6 Ways for Small Businesses to Cash in on Pokemon Go

It’s no secret that Pokemon Go is everywhere right now. For some businesses, they were randomly selected as a “hot spot” and have been getting all the Pokemon traffic (more on this later), but what about for your average business? Check out six different ways you can take advantage now—the sooner you can get started the better.

Pokemon Themed Products or Services

Get creative and theme a limited edition product or service off the Pokemon GO craze. This makes for great social content and for your customers to perceive you as more “in” or “trendy” than you already are. San Diego’s famous Donut Bar made pokeball donuts last week, which sold out virtually instantly, and so this week they’ve decided to increase their production. Another idea would be to order a couple Pokemon Trainer hats for your staff. The sky is the limit, it’s all about creating something special with the theme to really bring in the business.

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Buy Lure Modules if Your Business is Near a PokeStop

Lure modules attract Pokemon to the PokeStop in your range for 30 minutes with a new Pokemon appearing every 3 minutes. There are three ways users get lure modules: one is from PokeStops items (though not all of them will provide it all the time), leveling up as a trainer, and from the Shop, where PokeCoins can be used to buy 6 for 680 PokeCoins, Whether it happens to be your business or close to it, this will surely catch the eyes of those walking, biking or skateboarding by because it’s identified by the pink hearts falling from it (as seen in the image below).

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However, getting the attention is just half the battle. Use creative calls to action, discounts or special products to “evolve” the average Pokemon enthusiast into a customer.

Pokemon Go Social Media Posts

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Get playful. Post funny screenshots of Pokemon inside your business and with your customers and staff. For example, if a local seafood restaurant or sushi bar posted the image above that would be pretty funny right? This is the type of thing your social media followers would love to share and in return the impressions for your business will increase.

You can even provide the same for your customers. For those that post an awesome Pokemon screenshot and tag your business on social networks, provide a discount to them or if you get lots of customers playing the app, use their posts to create a social media contest for best picture.

Break-Time Hunting for Employees

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While many local businesses are benefiting from increased foot traffic, larger more corporate businesses have seen down ticks in productivity as workers are more incentivized to get out for coffee or lunch. In fact, Forbes’ on-site survey is currently reporting over 30% of workers play for more than an hour at work. However, many types of businesses in most states have some type of mandatory break in addition to lunch. Organize a Pokemon hunt on these breaks to embrace the fact that their employees need to satisfy their fix. It will also build comradery and get your staff some good exercise.

Place a Catchy Pokemon Call to Action Outside

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If you get people to your establishment through the use of a regular PokeStop or Lure Module, be sure to communicate your love for the game. Entice users to hang at your bar or grab a snack while playing. Getting their attention through Pokemon ad creatives while Pokemon is still on everyone’s brain. If you have a sandwich board, challenge yourself to draw a lard Pikachu to “shock” people into your store.

Represent a Team

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In Pokemon Go, gym’s are the things that look like towers on the map. Each player selects a team to join at the beginning of the game (yellow, red, or blue) and one of the main goals of the game is to keep as many gym’s under your team’s control as possible. Gyms are won by teams as Pokemon and are usually located at points of interest in the real world like a statue, a plaque, or maybe even a coffee shop. They’ll appear on the map color-coded based on which team is currently in control of them.

If your business is really close to a gym, users will often be going by to try to take control of a gym or to drop Pokemon off their for training. One cool thing to do is to select 1 of the 3 teams to represent with your business. Maybe Yellow, Blue or Red is in your logo or storefront? Then provide discounts to those team members. This could even be a way to get others into the app if they aren’t playing yet!

But don’t neglect the other two teams. All Pokemon players welcome!

Your Turn

Have you already tried other tactics? We’d love to hear about it and add your ideas to the list, so please share in the comments. Good luck “catching them all” out there…customers that is.