search.noResults

search.searching

dataCollection.invalidEmail
note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
OPINION


June 2019 ertonline.co.uk Richard Stevenson l Owner, RSPR Part One


Up your marketing game E


Retailer marketing in our sector can be notoriously lacklustre , but in this and the next issue of ERT, Richard Stevenson highlights some simple ways to improve your marketing and engage more customers.


instein was a pretty sharp cookie, but you wouldn’t want him running your retail business. Aside from scaring off the customers with a hairstyle you could lose a badger in, if you apply some of his theories to retailing, they just don’t stack up.


He is famously quoted as saying, “Doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”. If that were true in retailing, we would all be marketing our businesses the same way we did in the 1980s and getting the same flocks of customers through the doors waving wads of cash. If only… Market dynamics have changed, products have changed and consumer purchasing habits have changed. They continue to evolve on an ongoing basis. If you do the same marketing that you did even a year ago, you are highly unlikely to get the same results. You will almost certainly get slowly decreasing customer engagement, lower footfall and decreasing sales. Chances are that your marketing hasn’t changed for a while. That’s no slight on our industry or its retailers, it’s a general fact for most businesses whether you are a farmer, cheesemaker or, indeed, a retailer. Marketing is simply not going to be your core competency or focus of day-to-day activity. Are you still putting a black and white advert in the local paper highlighting sale items and special offers? I rest my case.


Accepting that your marketing is not as good


as it probably could be is a good place to start. Even the largest retailers will bring in specialists to help with different aspects of marketing but there is plenty you can do on a ‘marketing lite’ basis that will improve your footfall and sales.


Small steps, big results Scheduling time on a regular basis to give your marketing some love and attention is vital. Like any aspect of business, marketing needs focus and active planning. It’s amazing how many retailers, and even manufacturers, that RSPR works with that put marketing in the important/not urgent sector of Covey’s famous activity prioritisation graph. That results in very little marketing getting done until it’s urgent or even desperate and, short of time, you end up doing the same thing you did last week, last month or even last year… Or, worse still, doing nothing at all.


Whether it is coming in early or getting off the


shop floor for just an hour a week, simply creating some time to focus on your marketing will afford scope to move things forward.


In an ideal world, that would give time to U,k = 0 a i t ) (+ 13 Einstein running


-d x e e 1=


develop a marketing strategy aligned with the target demographic, implement activities, track campaign performance and measure ROI. That’s marketeer speak for working out what to say to your customers and which channels to use, trying out a few things each week and making a note of what works best. Repeat until the bank manager is taking you to lunch.


Tone of voice Talking effectively to your target customers starts by defining how you want the business to be perceived. Bear with me here, but do you want to be seen as fun, funky and friendly? Perhaps more serious, professional and expert? Old school and reliable? Cutting edge and on trend with modern products? Nailing a theme that


aligns


your actual business strengths with your customer demographic gives a real focus to the impact and engagement of your marketing. Two first class examples of this are Hughes


z=z1


m 2


-1) 1-m2 1


and AO.com. Hughes’ customer demographic across Norfolk is very mature and responds well to more traditional messaging through the many channels those customers engage with. The brand focuses on its enviable reputation for its friendly, ever-helpful customer service and that resonates perfectly with the bulk of its customers. Conversely, AO.com has surfed the wave of


internet shopping better than any other MDA retailer with a thoroughly modern corporate profile, speaking to its customers from the standpoint of a cutting-edge, tech-savvy business. Putting regular time aside to actively work on marketing and defining how your business should be perceived by its potential customers are two vital building blocks of a solid and effective marketing strategy. That done, it’s time to look at using digital, social and local channels to get talking to those potential customers. In the next issue of ERT, Richard looks at the best quick-win marketing activities.


y=y1


your retail business


You wouldn’t want


a


t


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40