Retail Marketing Strategy

May 12, 2023

Retail Marketing Strategy

Retail Marketing Strategy: How to Create a Perfect Plan for Your Business Growth?

The retail industry is one of the largest industries worldwide. In 2021, retail trade sales stood at $674 billion in Canada.

But building and running a retail store is a challenging task. Many processes are necessary, including creating or selecting products, discovering a space for rent, hiring employees, and building retail marketing techniques for growth and survival!

Above all, the latest retail marketing ideas have significantly contributed to this industry. It is about attracting more people to buy more products to improve in-store sales.

Without marketing, retailers cannot survive in a highly competitive market.

Last year, retail sales declined in seven Canadian provinces, with Ontario reaching the 5% drop mark. But you can change that using an effective retail marketing strategy and the correct tools to execute it.

If you want to sustain and grow your retail business, this is the perfect blog to help you start.

Let us dig in!

What is Retail Marketing?

It is the process of finding and implementing effective tactics that help retailers promote their brick-and-mortar stores and the products or services they sell. The main focus of a retail marketing strategy is to motivate customers to visit their stores and buy products to drive sales and improve revenue. These are some fundamentals of retail marketing strategy activities;

Understanding the customers and their needs.
Building stocks of goods or merchandise.
Making the presentation of products attractive for instant identification and convenience.
Providing information about the product, location, price, service, etc.

But modern marketing techniques go beyond these principles. They are more data-driven, personalized, and exclusive to make the company stand out and win customers.

Importance of Retail Marketing

Building an effective retail marketing strategy is crucial because of the high level of competition in the industry. The products and services are almost the same among different retail stores.

Therefore, you cannot expect the customers to remember your store while looking for a product. Your store needs to learn and implement retail marketing techniques for the following reasons-

Improvement in Brand Loyalty

Brand loyalty is everything when you expect more repeat customers for your business. Launching practical retail marketing ideas can help you build a loyal customer base that will contribute to better sales. Retail companies often rely on loyalty programs, email, SMS, and direct mail marketing and ask customers for feedback.

Higher Revenue

The main goal of a retail marketing strategy is to bring more customers into a business. Retail businesses use various marketing channels to drive more sales and increase revenue.

Boosting Brand Awareness

Since the retail industry is highly competitive, branding significantly separates top players from others. Therefore, an effective retail market strategy can let you build strong brand awareness and stand out. Effective advertising and branding can make your brand, stores, and products more recognizable.

Highly Scalable and Flexible

Your company’s retail marketing ideas can be highly flexible and scalable depending on the different requirements and regions. Retailers can leverage various online and offline channels and campaign ideas based on their needs and goals.

6 Ps of a Retail Marketing Strategy

To build a successful and sustainable retail business, you must understand the 6 Ps of retail marketing.

Product

A product is the main thing that drives sales to your retail business and propels your retail marketing techniques or ideas. It is what customers look for while exploring retail stores.

You can divide the products into three categories:

Core items have high demand and must be present.
Alternatives or extensions are different options to the core product.
Related products or services that make the initial products function.

Making your product the core of your advertising ideas can help you improve recognition and sales.

Placement

Product placement in a store greatly determines its sales and the overall success of the retail marketing techniques you regularly implement. But the store’s layout can also boost business growth. Locating your store in a shopping center, downtown area, or enclosed mall could be a great advantage.

Moreover, factors such as proximity to competitors, parking access, public transportation, and more can also play a significant role in a store’s success. Also, the store layout and display shelves can influence people to purchase more products.

Pricing Plan

The pricing depends on factors such as business operation costs, promotional plans, competitive problems, and the product’s shelf life. Retailers often implement strategic pricing programs and retail marketing ideas to lure more shoppers to their stores. They use a common marketing strategy to boost their sales and compete better in the market.

Promotion Plans

It’s all about spreading the message about your store and its products to the customers. Retailers aim to increase foot traffic, improve conversions, and build brand awareness with various retail marketing techniques and ideas.

They often use different marketing channels, including direct mail, newspapers, radio, referral programs, digital advertising, social media marketing, loyalty programs, and more.

