There can be a lot of confusion for retailers when it comes to rolling out a marketing plan. No doubt there's a lot to juggle—be it store events, Facebook, Instagram or email newsletters. Each of these marketing beasts needs to be fed different meals and at different times, and that takes time and structure to accomplish. Where do you begin? In this column, I want to give you some starting points when it comes to marketing your hardwood flooring retail store. I'm going to be talking about marketing to your existing clients specifically, because here's a big truth bomb: 80% of a retailer's sales comes from 20% of clients. That's a good place to start. With that in mind, let's dive in.
Author a marketing calendar
Before you decide exactly how you're going to share your information, you need to figure out what you want to sell and when. The best way to do that is with a marketing calendar. I should be able to go into your offices and find a 12-month calendar in front of me and see what the activities are every single month. The plan should be based on sales and on what your customer wants in those particular months. The clients I work with have huge paper calendars in their offices so they can see what's going on and what the sales target is.
You can start by simply considering what brands, suppliers, categories and products you want to put into the calendar in any given month. Then you can begin figuring out the rollout.
Hold four store events each month
Why four events? Because I want you to talk to your customer every single week. But you can't talk to them unless you have something new to say (pro tip: never send more than one email communicating the same information within the same calendar month—customers will unsubscribe from your emails). If four events per month is just not practical in your world, talk to them once a month at minimum.
So what's an event? It could be as simple as celebrating an owner's birthday, the anniversary of the store's opening, or a special day for members of your VIP loyalty program (and if you don't have a VIP program yet, what are you waiting for?).
You can also look at seasonal launches as you fill out your calendar. Do you do anything for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc.? Is there a unique celebration in your community that you can connect with and put in your calendar?
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Product reintroduction is another big one. Retailers tell me, "I've got nothing to talk about this month, Barbara." Well, what products aren't doing well? Don't you think you should focus on those products and say to your customers, "Hey, have a look at this again"? Many retailers I work with still struggle with store events, but these events personalize your store, give you something fresh to say and support sales.
Harness the power of email newsletters
Email newsletters continue to be the No. 1 marketing rollout channel for retailers. We've already touched on the weekly communication of new information. But here's a big problem: Many retailers refuse to be consistent in gathering people's contact information. And then they'll say to me, "Well, Barb, people don't want to give them to us." Well, are you communicating the benefits to them? They're not going to give you anything without you asking them to join your VIP loyalty program by explaining its advantages. That's something you need to communicate clearly, because emails are golden (see the sidebar at the bottom of this page).
Individualize your social media strategy
Here's a quandary: If you've chosen to only do one store event per month, does that mean you can only post on Instagram once a month? The answer is no, because Instagram has a different hunger; it wants to be fed daily. Figure out where most of your clients are and focus there.
Visuals are very important for this type of messaging (more and more people are preferring video posts, as well) and you need to be clever when figuring out your posting strategy; having your marketing calendar and several store events to discuss each month will help.
You also need to make sure you are always including a direct path to purchase in your posts. If you show me a product, can you tell me very simply how I buy it? A surprising number of retailers don't do this.
Consider a text rollout channel
The next big emerging rollout channel is text marketing, and it's just going to get bigger and bigger. The advantage here is if you see something a customer is going to like based on past purchases, you can send a photo and a price in a really short period of time right to their phone. Likewise, the client can respond easily and conveniently.
Refresh your website several times a week
The rollout of your marketing program needs to be posted on your website, where it must be easy to see what is happening in your store. Your website should be refreshed several times a week, as it can also be a valuable marketing tool. You also need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly, as Google's indexing won't even show your site in searches if it's not.
These are just a few ideas to help you kickstart your retail marketing strategy. A good marketing plan really holds the keys to success, and I believe that with a little bit of research you can author a marketing calendar in just a few days. Once it's done, you can look back on it and make sure it supports the sales necessary to move your business forward.
Why gather emails?Here's an example of just how important customer emails are: Say it comes time to sell the store you've had for 20 years. If I'm the buyer, I'm going to want you to show me something: your client list. "Well, we don't have a client list," you say. Well, show me who your best clients are, how often they come into the store, and show me your referral program. And at that point, if you don't have that data, the sale starts to shrivel up right in front of you. The easiest way to tell me who your customers are is to show me what your email list is, because it says to me that you are in charge of connecting to your customers. That's big.—B.C. |
