Best Retail Marketing Strategies to Help Promote Your Brand

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Retail trading is the best form of customer touch any business could wish for. The relationship between the business and the customer is personalised and can go a long way, especially in brand growth. Feedback is first hand while prices are liberal. These parameters contribute significantly to the product’s strategic positioning, which accounts for over 60% of all product development approaches. How is this possible?

Retail Marketing Strategies that Promotes Brand Growth

Know Your Customers

If you have stayed in a location for some time, you will likely understand the customers’ consumption patterns, preferences, and brand loyalty. The Know Your Customer (KYC) data goes through Research and Development, where they influence the production process. A good production company creates products based on market needs, making KYC a critical function in understanding marketing types or approaches.

However, based on the company’s specialisation area, they will understand the information according to their segment.

• Producers – touches on quality and product ingredient
• Business Distribution – observe storage, packaging and logistics
• Marketing Companies – they look for the best go-to-market strategies
• Retailers – they consider branding mix, brand power and patterns from the final consumer

In all the specialisation models mentioned above, each segment passes down the product information.

Branded Merchandise

Most companies, especially those dealing with Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), give out branded merchandise that helps push the brand into the market. Merchandising services can be in two forms:

• Giving out branded t-shirts, caps or bags with the product logo. The branded merchandise makes the consumer a de-facto brand ambassador for the product.
• Using an already known product from the same company to market a new product. The new product might be of different use or design, but come attached to the known brand. The idea is that the consumer should go and try it out.

This approach accounts for the most B2C interactions. Engagement is personalised since the customer asks specific questions and gets immediate feedback. The ultimate goal is getting consumers to notice the product and using fellow consumers to market it.

Use the Social Media Advantage

The growth of social media in the last decade has improved brand performance. The penetration of information is customised, with both audio and visual advertising taking shape. The development of business accounts on social media harnesses the P2P traffic generated through interpersonal relationships. Businesses can promote their products to appear at the top or reach more people.

Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms that has successfully transitioned to serve as an advertising media. There are tutorials on how to promote your business or products and convert the traffic into sales. Other platforms include Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Twitter. The traffic can be redirected to the company’s website or relay product information. Either way, product visibility is guaranteed.

Use SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is a marketing technique which allows businesses to message customers marketing messages through SMS, referred more commonly as text messaging. If part of your marketing approach includes registering the customer’s phone number, you can use it to send product information. SMS marketing is also personalised as each individual receives customised messages. People check their phones more than 50 times in a day, making retail marketing strategies involving the phone more preferred. Also, with or without the internet, the message will be delivered.

This strategy accounts for over 90% of all below-the-line target stores advertising. It is effective and targets people who have visited your stores. Since most companies use SMS as a communication tool, ensure you strategically send yours with all information in one text. However, before you get started with your SMS campaign, you need to make sure that your contacts have opted-in to receiving SMS from your business. This consent can be given by checking a box on an online form, texting your opt-in SMS keyword, through widgets on a website, etc.

Generate a Loyalty Program

Getting clients for the first time does not involve as much work as retaining them. The loyalty program seeks to entice the customer to come back to your business. There are various ways of executing this idea:

• Creating a campaign that gives dormant customers a discount to selected goods. The offer should run for a specific period of which you can determine the churn rate.
• Create a card where the customers can earn loyalty points for shopping at your outlet. The points accumulate and can be redeemed for goods and services later on, especially during special seasons like Easter or Christmas.

In all these approaches, the consumer gets informed every time there is a new offer. The more you buy, the more points you accumulate. It is also ideal in coming up with other store strategies in retention.

Harness Influencer Marketing

Social media has elevated personalities where other people look up to them. They accumulate a huge following, which is a fertile ground for product promotion. However, it is good to analyse influencers since the people they attract say more about who they are. For better results, zero down to influencers who create content that leans more to corporate sponsorship and advertisement.

Influencers can either do mentions as they go about creating content or experience the service to woo their followers. Also, they can offer merchandising services in-house. The difference between these 3 approaches is the intensity in delivery. Mention in content comes at the lower side, while full experience/advertising is the highest influencer promotion. The influencer has the right to the content with product mentions, while adverts belong to the company sponsoring the promotion. Choose wisely.

Consider a Referral Campaign

New businesses use this approach to woo customers. It is not only cheaper, but the rate of growth can be effectively monitored. However, you have to motivate the referees to be your ambassadors. Consider the following if you choose this approach:-

• Give discounts on their total expenditures.
• Give incentives like a voucher or free merchandise basing on the number of people they referred.
• Create a campaign like holidays, cash prices or vehicles to the person or people who bring in the largest number of customers in a certain period.

For this to work, use a specific code for every referee customer. It ties down every referred customer to the referee. Also, ensure your products are quality and contribute significantly to their livelihood.

Conclusion

How you relate to your customers determines how big your business can grow. Companies that deal with the final consumer can benefit a lot from the B2C engagements. To gauge your alignment to any of the models mentioned above:

Does your business produce, market or distribute?

Which of the models best suits your business?

Let us know below in the comment section.