People

It refers to the sales associates working for your organization to make positive sales for your retail store. These people are the face of your retail business and your reputation in the market. Therefore, hire the right people and provide them with a quality training program to achieve success with marketing strategies for retail stores.

Phone

This new ‘P’ comes with the digital age of phones and digital media. People now spend plenty of time on social media platforms, emails, and the web. It can help you create a great retail marketing strategy focusing on Facebook, Instagram, emails, Pinterest, blogging, text messaging, and more.

Develop effective marketing content that helps you gather attention and engage the customers longer.

Types of Retail Marketing Ideas

Every retailer is looking for a unique retail marketing strategy, but we can categorize retail marketing into three different categories;

Store-Based Retail Marketing
Non-Store Retail Marketing
Digital Retail Marketing

1. Understanding Store-Based Retail Marketing

Your physical store will create the first and most important impression on your customers. Thus, taking advantage of physical space for promotional strategies is essential. Store-based marketing is a standard marketing strategy retailers use to maximize their sales and growth.

It helps them attract repeat customers and increase their time during each visit. Follow these retail marketing techniques for store-based advertising;

Events

Retailers often organize various events depending on their brand image and audience. It creates a market buzz, anticipating and engaging the target audience.

In-Store Displays

These displays help retailers promote specific products to customers in different store areas.

They help you become more creative with the shopping experience and play with visual content to support your retail marketing strategy or campaign.

Sample Products

You can include these products in your offline or online retail marketing strategy to create interest among shoppers for a particular product or brand. It could be any consumable product like lotions, toothpaste, perfumes, makeup, etc. Consumers feel more comfortable about purchasing such products once they get a trial.

Interactive Displays

Retailers can use these interactive boards to display relevant and engaging information to shoppers as part of their retail marketing ideas. They can quickly learn about pricing and product information and watch relevant videos about a product without physically looking at it.

In-Store Promotion Tactics

It is a typical marketing strategy retailers use because they put many products on sale. This strategy gives them a significant marketing push and lures more customers to their stores without advertising outside the store.

2. Understanding Non-Store Retail Marketing

Retailers can leverage various marketing tools to promote their products and businesses outside. Traditional marketing tools include direct mail, posters, referrals, and TV or radio ads.

Follow these marketing strategies for retail stores:

Direct Mail

It has become one of the industry’s most impactful traditional marketing strategies. Retailers can also use direct mail to personalize their marketing messages and loyalty programs.

Imagine you want to attract local buyers with your retail market strategy or idea. You can send them physical postcards and promotional newsletters via direct mail. It is an ideal way to promote physical stores in a particular location.

Direct mail gets a response rate of 2 to 4%. It also generates high conversions, making it the best retail market strategy for your business.

Posters

They are still an effective medium of communication and promotion. Usually, people associate posters with movies, music, events, and fundraisers. However, retailers also use posters for advertising their promotions or discounts to attract customers. Using signs is a common marketing strategy used by retailers for early promotion and sales.

TV Advertisements

It is another traditional medium to promote products or services to an audience. However, promoting a retail store is an expensive retail marketing strategy. You can still rely on local TV ads to target a particular audience with great creativity and engaging content.

Press Releases

If you plan to launch a unique and exclusive offer, create press releases for local journalists. Paid press releases help you automatically cover and promote specific events across various media outlets.

Street and Vehicle Signage

Have you seen advertisements on park benches? You may have encountered a bus carrying a promotional message from a retail business!

These advertisements are an excellent retail marketing plan example, allowing people to learn about your brand. They help you boost visibility in specific locations, like a neighbourhood or city.

3. Understanding Digital Retail Marketing

Almost every business uses digital marketing services to promote its sales and operations. Retailers also heavily rely on digital marketing tools and techniques to boost their sales and support their strategies.

Follow these online retail marketing strategy examples to start;

Build a Website

Creating a business website is the first step to entering the digital world and expecting more customers. It would help you build your brand image by providing visitors with information about your retail business and products. A business website works like a virtual business card to encourage customers to consider your company and trust your products and services.

Moreover, it would help if you also used intelligent analytics tools to evaluate your visitors and develop more effective retail marketing ideas. The website data can be critical for retargeting your campaigns. Build landing pages to expect better results with your retail marketing ideas.

