The Data-Driven Playbook for Driving Foot Traffic, Building Local Lists, and Winning on Relevance
Brick-and-mortar marketing has entered a new era. While e-commerce continues to grow, physical locations still dominate local spending, impulse purchases, services, and experiential retail. The problem is not demand—it’s attention, relevance, and follow-up. Most brick-and-mortar small businesses struggle not because people won’t shop in person, but because their marketing relies on one-time tactics: ads that stop when the budget stops, promotions that don’t build memory, and traffic that disappears after the visit. CliquePrize® changes this. This article is courtesy of CliquePrize®.
By CliquePrize staff
December 22, 2025

Video Brick & Mortar Marketing: The Data-Driven Playbook for Driving Foot Traffic by CliquePrize®
In this new 1-minute video, Susan breaks down:
✅ Why local lists are more cost effective than Ads
✅ How conversion rates are better with local, relevant lists than Ads
✅ Why Brick & Mortar Small Businesses are turning to Giveaways to capture local lists
✅ Why CliquePrize® exists to help grow your brick & mortar small business
✅ How Reach and Frequency is a math problem and relevant local marketing lists answers the question
Length: 1 minutes 09 seconds
The Data-Driven Playbook for Driving Foot Traffic To Your Small Business
The highest-performing brick-and-mortar marketing strategies today are built on math, data, and owned customer relationships—not guesswork.
This guide explains:
- What brick-and-mortar marketing really means in 2025
- Why list marketing consistently outperforms ads for local businesses
- The real conversion data behind email and SMS marketing
- Why giveaways create higher-quality local audiences than discounts
- How relevance beats reach every time
- How the CliquePrize® mobile app helps turn foot traffic into a compounding asset
What Is Brick-and-Mortar Marketing?
Brick-and-mortar marketing refers to any strategy designed to drive customers into a physical location and encourage repeat visits. Unlike e-commerce marketing, success is not measured in clicks or impressions—it’s measured in walk-ins, redemptions, and return frequency.
Effective brick-and-mortar marketing includes:
- Local promotions and incentives
- In-store events and experiences
- Giveaways, contests, and sweepstakes
- Email and SMS list marketing
- Loyalty and relationship marketing
- Location-based targeting and proximity offers
The most important distinction:
Brick-and-mortar marketing is about owned reach, not rented reach.
Why Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Fails for Most Small Businesses
Many local businesses rely on:
- Paid ads with declining performance
- Word of mouth that can’t be scaled
- Social media engagement with no follow-up
- Discounts that erode margins
The result is short-term traffic spikes with no compounding effect.
What’s missing is a system that:
- Drives a physical visit
- Captures permission to re-contact
- Enables repeat visits without paying again
That system is list marketing.
Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Is a Math Problem
At its core, brick-and-mortar growth follows a simple equation:
Relevant Audience × Conversion Rate × Frequency = Revenue
Most businesses obsess over the first variable—audience size.
But conversion rate and frequency matter far more for local businesses.
A smaller, more relevant local list:
- Converts at higher rates
- Costs less to reach
- Can be contacted repeatedly
- Produces predictable foot traffic
This is why email and SMS marketing consistently outperform paid advertising for brick-and-mortar businesses.
The Data: Why List Marketing Works
Email Marketing Performance (Local Businesses)
According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA):
- Email marketing delivers an average ROI of $36 for every $1 spent
- Permission-based email lists significantly outperform purchased or cold lists
Industry benchmarks show:
- Open rates: 25–45% for local businesses with opt-in lists
- Click-through rates: 2–5%
- In-store conversion from email clicks: 5–15%
That means a list of just 1,000 local subscribers can reliably generate:
- 250–450 opens
- 20–50 clicks
- 1–7 in-store visits per campaign
And unlike ads, that reach is reusable.
SMS Marketing Performance (The Local Power Channel)
SMS is one of the most effective brick-and-mortar marketing tools ever measured.
Industry data consistently shows:
- Open rates: 90–98%
- Read time: Under 3 minutes
- Click-through rates: 8–20%
- Action/conversion rates: 20–30%+ for time-sensitive local offers
Why SMS works for brick-and-mortar:
- Phones are always nearby
- Messages feel personal
- Locations are close
- Offers can be redeemed immediately
A 500-person local SMS list can outperform a $1,000 ad campaign—because every message reaches a real, nearby person who opted in.

