Along with the advancement in technology, we are seeing fewer and fewer old-school brick and mortar retail stores. This is because of the widespread availability of the internet and an even wider spread of information through it that online stores are starting to take a huge part of the proverbial pie and many wholesalers have decided to branch out and sell directly to the customers by cutting out the middle man. Here in the article, you will learn how to create and implement a Retail Marketing Plan.
Now, this can be seen as both an opportunity and a challenge. Although there are more entrants in the market, there is an even higher demand for personalized products and services. And these wouldn’t even have to be personalized but only need to give the sense of intimacy.
But with so many retail marketing ideas out there, what would suit your retail marketing plan the best? The answer is SMS marketing.
What are Retail Businesses?
If you purchase goods to be sold to the general public for personal use and consumption rather than resale than you operate a retail business.
It is extremely important for a business owner to first understand where they lie in the supply chain. Only then will you be able to move forward and figure out what your business needs. As retail businesses lie on the very end of the supply chain and deal directly with the end consumers, they must market their products respectively. What works for one will not work for another because of the change in the environment and consumer mindset.
What Do Retail Businesses Need?
The most important factor in any retail marketing plan is the inclusion of foot traffic. The more people that come in to visit your store, the higher the chance of someone making a purchase. The only question is, how to bring in more foot traffic?
The simplest, cheapest, and the most productive way is through text-based marketing.
Every person carries a cell phone in their pockets. It is the one thing that you are sure to find on an individual regardless of age, gender, and occupation. Now consider reaching out to the numerous people that walk by your store every single day with a simple message detailing what you have on sale. How many of those would choose to make the slight detour and check out your business? How many of them would choose to make a purchase?
Why Is Text-Based Marketing The Better Choice?
Most business owners already have some sort of marketing strategies implemented. They have invested a lot of time and resources in these strategies and are always trying to make them more appealing. And under normal circumstances switching from one strategy to another would require a lot of work and capital that most would prefer not to spend.
So why would SMS marketing be suitable for you? Because of the following reasons:
No Commitment Required
With most other marketing methods be it
social media marketing, email marketing, or even billboards, banners and others
mediums, the one thing that is common across the board is their contractual
nature.
You must sign a contract detailing the nature of the marketing method, its
length, type, cost, usage etc. It is quite a lengthy and complicated process
that requires the involvement of the legal advisors of both parties and can
sometimes take anywhere from several weeks to even months to conclude. But none
of that is a problem with SMS marketing service providers like Express Text.
They offer several different plans that business owners can look over to see which fulfills their needs the best, and with just a few simple steps they can be done with the entire process. It is extremely fast and simple to use and most importantly, doesn’t require a legal and binding contract. It’s like signing up for any other service, use it for as long as you see fit and if not interested, quit with just a few clicks.
No Replacement Necessary
Most businesses believe that to properly implement any new marketing strategies, older strategies must first be discarded or replaced with the new ones. And more often than not that is the case whenever a business shifts from one medium to another. Very rarely you will see that both strategies are compatible with one another, but with SMS marketing that is always the case.
One of the biggest appeals for text-based marketing programs is that they can be used with any and all other existing models. That is because of several reasons but the most important one is still the simplicity that SMS marketing is known for.
Businesses can even link other marketing methods within the promotional texts like a link to the business website or Facebook page, a reminder of an email that is promoting another event or simply providing more details etc.
Cheap
Text-based marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing models in existence. Due to the commonplace use of mobile phones, cell phone carriers have made it a point to make the cost of sending and receiving texts almost non-existent.
This, of course, is great news for small to medium-sized businesses that wish to use such marketing models. And with services like the scheduled messages that are sent automatically on a predetermined time and Mass texts that are sent to entire groups of people with a single push of a button, there really is no real downside to using such marketing models.
A
Higher Return on Investment
As opposed to most of the other marketing methods, SMS marketing has one of the
highest ROI’s in the business. This is because of one simple reason, more
people own mobile phones capable of sending and receiving text messages than the
ones that do not. Any marketing campaign that ignores mobile SMS text marketing
is basically ignoring almost 24% of the population.
