What To Consider When Building An Effective Retail Marketing Strategy
We have continued to see changes across the retail sector post-pandemic. As brands have adapted to these changes, the way consumers purchase products has also changed and customers now have more of a say. We investigate what makes an effective retail marketing strategy.
What Is Retail Marketing?
A successful retail marketing strategy uses multiple marketing tools to get customers into a store and buying products. Establishing a clear brand identity that coincides with your business plans will help your retail marketing strategy remain consistent.
Retail marketing includes:
- Online and digital marketing
- Direct marketing
- Point of sale
- Public relations (PR)
- Experiential marketing
- Limited-time discounts
- Catalogues
- Word of mouth
- TV and radio advertising
- Partnerships
To efficiently implement a retail marketing strategy your brand must consider the 4p’s of marketing:
- Product the physical item that is being sold
- Price refers to the pricing strategy that is used to sell an item like ‘£9.99’ or ‘buy one get one free’
- Place the location or platform used to sell products
- Promotion what the retailer does to get the word out and entice sales
Why It’s Important To Build An Effective Retail Marketing Strategy
Brands that have successfully engaged their audience through their retail marketing strategy are able to expand as a business and have seen a rise in popularity. We have summarised the top 6 retail marketing strategies below:
Engage Your Customer
To effectively market your target audience, you must understand their wants and needs. A customer’s ‘need’ is what gives them a reason to visit your store initially and their ‘want’ makes them return to you over a competitor. Brand experience is the number one reason customers return so to make sure you are providing an experience like no other.
To stand out from your competitors you must go to your customers directly and aim displays and in-store initiatives at them. Engaging with your customers can make them feel a visit to your store adds value to their lives. Your USP should be showcased in your marketing strategy to make your brand stand out and will help to meet your customer’s needs. Standing out will give your audience a reason to choose to visit your store physically over browsing similar items at large online retailers such as Amazon from the comfort of their homes. When thinking about your retail marketing strategy keep this question in mind – What makes your brand experience worthy of their time?
Most importantly it must be simple for customers to find your store. Google allows you to have your business opening hours, address, and phone numbers advertised online in a way that existing or new customers can easily find and connect with you.
Strong Digital Marketing
Digital marketing campaigns draw in more customers with the ability to geo-target local audiences but also reach those from afar. A strong e-commerce presence may drive in-store traffic.
Social media should be a key part of your digital marketing. As your customers are most likely to be found on at least one social media platform so you should consider creating brand accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
To create engaging social media accounts, you must understand your brand aesthetic which should be transferable online to in-store. Use digital marketing to your advantage. By making your shop sharable and creating a brand experience you will build customer loyalty and word of mouth referrals.
Not all retail stores will have photograph points like a clothes shop or bakery might, but there are other ways to connect your offline and online platforms. Think of your brand purpose and then think outside the box, run social media competitions or place QR codes in-store to connect both mediums. As most consumers have access to mobile devices an easily accessible QR code in-store can provide more information or a direct link to the product online.
For example, Fashion retailer Rebecca Minkoff has created a “Save your fitting room session” experience. Fitting rooms are equipped with screens that allow a customer to save the items they liked during an in-store try-on session and then order them later from their mobile device. As a result of integrating this in-store customer data with their online and offline channels, they saw a 6-7x increase in sales in as little as 6 months.
Once your digital marketing campaigns are running and your customer can see why shopping with you will benefit them you need to give them another reason to come to your store and spend their money. Think about online advertising for in-store promotions to drive footfall into your store.
Merchandising
When your digital marketing strategy has showcased your store aesthetically online, it must then also be as appealing in person. Ensuring your store is easy to navigate around helps customers successfully browse your stock and quickly identify what they are looking for.
Product placement is key to optimise sales. Keep your stock at the customer’s eye level and put your main stock in key points within your store. If you do run in-store promotions keep these items at the front of the store and then cross-sell similar items around them, this will not only showcase one item but will bring attention to the other products you stock. Read more on effective merchandising.
Understand The Everchanging Market
The retail market is forever changing and to stay relevant, keeping on top of the latest buying trends is a must. Make sure your stock is relevant to your customers and your brand.
Where possible ensure that you stay stocked up on what consumers want and merchandise these items to make them more appealing. If you are not able to keep up with stock demand find a way to ensure your customers are engaged, let them know when the product will be back, and offer to put them on a list. By engaging with customers in this way your brand does not only provide excellent care but now has a point of contact which allows you to connect with them. Using your digital marketing tools will help you to keep up with the ever-changing market.
Provide Employee Training!
Customers want to be able to make secure purchases from knowledgeable staff. Employees are able to bring more to your business if they understand the brand direction. They can continue to help the business grow so that your brand does not get left behind.
Curbside Appeal
In-store features cannot always be seen from the outside so a great curbside appeal is important to attract customers to come inside the store.
The use of eye-catching materials such as murals, chalkboards, and window dressings give a fresh look that if kept updated will continually draw in customers.
Your window is representative of your brand so you must carefully plan for this. Display deals and offers outside of your store with limits to create a sense of urgency – “get deals whilst stock lasts!”.
We Can Help You Create A Winning Retail Marketing Strategy
If you are looking to build an effective retail marketing strategy, we are here to help. Talk to one of GottaBe!’s experts today so find out what we can do for you! Contact us by calling: 02380 634283, emailing: hello@gottabemarketing.co.uk or by contacting us online.