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Why You Absolutely Must Not Cut Your Retail Store Marketing Spending During a Slow Economy
The news is everywhere, and it's real. The stock market has lost over 25% of its value over the past year. Banks have put a halt to granting credit. Consumers are delaying major purchases and are closely watching their expenditures. So how should you approach your retail store marketing spending?
In short, do not cut down on your marketing spend, or as I prefer to view it, on your marketing investment. Why not, you may ask? Retail Store Marketing: It's What Drives Your Business
Your marketing in the lifeblood of your business. Without customers, you have no reason to exist. Retail store owners who view marketing as a cost to be trimmed are being very short sighted and jeopardize the survival of their business.
Reductions in retail store marketing spend may not be noticed at first, but they will be felt significantly as time goes on and your business sees negative growth. Have too many months of this and your business is gone.
So what can store owners do to survive slower times. Here are a few steps you can take:
1. Decide that you are going to focus on what you can do to drive sales, not on how bad it is.
2. Re-evaluate your spending and trim expenses that are not helping you increase sales or drive customer traffic.
3. Direct your retail marketing efforts to low cost but highly effective tactics, such as: - keep a laser like focus on reaching your store's target market - market via email and direct mail to your store's customer list - avoid city-wide newspapers and advertise only in neighborhood newspapers that reach customers within a 3-5 mile radius of your store - send 4x6 postcards to prospective customers in zip codes surrounding your store - call you customers inviting them into your store for a special promotion - partner with other retail stores or businesses who target the same customers as you and do endorsed mailings to each other's customer list. This is very effective and costs little to do. 4. Treat every customer with even more care. Do whatever it takes to help them buy when they come into your store. 5. Go after those who are more likely to buy (those that are least effected by a slower economy) 6. Don't become overwhelmed with all the bad economic news. Stay focused on driving traffic and selling customers and create your own success. ============================================================== Every Tuesday we send out a FREE Retail Profit Tip to those who have registered to receive our FREE newsletter. If you have not registered yet, you'll want to do so that you don't miss out on this great free content. This email newsletter is brief and on topic - we know that you're busy and don't have time to waste. In it we discuss:
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