Studies have shown that cell phones have the highest open rate of 98% and a massive 209% higher response rate than a phone, email or social media combined. And if your target audience is between the ages of 18 and 34, then you will be happy to know that text is the most preferred communication channel for this age group with more than 80% of messages being opened within 90 seconds of being received.
What are Some Important Uses of Texts In Retail Businesses?
Markdowns
Everybody loves a good sale. It only makes sense to buy something for less than more, so the first use case for text marketing are those year-end or seasonal sales. Many potential buyers will wait for up to several months for the price to drop before making a purchase and there is no better way than SMS’s to let them know when that is happening and what they can expect.
Such sales are the best time to get rid of the slower moving items and the ones that are out of season or not in trend anymore. It helps create the image of cost-effectiveness in the mindset of your everyday consumer when they receive such texts on a regular basis.
Brand Loyalty
Even if you don’t own a big-name franchise or have multiple storefronts, creating brand loyalty is never a bad thing. You want to associate your name with a certain characteristic such as “quality” and the best way to do that is to first reach the customer in a more personal way.
Text messages allow businesses to have a direct path to their customers or new potential buyers. What other mediums like billboards and banners are not able to provide is the 2-way communication that SMS marketing is known for. Imagine how easy it would be if you knew exactly what your buyers wanted and when. It would allow any business to change and streamline its strategies according to the needs of its clientele and not waste thousands of dollars “guessing” instead of knowing for certain.
This leads us to the next use for text messages.
Feedback
The previously mentioned 2-Way messaging feature gives your customers the ability to directly get in contact with you and let you know exactly how they feel about a certain product, placement or promotion.
Retailers have the option to ask any number of questions and receive answers that are automatically recorded, analyzed and categorized into predetermined segments to be shown via visual graphs, charts, and other similar methods.
And most importantly, people like it when they know their opinion matters to a business. It helps them understand how valuable their voice is and how it can help an enterprise reach new heights. Studies have shown that whenever a business conducts such a survey it gives the perception of resourcefulness and concern to the target audience which helps them connect to a name or an idea on a more personal level.
More Reach
Because of the ease of use of text messages, it has become one of the best platforms to expand your businesses reach.
As a retail business owner, your store should have a lot of new and exciting products coming in every so often. And by using text marketing you can create a simple message detailing the arrival of these new products, their availability or lack thereof, the process of getting them and their prices as needed.
Many products like cell phones, computers, and video game consoles always create a lot of excitement every few months whenever a new model is about to be released and using mobile marketing is not only efficient but almost a necessity at this point due to its many advantages.
Events
The promotion of business events or even something entirely different like charities and fairs held for the local communities or promotion of an important issue can be often seeing done mainly through text messages because it is easier to connect to entire groups of people based on their physical locations.
Hold competitions for new and old products and give away gifts to customers that fulfill certain requirements such as being the 100th buyer on a certain day or those that correctly answer some riddles or questions.
Perhaps only texts are so versatile in their utilization that they can be used in any number of ways from supporting local communities to expanding on your own business goals.
Grow Client lists
It is extremely easy to add or remove new and old customers because businesses are now obligated to do so not only legally but ethically as well. With a simple code, you can give your clients the option to unsubscribe from any lists and or even add them to new ones.
Most SMS marketing service providers will have several features like this with specialized customer lists for each region that are further classified by their likes and dislikes, personal preferences, age groups etc, giving you the ability to mix and match as needed and change them to fit your specific needs.
Conclusion
In this day and age when every single business process is entwined by complicated legalese, coming across a leader in mobile marketing like Express Text that has no such requirements and is able to provide top of the line professional services at very economical rates is a breath of fresh air.
Retail businesses, especially the ones with physical locations will profit greatly from text-based marketing strategies as they have the highest open rate and will bring in the most foot traffic, which of course equals a higher chance of them making purchases. With the ability to broadcast any message with just a few clicks, businesses can stay up-to-date with their buyer’s needs and any new trends in the market, letting clients know whenever a great opportunity presents itself and keeping in contact with your customer base is always good as it keeps you informed.
With the extremely simple procedure of signing up for a retail marketing campaign with a couple of clicks, you can upload all necessary consumer data (with their consent of course) to the service provider website from where it can be managed in any number of ways and promotional messages can be sent in just a matter of minutes.