The Small Retailer's Marketing Plan... a real tightrope
Sep/26/2009 05:53 Filed in: Marketing
for the Small Retailer
Marketing
for the Small Retailer – A Real Tightrope Act
For most small retailers, planning their marketing and allocating their marketing dollars is a real balancing act. One small slip and you come tumbling off that tightrope and for most there is no safety net below.
A marketing mistake can not only have serious short-term effects on your sales, but also affect your store reputation and brand. For the small retailer reputation and brand is key.
When developing your marketing plan, you need to have one goal in mind. That goal is to develop and maintain a relationship with your customer base. In the past a small retailer could be successful by serving a niche within a given market area. That’s not true in today’s “connected” world. Your customer can go on-line and shop that niche statewide, region wide, nationwide or worldwide. That means that to be successful you must offer more than just product.
The days of your marketing plan consisting of your yellow page ad and a few ads periodically scheduled in the local newspaper are gone. Mass marketing still works for some companies, but not the small retailer. Today that plan needs to be a balance between, direct mail, email, your website, blogs, social media and event marketing. The good news is that many of those tools are relatively inexpensive money wise to use. The bad news is that those same tools are usually quite time demanding until you move to the downhill side of the learning curve.
The key to the success of these marketing tools is that they communicate directly with your customer. Not all tools will reach all customers. It is your challenge to find which of these tools work best with your customer base and then concentrate on polishing your skills with those tools. The time invested will provide great dividends.
Solutions For Retailers is focused on helping small retailers. The majority of our clients are retailers that have decided for one reason or another that now is the time to conduct a store closing sale or going out of business sale. Most of these clients had failed to change their marketing strategy to focus on building strong and current relationships with their customers.
Don’t make the same mistake!
For most small retailers, planning their marketing and allocating their marketing dollars is a real balancing act. One small slip and you come tumbling off that tightrope and for most there is no safety net below.
A marketing mistake can not only have serious short-term effects on your sales, but also affect your store reputation and brand. For the small retailer reputation and brand is key.
When developing your marketing plan, you need to have one goal in mind. That goal is to develop and maintain a relationship with your customer base. In the past a small retailer could be successful by serving a niche within a given market area. That’s not true in today’s “connected” world. Your customer can go on-line and shop that niche statewide, region wide, nationwide or worldwide. That means that to be successful you must offer more than just product.
The days of your marketing plan consisting of your yellow page ad and a few ads periodically scheduled in the local newspaper are gone. Mass marketing still works for some companies, but not the small retailer. Today that plan needs to be a balance between, direct mail, email, your website, blogs, social media and event marketing. The good news is that many of those tools are relatively inexpensive money wise to use. The bad news is that those same tools are usually quite time demanding until you move to the downhill side of the learning curve.
The key to the success of these marketing tools is that they communicate directly with your customer. Not all tools will reach all customers. It is your challenge to find which of these tools work best with your customer base and then concentrate on polishing your skills with those tools. The time invested will provide great dividends.
Solutions For Retailers is focused on helping small retailers. The majority of our clients are retailers that have decided for one reason or another that now is the time to conduct a store closing sale or going out of business sale. Most of these clients had failed to change their marketing strategy to focus on building strong and current relationships with their customers.
Don’t make the same mistake!