Social Media Marketing

It is a potent tool to gather the attention of many customers without spending much. Thus, you should build dedicated accounts on different social media handles to cater to a large and diverse audience. It would greatly help you to complement your retail marketing strategy for better results.

Paid Ads on Search Engines

If you need instant traction for your retail store, investing in paid ads on search engines could be significant. It would give you instant visibility on search results and attract more potential customers. Paid ads are also a common marketing strategy used by retailers.

Email Marketing

Instead of sending simple marketing emails to your customers, you can create a fantastic, creative, elaborate newsletter. It’s an effective way to connect with your customers and encourage them to become loyal.

You can promote your product catalogue or tell the audience about exclusive deals. Some extra efforts toward personalization can make your email campaigns more effective and help you achieve successful conversions.

Using Direct Mail for Your Retail Marketing Strategy.

As mentioned above, retail is highly competitive with many market players. Moreover, the recent growth of online shopping brings more competition to retail businesses.

Customers see thousands of online advertisements, emails, and social media posts. Hence, retailers can differentiate their brands by tweaking their retail marketing techniques with direct mail.

Print marketing is still relevant today, even with technological advancements in direct mail campaigns.

Benefits of Direct Mail for a Retail Marketing Strategy.

Consider the following points to understand the benefits of direct mail marketing better;

Direct Mail Provides Excellent Response Rates

In the world of digital marketing, direct mail proves to have the highest response rates. It has an incredible response rate because people consider physical mail more “real” than digital. Scalable personalization can help retailers innovate their retail marketing techniques with direct mail. A better response rate helps produce higher conversions and an improved brand image.

Better Open & Read Rate

Customers receive hundreds of promotional emails in their inboxes. However, an average Canadian household receives only a few mailers daily. Instead of throwing it away instantly, people take their time to analyze the information on the direct mail piece. Thus, it is a more effective way of reaching your target and making your retail marketing strategy successful.

Direct Mail is Personalized and Physical.

Direct mail in your retail marketing strategy gives a more personal touch to your campaigns. People consider physical mail to be more appealing than online messages. Retailers can personalize the mail pieces according to their target audience. Plus, users can access these physical mailings anytime without using a digital device. They can also put your direct mail on refrigerators, coffee tables, bedside tables, or anywhere.

Direct Mail Builds Trust

Direct mail has been around for a long time; it is also immune to the disadvantages of digital advertising. For example, a direct mail piece cannot infect someone’s computer with malware.

Consider a dubious digital ad or email that can compromise your computer’s security. For this reason, direct mail gives the impression of trust and credibility among consumers. Seniors who are not that familiar with technology still need to have a positive perception of direct mail. Thus, direct mail is a common marketing strategy used by retailers.

Precise Targeting

Customer data lists significantly target the right audience with direct mail. It includes names, addresses, shopping interests, age groups, occupations, and other factors. Retailers use this customer data to implement effective direct mail marketing campaigns. Moreover, with the help of automation platforms like PostGrid’s Print Mail API, you can define and target the ideal persona more effectively for your retail marketing strategy.

A Flexible and Innovative Approach

Unlike digital marketing measures, direct mail provides retailers with limitless creative possibilities for their retail marketing ideas and campaigns.

You can use different pictures and text for social media campaigns and online ads. But direct mail offers tangibility, enabling you to give customers something they can hold onto and save.

Email marketing might be even less effective because users will only check the subject line before opening the email. In comparison, direct mail is tangible and physical, and retailers can showcase their creativity.

They can use different textures, sizes, and 3D objects or even integrate scratch-and-sniff features. Therefore, you have more chances of getting your audience’s interest, engaging them, and providing value to them with your effective retail marketing strategy.

Easy-to-Use Option for Retailers

Retailers require extensive expertise to start their digital marketing efforts. However, launching a direct mail campaign with an automated tool like PostGrid’s Print Mail API is incredibly easy.

It can initiate personalized customer loyalty programs and send marketing mailers for your retail business.

Moreover, you get eye-catching designs, verified address lists, a trustworthy mailing partner, and the best campaign creation tools to boost your retail marketing ideas.

