a specific product, or simply a better experience than they had with another company.

Your online tools, like your business website and social media accounts, can play a key role in that search by guiding them toward your physical location and setting great expectations before they ever walk in.

Turn your website into a real-world traffic tool

Your business website has done the hard work of finding your audience online, now it’s time to bring them into your store. To turn these new visitors into customers, you can make several improvements to your website to enhance its effectiveness in driving in-store traffic:

  1. Offer a clearly visible local pickup option and display the price difference for shipping vs. picking up in store.
  2. Display real-time, in-store inventory on your website, including low stock warnings.
  3. Add pop-ups or digital forms encouraging visitors to sign up for your email list or newsletter, possibly in exchange for a small discount on in-person purchases.

Lastly, don’t neglect your website’s ability to build a relationship. You can do this by letting your business’s personality shine through in the content you publish on your website.

Planting seeds for future business requires a personalized email address. With Northwest’s email hosting service, you’ll get up to 10 distinct, branded business email accounts to stay in touch with clients.

Optimize your Google Business Profile

Your Google Business Profile will likely be your first opportunity to land a new customer. According to Statista, around 75% of consumers use Google to find local business information before any other route. Therefore, the information on your business profile on Google should be helpful and accurate, as it’s one of the fastest ways to drive foot traffic.

Make sure the following is up-to-date:

  • Your business hours
  • Your menu or product list, complete with item descriptions
  • Your contact information
  • Your business address
  • Photos of your storefront

Additionally, while it’s an underutilized tool, consider using the posts feature on your Google Business Profile to share information on current events and restock updates.

Use social media to promote in-store visits

Your social media profiles on sites like Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky function similarly to your business website, but with the advantage of acting as a direct line to your fans.

Sharing in-store events in short-form clips and offering an exclusive experience to followers, like offering a discount to shoppers who show they’re following you on social media, can attract more in-person traffic. Featuring these visitors in your future clips can also create an ecosystem where your online and offline presence work in tandem.

What Businesses Benefit from Online-to-Offline Marketing?

Online-to-offline marketing is all about creating a digital experience that naturally leads to in-person action. It’s not simply promoting your storefront online; it’s about intentionally designing your online presence to guide customers toward visiting, booking, or purchasing in-person, and highlighting the benefits of doing so.

Businesses that use online-to-offline marketing effectively do so to build trust before the first interaction and to convert online engagement into tangible business. Leveraging the in-person experience gained from this marketing approach can help small enterprises earn customers for life.

Retailers and boutiques, service providers, and hybrid businesses that blend product sales with in-person experiences see the biggest payoff when online and offline efforts work together. If your product is best delivered face-to-face, or the unique experiences you can provide in-person complement your shippable goods, online-to-offline marketing helps bridge the two worlds using the digital tools you’ve already built.

Turn Online Interest Into Walk-In Business

There’s no doubt that online-driven sales represent a large portion of modern commerce, but that doesn’t mean that they should (or can) replace the value of the human touch. Give customers a reason to make the trek to your business through exclusive incentives, memorable experiences, and savings on shipping expenses, and nurture both key sales pathways available to you.

The bottom line: don’t wait for people to find your store, use your online presence to guide them straight to your door.

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