Tag: marketing plan

Awesome Marketing Ideas for Your Retail Store

January 19, 2022 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

Wouldn’t you love an easy to follow 12-Month Marketing Plan that will drive more traffic to your retail store?

Here is the plan for January from my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Retail Stores to inspire you or pass along to anyone you know that has a retail store. Get the plans for all 12 months by downloading my PDF today!

Retail Marketing Plan for January

Click to download.

Retail Publicity Ideas for January

You don’t have to just pitch publicity ideas to your local media, you can also pitch to national media as people do travel and if they read an article that mentions your store, they may take note when they visit your city. Just pitch a story that pertains to what you sell (and your city), such as “The Best Clothing Stores in Chicago”. Try pitching to these blogs who have written these types of stories: Trip Advisor, 10best, Frommers, Refinery29, USNews, Airbnb and Travel & Leisure.

Retail Advertising Ideas for January

Consider running an advertisement for your store in local real estate newspapers and newsletters.
Gift a popular local restaurant (that is near your store) a large clock for their wall that has your store name on the clock face, for free advertising to their patrons.
Check with local tourism websites and publications for possible free mentions of your store.

Retail Social Media Ideas for January

Do an audit of all your social media sites and make sure that your banner images on Twitter and Facebook show a photo of your store front and your address to create instant recognition with customers. Include a cross street map if necessary.
Post a graphic of all the big events happening in your town for the month of January.
Post a photo of a busy day at the store for #ManicMonday.
Post a photo of a dog posing in front of your retail store for #WoofWednesday.
Post a photo of the view outside your store window for #ThursdayThoughts.
Post video / reel of new items in the store for #SaturdaySwag.
Create a Pinterest board called, “Stores in {Your City}” as this is a way to find your local traffic on Pinterest. This is actually a popular search on Google. Pin your store to the board, as well as non-competitive local stores.
On social media, follow your local newspapers, radio stations, sports teams, and other popular local businesses like restaurants, entertainment venues, etc. so you can comment daily on their Instagram, Facebook posts and tweets to get your business name seen by their followers and your local market.

Retail Email Ideas for January

Email your customers all of the new items in your shop this month, as well as any sales or special offers, and a free one-page calendar download for the new year that has your store branding and address at the bottom.
Email your customers a list of all the big events in your town this month. Mention your store at the end.

Retail Sales & Promotional Ideas for January

Hold a huge one-day only January sale in the store complete with food, drinks, and a party atmosphere. Email invites to customers and tell them to bring a friend to get another 15% off.
Check for sponsorship opportunities with any local winter festivals.
Frost your store windows and create a wintery theme for the month of January, to grab the attention of passer-bys.
Add your store to the retail app Storemapper.

Retail Content Marketing Ideas for January

If you haven’t already, create a blog to drive traffic to your website. You can then circulate your blog posts on social media as well as on blog sharing sites like BLOGLOVIN’, even if your posts are something as simple as curated and locally focused content, such as “What to do in {Your City} This Weekend” It also gives you a reason to email your customers weekly with a blog post.

Get hundreds of more tactics for your retail store by downloading my 12-Month Marketing Plan for Retail Stores.

Click to download.

You might also like my post, 6 Ways to Get Customers Coming Back to Your Retail Store.

retail store marketing ideas strategy

Marketing Plan Template Example

March 12, 2021 / Gail Oliver, Online Small Business Consultant

If you need a marketing plan template example, my 12-Month Small Business Marketing Plans can help.

I came up with my 12-Month Marketing Plans for small businesses, as a way to inspire you with my easy, proven and sometimes out-of-the-box tactics, so you can effectively market and promote your business – especially if you have little marketing experience and a limited budget.

Marketing Tactics That Really Work

Now, I have been in marketing a looong time. I can tell you first hand that the three most effective forms of marketing, in terms of actually generating sales, are:

SEO
Advertising
Email Marketing

Again, I am talking about generating sales, and agreed, this could vary depending on the type of business.

If you are just looking to create brand awareness, then Social Media definitely plays a bigger role. But, as I have proven in past blog posts, both social media and “influencer” marketing does not always result in sales (see my post: Proof that Social Media Mentions Don’t Always Results in Big Sales).

I am also a big believer in free Publicity, but again, that can go either way. It might not always result in a ton of sales, but it has longevity in providing you with creditability.

Add to that Sales Promotions, Alliance Marketing and Content Marketing and you have a well-rounded tactical plan:

Social Media
Publicity
Sales Promotions
Alliance Marketing
Content Marketing

Some of the Tactics in my Marketing Plans

I have 12-Month Marketing Plans for all types of businesses (with more coming), so here are some sample tactics to try:

If you sell baby products, pin a collage of your favorite baby items (include ones you sell) to Pinterest and entitle the pin, “Having a Baby” as this search phrase gets 5 million searches a month on Pinterest. You also need to use the hashtag #HavingaBaby in the pin description.
If you sell skincare, bath or beauty products, ask local AirBnB owners if you could be their official supplier or even just leave free samples for their renters to try.
If you sell vintage items, consider also selling your items on the vintage selling app, Evintage.
If you sell eco-friendly products, sponsor a reader poll with the blog Earth911 based on a question you provide. You get the exposure as well as the data gathered from the poll.

Try This Idea!

So, let me give you an tactic that can result in free publicity for you. Let’s say that you sell swimwear. Why not have a few product photos taken at a local hotel’s outdoor pool. You give a shoutout to the hotel and they will likely repost the photos on their social media sites as well, giving you exposure to their followers.

You can do this with almost any type of product. If you sell dog collars, for example, post a photo of your dog wearing one of your collars while sitting with you at a popular local outdoor bistro, and give a shoutout to the restaurant. Use location photos to your advantage!