Omnichannel List Marketing Multiplies Results
Businesses that combine email and SMS outperform single-channel campaigns.
According to omnichannel marketing studies:
- Customers engaged across multiple channels spend more
- Response rates increase significantly when SMS reinforces email
- Conversion windows shorten when urgency is added
Email builds familiarity and trust.
SMS drives action.
Together, they create a repeatable foot-traffic engine.
Why Local Relevance Beats Reach
Brick-and-mortar businesses do not need massive audiences.
They need dense relevance.
Compare:
Paid Ads
- Broad targeting
- Declining click-through rates
- Rising costs
- No owned relationship
Local List Marketing
- 100% local relevance
- Known interest or intent
- Owned contact data
- Repeatable reach
The most relevant message to the most relevant person always wins.
This is why list marketing consistently outperforms ads for:
- Bridal Shops
- Gyms and fitness studios (Yoga, Kickboxing & Pilates)
- Med spas & Skincare clinics
- HVAC
- Real Estate Open Houses
- Restaurants
- Kennels
- Music, Dance, Karate & Swim Schools
Why Giveaways Build Better Lists Than Discounts
Discounts attract bargain hunters.
Giveaways attract interest and intent.
Psychologically, giveaways:
- Create excitement instead of price erosion
- Feel optional, not transactional
- Encourage participation
- Build positive brand association
When a Contestant (your targeted Prospect) enters a giveaway, they:
- Voluntarily opt in
- Express interest in the business
- Provide contact information
- Accept future communication
That opt-in matters.
CliquePrize® giveaways are structured to:
- Verify Contestants are local
- Prevent non-relevant entries
- Capture first-party email and SMS data
- Tie prize redemption to physical visits
This produces a high-quality local marketing list, not just traffic.
Brick-and-Mortar Giveaways as a Foot-Traffic System
Effective giveaways do more than collect leads—they create physical outcomes.
With location-verified promotions:
- New Customers discover your small business
- They enter a giveaway
- Winners redeem prizes in-store
- All entrants join the database
- Future campaigns go to known locals
This turns one promotion into many future promotions.
CliquePrize® was built specifically around this model, allowing brick-and-mortar small businesses to:
- Run giveaways, video contests, events, raffles, text to instant win promotions and surveys (i.e. quizzes, polls & questionnaires)
- Build compliant, local databases
- Re-engage customers without ads
- Measure participation tied to real locations
Relationship Marketing: The Hidden Advantage of Lists
Brick-and-mortar success is not built on one visit.
List marketing enables:
- Event announcements
- New product launches
- Seasonal promotions
- Flash offers
- Loyalty rewards
Instead of hoping customers remember you, you remind them—ethically and with permission.
Over time, this increases:
- Visit frequency
- Average order value
- Customer lifetime value (LTV)
Why Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Is Shifting Away from Ads
Paid advertising is increasingly:
- Competitive
- Expensive
- Algorithm-dependent
- Temporary
List marketing is:
- Owned
- Predictable
- Cost-efficient
- Compounding
Every new subscriber reduces future acquisition costs.
This is why the most sophisticated Sponsors (aka brick-and-mortar small business owners) now treat:
- Giveaways as list builders and entry points
- Email and SMS as profit channels
The Core Truth: Brick-and-Mortar Marketing Is About Math
Small businesses don’t lose because their branding is bad.
They lose because:
- Their reach is unfocused
- Their follow-up is inconsistent
- Their marketing resets every month
List marketing fixes this mathematically.
Smaller list × higher conversion × repeat contact beats massive reach × low intent × one-time exposure
Final Takeaway: The Most Relevant Reach Wins
Brick-and-mortar marketing in 2025 is not about being everywhere.
It’s about being local, remembered, and revisited.
The businesses that win:
- Build owned local lists
- Use giveaways to capture intent
- Leverage email and SMS to drive repeat visits
- Focus on relevance, not scale
That’s why list-first brick-and-mortar marketing outperforms ad-first strategies—and why the CliquePrize® mobile app exists specifically to help physical brick & mortar small businesses turn foot traffic into a long-term growth asset.
Take the first step today—start with just $29 and try CliquePrize® for your next promotion.
🚀 Ready to take your marketing to the next level? Download the CliquePrize® app and create a FREE Sponsor Account today!
CliquePrize®*** is the iPhone Giveaways mobile app that helps Small Businesses grow by reaching, nurturing and converting local, high value prospects. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know!***
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