Effective retail marketing strategies are essential for businesses to acquire new customers and keep existing ones, and there are many ways to do so. According to reports, 20% of small businesses fail in their first year, and over half don’t survive by their fifth year. This implies that as a business owner, you must devote more time to developing strategies to keep customers interested.
Retail marketing helps businesses expand their reach, connect with customers, nurture relationships, and tell their brand story. However, setting the right budget ratios for retail advertising can be tricky. This article will go through 12 effective retail advertising and marketing strategies and discuss how to choose which will be best for you. There is no one size fits all strategy when it comes to retail advertising.
What is Retail Marketing?
Retail marketing is the strategy and tactics used by retailers to attract customers and drive sales. It has 4 components: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. It includes organic content, paid content, and both in-person and digital strategies. Retail marketing is important to test and record results to fine tune the approach.
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The 4 Ps of Retail Marketing
The 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, and Promotion) are essential for successful retail marketing strategies. To manage these components, use a POS and retail management system to keep all your ducks in a row and focus on bringing your ideas to life.
- Product. First is the Product, which is the physical item that’s being sold.
- Price. The second is Price, which refers to the pricing strategy that the merchant uses to sell the item. (Examples include “everyday low prices,” implementing pricing psychology like using “$9.99” etc.)
- Place. Third is “Place” which refers to the location or platform used to sell products.
- Promotion. Finally, there’s Promotion, which is what the retailer does to get the word out and entice sales.
Why These Effective Retail Marketing Strategies are Good for Your Business
Small and local businesses are shifting their operations online, leading to increased competition. Because branding and marketing are becoming increasingly important in today’s economy, these tools and resources will help your business to succeed. This list aims to put businesses one step ahead of their competition.
10 Effective Retail Marketing Strategies
1. Maximize Social Media to Build Your Online Presence
The four most popular platforms for retail and social media are Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok. Facebook is the most popular social media platform, ideal for sharing frequent updates with customers, promoting products, and creating on-platform events.
Instagram is a popular social platform with over a billion monthly active users, and Pinterest is a search engine for eCommerce websites. TikTok is one of the world’s fastest growing apps, connecting businesses to TikTok through the TikTok Pixel to gather data about sales and customer actions on their site.
2. Stay Connected With Customers
A customer loyalty program is an effective way to incentivize repeat purchases and learn more about your most frequent and biggest spenders. Email marketing is a direct way of staying connected with customers post-sale, and customer surveys are an important part of a retail strategy.
Additionally, a customer loyalty program can create shopper profiles that can be used for product marketing and personalized marketing efforts.
3. Leverage video
Video marketing is the best way to market merchandise online. To make videos relatable, choose the right format and platforms, have a clear CTA, and feature people who look like your target customers. Determine the best platform for your videos, such as YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram. Factors such as length, content, themes, and effects depend on the platform.
4. Create an ecommerce Website
Over 54% of the world’s population is online, and it used to be difficult to sell things online. Modern-day ecommerce platforms have made it easier, such as ShipStation and Shippo, Stripe and PayPal, and Webflow Ecommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify. However, creating a brand that resonates with consumers is key, as well as knowing how to market and grow the brand
5. Create a Pre-order Strategy
Set up a system to accept pre-orders for out-of-stock or pending items to create short-term revenue and determine the demand for certain products.
This can literally save your business when money is tight — you’re essentially getting paid now to supply at a later date.
Read Also: How to Sustain Online Presence For Your Brand: 10 Tips
6. Start a blog
A blog is a great medium for communicating company news and establishing content marketing efforts. It can act as the central hub for your content, allowing customers to consume your content in their favorite way.
Additionally, if you follow website SEO guidelines, you can receive organic traffic from Google search, driving retail sales without spending money on advertising.
7. Offer Free Shipping
Free shipping is an effective way to motivate consumers to purchase from a store. Over 79% of US consumers said it would make them more inclined to make a purchase online. However, some consumers may be willing to pay a premium for faster delivery, so make sure to give potential customers the option to waive any shipping charges.
8. Consider Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has been on the rise for the past few years, with companies like MVMT, Gymshark, and Fashion Nova building million-dollar empires. Micro-influencers are a cost-effective way to spread awareness of a store on social media.
To find out if an influencer is open to collaboration, you should send an email or direct message them. Hire influencers to create photos or videos promoting products in a store or event.
9. Use Your in-store Assets
In-store retail marketing focuses on leveraging the customer’s in-store experience to promote brand and product awareness. There are seven in-store retail marketing strategies that should be used if you have a brick-and-mortar retail store.
These are:
- In-store merchandising
- Window displays
- Curbside displays
- Staff training
- Partnerships and collaborations
- In-store or virtual events
- Referral and loyalty programs
Window displays are a great way to capture people’s attention as they’re walking or driving by your retail store, drawing them in. Curbside displays are similar to window displays in that they also aim to capture foot traffic as people walk past your store. Store managers should also add “curbside extras”, such as a sandwich board outside shops with some eye-grabbing text or art.
Well-trained staff should be able to identify potential add-on purchases, leveraging cross-selling and upselling to boost the overall purchase value. They will be excited about your brand and your products, so your customers will be, too.
10. Run a Win-back Marketing Campaign
Marketing to new shoppers is great, but what about your existing customers? I’m specifically referring to those who haven’t shopped with you in a while.
Identify inactive shoppers and win them back with a marketing campaign showing them what they’re missing. This is an effective way to increase sales.
Conclusion
Choose a retail marketing strategy that makes sense for your brand and invest your budget wisely into in-store and online promotions. All businesses benefit from a strong marketing mix, and Lightspeed can help you make smarter business decisions.
Developing effective retail marketing strategies involves thinking about what products to sell, where to sell them, and how to keep customers engaged post-sale. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy and it will evolve as your business grows.