Direct Mail is More Economical

There’s a common misconception that direct mail marketing is expensive. However, direct mail has a higher motivation response than online channels. Therefore, with the right automation platform, like PostGrid Print Mail API, you can expect meaningful ROI with less investment for your retail marketing strategy. The right analytics tools help ensure the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns.

Easily Trackable

Even though direct mail is not trackable, you can use PostGrid’s Mail API to track the effectiveness of each campaign. We provide retailers with analytics and tracking tools to measure campaign performance and ensure accurate deliverability.

Digital Marketing Compliments Direct Mail

Retailers can launch the most effective direct mail campaigns when they complement them with digital marketing. Any stage of a retail marketing strategy can use direct mail to achieve the same objectives as online advertising.

You can send direct mail pieces with QR codes that users can scan to access your website or social media pages.

Also, you may trigger direct mail whenever prospects visit your website, fill out the contact form, or complete other actions.

There are countless possibilities to complement your digital marketing strategy with direct mail. If you want a detailed comparison between digital and direct mail marketing, read our blog: Direct Mail Marketing vs. Online Digital Marketing.

Is Direct Mail Dying in the Digital Age?

No, even though businesses are widely focusing on their digital marketing strategies. However, companies spend billions of dollars worldwide on conducting direct mail campaigns.

Retailers use postcards, catalogues, and letters to make the marketing material more physically engaging and help you stay top of mind. They can even send handwritten thank–you notes to their customers for a personal touch and positive impact.

With the help of direct mail automation, retailers can reach more prospects and retain more repeat customers than ever. It is the ideal retail marketing strategy to promote a brand, increase sales, and improve reputation.

Marketing Strategies Retailers Use with Direct Mail

Like other retail marketing ideas, you must learn the following best practices to understand direct mail better;

Synchronize Your Direct Mail Campaigns with Online Campaigns

You must always synchronize your direct mail campaigns with your online ones. Having entirely different strategies will only confuse the customers. Combining your digital marketing and direct mail marketing efforts can increase conversions and provide more value to your customers. Moreover, plenty of tools are available for smaller retailers that help them easily combine modern and traditional marketing approaches.

Prioritize Design, Content, and Layouts

Like email marketing, you must design a specific format for your direct mail piece. The design must be clean, punchy, and on-brand, and its content must be readable and eye-catching to make your mail instantly recognizable among your recipients. You can choose different layouts to build trust and encourage more shoppers to buy from your store.

You must include the following elements in your direct mail piece to support your retail marketing strategy;

Add your brand logo to the mail.
Write a clear message and intent.
Create a clear call to action.
Integrate an URL or QR code.
Provide some incentive to purchase from your store.

Make Direct Mail Simple

Use various formats for your direct mail campaigns. However, instead of creating a cluttered and overwhelming direct piece, you should always focus on minimalism and simplicity in your marketing pieces.

Avoid using long paragraphs, small text, and multiple fonts. Instead, it would help if you used large headlines, professional images, and authentic callout texts. Leaving some white space is a great idea to stop overwhelming your readers with too much information. Simple direct mail pieces are famous for developing practical retail marketing ideas.

Add Incentives

Customers need some motivation to respond to your direct mail piece. Thus, consider adding an incentive in the form of a sale or promotional discount on your products. It could instantly improve the performance of your direct mail campaign and provide you with more repeat customers. Launching a limited period offers a common marketing strategy used by retailers.

Precise Call-to-Action

Adding a CTA button to your physical mail is impossible. However, you can create a compelling call to action in multiple ways. Start using headlines with large or boxed text, and keep it simple and easy to read. You can also add a unique URL that directs users to your website or lets them redeem an offer. In this way, you can measure the performance of your direct mail campaign and improve your retail marketing strategy.

You can include a redeemable code in your direct mail to increase your store’s foot traffic. Thus, they can bring the direct mail piece to redeem and shop at your retail store.

Provide Customer Reviews

Customer reviews help build credibility and trust for a brand. If you have these reviews on your website, social media pages, or product pages, then you can include them in your direct mail piece. Developing a trust factor and attracting customers to try out a product is a great retail marketing strategy.

Include the Terms of Your Offer

If you add a promotional sale or special offer to your direct mail piece, mention the terms and conditions. You can provide this information in tiny fonts on your letters, postcards, brochures, etc.

