Advice for small business newsagents on how to win more diary business

Newsagents used to be the biggest retailer of diaries in Australia. That has not been the case for some years.

You only have to go into an Officeworks to see an extraordinary pitch for diaries. Calendar Club, too, are in this space. Plus we have Typo, Kikki.k, discount variety stores, K-Mart, Target and supermarkets. Then there is online – from websites in Australia and overseas.

Looking online, I found diaries for a raft of special interest niches available at less than Australian recommended retail and with free delivery from overseas websites.

It is a tough challenge for newsagents to win back the diary business. But we have to try. The channel has to try. The alternative we we mark this down as another loss for us. We should not stand for that.

Here are some management and marketing tips for newsagents to win back diary business:

• Display differently. Create something beautiful, eye-catching. Colour block.
• Feature diaries, showing off features in a creating way to grab attention.
• Use social media. Run a series of posts showing information about diaries, show off your knowledge. Pitch yourself as the local expert.
• Pitch range. Show your range in a way that pitches you as having the biggest local range.
• Use a secondary location. Near weekly magazines or newspapers. Get your regular shoppers considering diaries thanks to tactical placement in-store.
• Offer multi-buys. Consider packaging multiple diaries in a pack to make price comparison difficult. For example, a small pocket diary with a desk diary.
• Host a diary party. Some people are very committed to their diaries. If you can find them this could be a fun event. Put on some drinks and food to make it special. Can you think of any other business nearby hosting such an event? Probably not. And this is the reason for you to do it.
• Run a short term sale. For, say two days. 25% off. Run it now and call it an early bird sale. This is particularly useful if you have shoppers who may, later in the season, purchase elsewhere.
• Feature new diaries in store now. As you get new product, shout out about it to show your range has expanded.
• Train your staff. Make everyone a diary expert.
• Find the oldest diary. Ask your customers for the oldest diary they have and get ti in-store for a promotion.

My hope is these ideas get you thinking of ideas for yourself.

Diary sales growth is here for the taking for small business newsagents. If you do what you usually do your results will be in line with your past trajectory. If you are happy with this, don’t change. If you want to do better then you need to do better.

Good luck and let’s all work to win more diary revenue for newsagents this season.