Although sometimes it can be costly to market your business, without marketing, no company can expect to thrive. For retailers in the digital age, marketing has become critical as their brick-and-mortar outlets are coming under an increasing threat of closure due to rapidly shifting preferences of consumers as they are moving towards e-commerce platforms.
Many big retailers are heavily investing in fancy outlets and elaborate advertising campaigns. However, they can achieve the same results if they know the right marketing channels and the ways of implementing them. Regardless of whether your business is offline or has an online presence, the following channels offer a very cost-efficient opportunity for you to market your business.
Social Media
Social media has been around for many years. It has revolutionized the way retailers connect with their customers. Gone are the days when a billboard would deliver a promotional message, as now you can simply post about it on a social media platform such as Facebook or Instagram, and it will reach millions of eyes within minutes.
As a retailer, you need to make a page for your business on social media platforms, and then keep them updated to engage your audience. Such platforms will require you to invest some money if you hope to reach a broader audience. Nevertheless, that investment is a fraction of the advertising expense you would have to incur on offline channels to reach the same number of people.
Influencer Marketing
One of the most accessible influencers in any market today are bloggers. They offer a great outlet to promote your business. While some companies establish their own blogs by posting engaging content that their customers find interesting, a faster way to reach your target audience is to approach bloggers that appeal to them.Â
The bloggers typically shape a solid opinion with their content. They present a reputable source of information for their audiences. Hence, a recommendation by a good blogger is a very effective way to promote your business.
Email Marketing
You might think that any emails you send to your target audience would simply get lost in their inbox, but that is seldom the case. Even in the age of social media, the majority of internet users still check their emails every day. This makes it one of the best channels for lead generation as well.Â
Any promotional email sent by you is likely to get attention, and even if a fraction of the recipients open them, that is still of great benefit to your business, especially considering the minimal to no additional investment you have to make. Just make sure you don’t overuse this marketing channel, as that can push recipients to block any future messages.Â
Additionally, emails are a great way to get customer feedback. Don’t forget to ask their opinion once in a while since it’s the ultimate way for you to know where your business needs improvement.Â
Local Marketing Channels
Many local marketing platforms offer information on businesses, such as Yahoo Local or even Google. Make sure that the information presented on these directories on your business is thoroughly accurate and presented comprehensively to allow customers the opportunity to know your business even before interacting with it. Through such directories, you can give out your business’s address, phone number, and pictures. Some online directories even allow customer reviews, which can also improve the credibility of your business.
SMS Marketing
As much as text communication now leans towards platforms that support rich media (i.e., Whatsapp, Viber, Messenger), text messages remain the most personal channel of communications for users. Perhaps the reason behind this is that people are still used to its speed and convenience.
With this said, we can imply that SMS or text marketing is a useful and productive marketing channel, especially for companies that are short on budget. You can check SendSMS.Global since they offer one of the most affordable and flexible pricing globally. Although it has a 160-character limit to develop the sales pitch, it is the one channel through which your advertising message will be read the most.
Key Partnerships
In 2020, customers will become very conscious of the brands they interact with. Having this in mind, brands can effectively improve their positioning in the minds of customers by partnering with social charities that are focused on delivering a positive impact on society. Moreover, this option will be budget-friendly as well.Â
You can find many charities in your locality that would be willing to partner with your business, as such a partnership also brings greater awareness to their cause as well.
Apart from charities, you can partner with businesses offering products that are often consumed as a complement to the products in your own portfolio. By placing coupons to be used at your retail outlet at other stores, you can bring the customers of another business to your business. In return, you can offer to do the same. The cost simply includes printing the coupons and adjusting for the promotional discount offered on those coupons.
Referral Campaigns
Word-of-mouth will be of paramount importance in 2020 as customers will trust the opinion of the people they know more than anyone else. If you tell customers that your product is good, they might not believe you. But if their friends recommend your product to them with a referral code (provided by you) that unlocks a specific discount for them upon use, customers are bound to come rushing into your store.
Also, these referral codes are easy to share, and people do share them because they tend to benefit from their usage in the form of additional discounts. By way of example, you can give referral codes to your customers that offer them a dollar worth of store credit for every time someone uses that referral code. This will undoubtedly make them share the coupon on social media to give as many referrals as possible. This, in turn, will reach their social circle within minutes and spread the word about you.
Augmented Reality
A very cheap way to market as a retailer is to have an app developed that allows your customers to view your products through augmented reality. For example, imagine a customer visits your store and uses your app installed on their smartphone to view products, with the app displaying key information about the product, including its price, the material used, and any other relevant data. The possibilities are endless with the kind of information you can deliver through augmented reality. Still, it is undoubtedly a great marketing channel to use in 2020 to boost the visibility of your products.
Pop-up Stores
Setting up a pop-up store is a great and cheap way to connect with your target audience in 2020. The online space has become very saturated, so customers have become more open to trying new things in the offline world. A significant benefit of a pop-up store is that you can set it up almost anywhere, and hence you should place it in a place that invites a lot of traffic, such as a mall. This pop-up can be as creative as you want, and it’s a plus if your target audience can even try your product in this pop-up setup. Another benefit is that you don’t need much marketing for this event as the location already attracts people. All you need is a good product and a few display boxes, to make it more attention-grabbing.Â
E-commerce Platforms
E-commerce platforms have witnessed explosive demand around the world in recent years, including both Amazon and Alibaba, to name a couple. These platforms allow you to create your online store at a very low cost. These platforms don’t need to be a replacement for your main retail store, even if it is online. Instead, by placing your products on large e-commerce stores, you create awareness about your products and also improve sales.