Include FAQs

To make retail marketing techniques more effective, include a list of frequently asked questions on a postcard. The potential customers or existing ones might have questions while they read your direct mail piece.

Provide Contact Information

Once your customers have read your direct mail, they might want to contact you by phone, email, or social media. Therefore, you must include your contact information and social media handles to expect instant responses from the recipients.

Personalize Your Direct Mail Campaigns.

Adding the name of the recipients to the direct mail pieces can increase your campaign’s responses and engagement. It could be one of the retail stores’ most effective marketing strategies to increase the conversion rate.

You can make direct mail more relevant with per-mailer personalization. For example, adding an image of a past order or understanding a shopping pattern can increase your direct mail’s personal touch.

Building Personal Connections

As you saw, direct mail marketing effectively creates a more personal touch with customers. In contrast to email marketing, direct mail marketing is ideal for sending thank-you-notes, birthday messages, and other relevant messages to recipients.

It can help retailers build deeper relationships with their customers and make them feel valued. Ultimately, retailers can gain more loyal customers with direct mail in their retail marketing ideas.

Focus on Mailing List Quality

The quality of your mailing list can significantly impact your campaign’s performance and expenditure. You must reach the right audience to expect a positive response and a better ROI.

It is always advisable for retailers to have the most recent customers on their mailing lists. This action can offer them the highest conversion rate while using a paid list might not give such results. Paid lists can often become stale quickly, and it is hard to learn about the relevance of your campaign.

Sending the Right Campaign at the Right Time

Timing is everything in digital and direct mail marketing. You can customize direct mail campaigns to meet the needs of your customers and their stage in the buying process.

Start planning your campaigns according to different themes and occasions. You can promote new arrivals in your store, thank your customers, and request feedback or reviews. Remember, timing is essential to making your retail marketing strategy successful.

It would be best if you considered remarketing and retention campaigns first. This audience might provide instant results; then, you can consider moving up the funnel and targeting new customers. If you want more ideas for direct mail, read our blog: 25 Best Interactive Direct Mail Ideas and Examples.

Direct mail campaign types that you can try in your retail marketing strategy;

Promotional Events and Announcements

If you plan a sale event or product launch, don’t hesitate to include that information in your direct mail campaigns. A strong and evergreen strategy is more successful when your competitors only focus on an online retail marketing strategy or campaign.

Triggered Campaigns

You can launch automated or triggered direct mail campaigns with PostGrid’s Print Mail API. A retailer can send direct mail upon post-purchase, new customer welcome campaigns, win-backs, etc.

Loyalty Programs

Retaining your existing customers is much easier than acquiring new ones. If you are running a customer loyalty program, you can stay ahead of the competition with the help of direct mail campaigns. It can supplement your retail marketing strategy by engaging your loyal customers with valuable direct mail pieces.

You can retain these customers by sending them exclusive codes for offers or personalized handwritten cards occasionally. It helps you build deeper relationships and get ahead of your competition.

Asking for Reviews

Having more customer reviews helps a retail brand build market credibility. Moreover, it facilitates converting prospects into paying customers. You can use direct mail campaigns to write postcards or handwritten letters requesting customer feedback on your website or Google business profile.

Cost of Direct Mail Marketing

If you are developing solid retail marketing techniques, consider these factors impacting the cost of direct mail marketing;

Mail Type, Volume, and Packaging

Your direct mail format significantly dictates your marketing prices. For example, a small-sized postcard costs more than an oversized envelope.

Consider the direct mail type that best suits your retail market strategy and produces the highest sales. Here are some options:

Postcards
Sales letters
Newsletters
Direct mail packages with handwritten notes, cards, and more.

Please note the size, weight, and finishing can also impact pricing.

Retailers must consider the mailing volume when deciding the budget. They can conduct small-scale or large-scale retail marketing campaigns based on their objectives.

Some businesses focus on the reach vs. frequency approach. They send repetitive mailings to the same prospects for a few days or weeks instead of shipping generic mailers.

It helps them channel their retail marketing strategy to the most relevant audience, making the best use of their investment.

Another crucial factor is your direct mail packaging materials. Your costs include envelopes, stamps, and more, which quickly add to your budget.

