Retail
What is retail?
Retail means that the company will sell its products directly to the final consumer, not to other businesses. In other others, it is a B2C (Business to Consumer) model where the sale is made directly to final consumers.
The term retail, originally, was used to refer to establishments that sold directly to consumers (bookstores, shoe stores, clothing stores, groceries, etc.) but currently its use is associated with large retail distribution chains, which sell a lot of products to consumers (such as supermarkets, food, electronics, etc.)
1. The 4 “R” of retail marketing
Marketing for the retail sector has its own characteristics and therefore it is necessary to take into account the way in which end customers make purchases, as well as encourage them to complete their orders.
For this reason, the so-called 4 “R” of retail marketing were established. To work with retail, you should always remember the four elements we are going to see today. They are also important for customers to remember your brand and think about it when they need the products you are selling.
- Relevancy. We have to do our best to make sure that our target audience receives the right messages at the right time, so that the offer: is attractive, meets the expectations created, and meets a need. You also need to ensure that the message is relevant enough for the lead to decide to consider your store when they are ready to buy, either now or in the future.
- Relationships. Customers love to be informed, so that they can make decisions correctly but, at the same time, the communication should not be intrusive, for this reason the frequency of sending email marketing campaigns, publications on social networks, after-sales, ETC. must be monitored. All this will create a favorable space to generate recurring sales and get the buyer to establish a link with our brand, so that they return to our store or e-commerce again and again.
- Reward. It is highly recommended to establish in the minds of consumers that the purchase in our establishment (online or offline) brings them a high benefit, in order to foster loyalty. Many companies create a reward and loyalty program, so that users accumulate points that they can exchange for discounts or products, a coupon or prize draws. The use of these systems is very successful if you really know your target audience.
- Cost reduction. Whether they are fixed or variable expenses, you must have very precise control, at all times, to prevent costs from skyrocketing. It is necessary to do everything possible to reduce costs, this is usually done both at the time of stock purchase and in the services necessary for the correct performance of our commercial activity, in order to have the desired return on investment.
2. How to work with digital marketing in the retail sector?
Here are a series of tips so you can implement them in your digital marketing campaigns. Whether you are dedicated to retail in physical establishments or through online channels, carefully review these tips:
- Your brand has to be locally relevant. Start building your house from the ground up, so you should work on digital marketing locally, so that you can use the inertia generated to an increasingly broad audience and from locations outside your community. How can you do it? With geomarketing techniques, you can create a copywriting strategy with a specific geographic area in mind, using local slang, etc.
- Create video content. Video content will allow you, to a large extent, to capture leads. You should try to create videos that are useful to your audience and original, a video that shows the characteristics of a product doesn’t have to be boring. Think that each video is an opportunity to create viral content and try to take advantage of it.
- Take advantage of email marketing. It is an effective channel to build loyalty and be in the top of mind of leads. In addition, it allows you to achieve a very high ROI and sending a newsletter is not a complicated task. If you segment your leads correctly, you will be able to generate new sales opportunities and send each user the right email at the right time (depending on the phase of the sales funnel they are in).
- You should be in Google Shopping. You may think that it is not for your business, but in the retail sector it is “mandatory” to be registered there so that your buyer persona knows about your existence, the items you offer and how to contact you.
- Segment on social networks to win. To work with retail, you will have to be on social networks where your audience is present, in addition to having a fan page or company profile, you will have to plan advertising actions making use of the all the segmentation and detail opportunities that can be used .
- Bet on a bolder marketing strategy. This doesn’t mean that it will be your only strategy to position yourself in the retail market, only that on some occasions you take advantage of it to spread your brand in public spaces in an impressive way and achieve notoriety.
- The client is a normal person, humanize your brand. It is always very important, and much more so in the retail sector, to try to humanize the brand and bring it closer to customers, making them identify with your values and history. In the same way, make the shopping and browsing experience adequate, the easier it is to place an order… the more customers will be able to finish it successfully.