HOW TO BEST MARKET A RETAIL BUSINESS

Whether you work in retail or are a consumer, the retail business is one that most of us deal with on a weekly or even daily basis. Marketing in the retail realm has changed over the years thanks to the online shopping takeover. Consumers mostly know what they are looking for and marketers often have trouble trying to encourage shoppers to purchase things that are not on their shopping list.

An additional problem is being stagnant when you do begin your business. It is a tricky market and being ahead of the curve is essential. Marketers have to learn the ways to best market to their audience, but how? 

What is Retail Marketing? 

Before we get into the ways to best market with the retail world, let’s give a quick description of what exactly retail marketing is:

• Retail marketing is the process by which retailers promote awareness and interests of their businesses and the products and services they provide all in an effort to generate or increase sales from their customer base.

Now let’s talk about the different ways retail businesses can or should market their business. 

1.    Focus on how to sell what your business sells 

Being in the retail business naturally relies on itself to selling items, but you cannot rest solely on that to help your business get by. What is your business known for? Are there specialty items that can only be found there? Or is your particular product the most popular? Knowing what makes your business important and/or special allows for you to then zone in on how to sell those items. Separating your business from others with a great customer experience automatically places your business on a different playing field. 

2.    Give consumers a reason to shop your business 

Continuing from our first tip, you must give your customers a reason to shop your business. Whether it is stellar customer service or specialty products, something about your brand and business needs to stand out from the others. Having exclusive events, including special sales on discounted items can gain interests. Marketing those special events through promotional emails and social media campaigns. 

3.    Motivate your customer base 

Motivating your customers to take action can result in an increase in website visits, sales and creates the potential for your client base to increase. But who should business motivate their customers? Taking advantage of holidays, which naturally creates an atmosphere for shopping, is the perfect time to promote action amongst customers. Marketing special promotional events, not only alerts your customers it encourages customers to spend money because there is a special sale taking place. Marketing is really important here because using specific language can help intrigue customers and encourage them to spend time and money on your business. 

Bonus: How Customer Relationship Management Software Helps 

CRM software can help businesses within the retail industry. The software not only helps businesses with their daily operations but helps to build and increase the business/ client relationship. Here are some of the things a business can achieve with the help of a CRM software in place.

• Segmentation – CRM helps users gather information on your customers. That can range from their contact information to items purchased and the times they have contacted your business. This information can be used to better market and customized information for your consumer base.
• Purchases – Customer Relationship Management software keeps the record of customer purchases as well. Knowing what customers have bought and how much of it, allows for your to market toward them if similar or exact items that they have purchased become part of promotional sale events.
• Creates Brand Loyalty – Retail and CRM work well together because it creates opportunities to scope out your most loyal customers. Through that, you can help build strong brand loyalty and even use your most vocal customers (those who may leave frequent comments on social media/leaving product review) as branding advocates.