Luckily, PostGrid offers all-in-one pricing to help you affordably conduct on-demand and bulk campaigns. You can launch an effective retail marketing strategy without worrying about every element and its costs. Contact us to learn more!

Your Mail Design

Graphic designers charge hundreds of dollars an hour to create custom artwork for retailers. And you can save these costs by designing your mailers yourself. But how?

PostGrid’s pre-built templates let you download and use HTML and PDF files. You can customize the designs based on your retail marketing strategy and message.

Printing Expenses

Printing costs range from $0.05 to $2 per piece, depending on your format, volume, paperweight, and other factors. You can control your retail marketing strategy budget by sending mail in bulk to get high discounts.

Or use PostGrid’s direct mail API to get competitive pricing, irrespective of your mailing volume. Also, our reputed printing partners guarantee high quality, making your mail pieces more effective and impressive.

Mailing Costs

Buying stamps for a few items may not seem costly. But you may need to spend a massive amount purchasing postage for hundreds or thousands of mailers.

Hence, consider Canada Post’s current postage rates when planning your campaigns. It helps you make your retail marketing ideas without burning a hole in your pocket.

Why Using PostGrid’s Direct Mail Solutions The Best Retail Marketing Strategy for Your Business?

PostGrid’s Print and Mail API enables retailers to send letters, postcards, brochures, catalogues, and checks to customers and prospects. You can also revamp your retail marketing ideas with the power of our automated platform and integrate it with a CRM for the best results. Retail owners can expect the following;

Complete Personalization

Our platform makes it easy to personalize your mail for each individual. It would help to enhance your response rate with complete automation.

You can boost your retail marketing strategy by adding variable data to your mailers. And PostGrid ensures that this process is quick, easy, and effective!

Highly Scalable

We enable retailers to scale their communication channels with our REST API and exceptional integration capabilities.

Some of our popular integrations include Hubspot, ActiveCampaign, Salesforce, and Zapier. You can launch your offline retail market strategy directly from your system by incorporating our direct mailing capabilities into your CRM accounts.

Helpful Analytics & Tracking

Intelligent analytics allows you to measure the performance of each campaign and ensure the best deliverability.

PostGrid lets you access your campaign’s reports and insights from the dashboard, keeping you updated about your retail marketing strategy’s progress.

Laser-Focused Targeting

You can target your relevant audience for your retail marketing strategy by building segmented mailing lists with us. PostGrid allows clients to compile lists based on their preferred geo-demographics to get the best results possible.

Cleansed Address Data

Our address verification feature lets you cleanse and standardize your mailing lists. Thus, you can reduce mail returns, lost items, and delivery delays.

One of our clients in the retail industry recently met with us to discuss their upcoming campaigns.

They wanted to conduct a comprehensive retail marketing strategy targeting all the loyal customers in the city. It meant they wished to launch bulk mailing campaigns to reach at least 5,000 people.

The company wanted to promote a new product line. They aimed to spread the word and get people to visit the store on the launch date.

We suggested they send invitation postcards to customers describing the event details. They curated many special offers for early orders to increase pre-sale revenue.

Approach:

The design process was quick and upfront. The company used our templates to create a design for a standard-sized postcard. They also use our address verification service to update their customers’ delivery addresses.

Our team suggested the company add pURLs to redirect people to the website where they can RSVP yes or no.

We helped the company prepare their postcards on their preferred date. They had a detailed retail marketing strategy timeline. And we assisted them in completing the steps accordingly.

The printing and mailing process only took two weeks from the start date.

Initially, their campaign timeline was two months. But PostGrid helped them quickly plan and initiate the program without requiring extensive effort or investment.

Results:

The company received at least a 40% response rate from the campaign. And most of these respondents showed up for the product launch.

Also, the company achieved

50% savings compared to its original budget.
10x better efficiency and productivity.
75% saved time.

Conclusion

If you are a business owner, it’s time to transform your retail marketing strategy with the power of automated direct mail campaigns. They create better impressions, are more likely to be read, and encourage people to respond.

You can leverage PostGrid’s automated direct mail solutions for assistance. And the best part is that they ensure positive results and high efficiency.

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