Telling a in retail story is like 1 + 1 + = 5. This card, by itself, in the usual card display will do okay. The Olaf plush item in the usual plush display will do okay. The Olaf key chain, too, by itself will do oaky. Placed together, for impulse purchase impact, and they sell very well, and easily, as a pack.
We make our own success as retailers through the strategic and tactical decisions we make in our businesses every day.
Newsagency businesses in shopping centres need to be big, bold and constantly evolving. They cannot be the traditional newsagency business or anything even close to it, not now, not in the future.
Events are one way to differentiate and to compete with big businesses. They are important to attract shoppers from outside and from within the centre, especially in the big centres with 250+ stores.
I have two businesses in this major shopping centre situation, where everyday we fight to bring people in from the traffic in the mall.
Last Saturday, as part of the first ever National Beanie Boo Party, which was organised and run by newsXpress, as an optional marketing event for members, we hosted a party at the Knox store. This short video provides context for what we did in that business on the day to be setup – to achieve a revenue boost of in excess of $1,500 in three hours.
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Now, anticipating questions, read this:
I’d be happy to answer any other questions here. I can also be best reached on 0418 321 338.
Footnote: I am a shareholder in and director or newsXpress. In my newsagency life at different stages I have been a nextra retailer and shareholder and a newspower member. I have been with newsXpress since 2005.
Australians are searching Harry and Meghan in good numbers. Here is the number of times each is currently being searched each month through Google in Australia:
This is rom verified search data.
You can position your newsagency business to leverage this with tactical inshore placement of magazines featuring them, running related in-store marketing and engaging on social media around the impending wedding.
If you are in a marketing group you should already know this and have been receiving information for months. That is what we have been doing with newsXpress.
The Pacific Magazines Nexus program is promoting in-store engagement with some excellent opportunities, which I encourage Nexus members to engage with.
If the royal wedding is not part of your marketing plan I urge you to make it so. The commercial value is set to be c considerable.
School holidays are a wonderful opportunity its for finding new shoppers for your business.
To win new customers you have to act different to what you have done, you have to pitch your business in fresh ways and to people who otherwise may not have seen your business or considered your business.
But most of all, to make the most from school holidays, you need to have fun!
Here are marketing suggestions to help school holidays be more valuable for your newsagency. They are just some of the ideas you could embrace. Hopefully, you will think of plenty for yourself.
These ideas are designed to help you create a business during any holidays period that is looked at differently to the rest of the year, to help you gain a reputation as the best school holidays place locally.
POS software can be pretty boring, especially to small business retailers who are passionate about their family and about their specific type of business.
The marketing folks at my newsagency software company, which also develops and sell software for other specialty retail channels, create social media posts to reach out to retailers who might not look at a traditional POS software ad.
I share some of the images here as inspiration as they reflect ways to change how a traditional business might be considered.
There are many tools available today that enable businesses to create visual messages like these. While it takes creativity to come up with the ideas, execution is easier than ever.
One of the easiest ways to attract a new shopper into any retail business is to pitch products that connect with passion(s), theirs or those for whom they purchase gifts. Some passions are easy to spot while others are obscure.
Once you have found products that can tap into a passion, like Kombi vans, the best marketing approach is too pitch outside the business, using social media. I have found a simple post with a good image can be widely shared. better still, I have found it can generate net new traffic for the business.
The success of this marketing approach starts with sourcing products that connect with passions.
Remember, your key target is the shopper buying for the person with the passion.
Packaging items together to create a unique item is a terrific way to position your business away from others with similar products.
While other retailers may sell journals, erasers, pencils, rules and similar products. Only you might have the items in a package under a name you created. The photo shows how a premium stationery brand does this.
You can create a unique package with what you have in your shop today. You could package together based on function, colour, brand or more.
For what it is worth, I think packaging by colour is a good starting point.
A small business retailer told me last week they were paying a social media consultant $500 a month for Facebook and Instagram posts. The agreement called for two posts a week. The consultant overdelivered with there to each platform a week.
Six months in to the agreement and the retailer was concerned as they were not seeing any result in revenue.
While the likes for posts were good and likes for the business Facebook page had grown considerably, there was no tangible benefit, no new faces, no in-store mentions of the posts.
In my opinion, social media posts are best if they come from within the business, are simple, entertaining and serve to pitch the business against whats people would assume the business to offer.
Paying a consultant to write posts is dead money as no one can speak for your business sin such an immediate and interactive platform as you and those who work in the business with you.
It is easy to spot social media posts by an agency or social media consultant. It is overthought, often bland, smelling commercial and, usually, overwritten.
Social media consultants can make a strong pitch, helping you with something you may not understand, making it seem easy, coming across as the expert, winning you over with marketing charm.
When it comes to small business social media engagement, the experts are those in small businesses doing it successfully, doing it with a direct revenue benefit. While there may be some consultants achieving this, I am skeptical there would be many.
Sure it is an extra task to complete. The thing is, in today’s world, it is probably the single most important marketing task for the business.
You control how prospective customers see your business. This matters if you want to attract people who are not looking for what they think a newsagency is.
Your front window, social media posts, advertising (if you do any) … in fact, anything you write, say or do outside your business that can reflect on your business determines how people see your business.
If you are concerned people think of your business as traditional newsagency, you know you do not have your messaging right.
Acceptance cards are an often neglected part of the card story in newsagency card departments.
Tucked away, out of sight and not promoted, acceptance cards are always there, but often forgotten.
Yet, acceptance cards represent a point of difference opportunity for us, they and other cards with them can be promoted to pitch a point of difference inn our businesses over other card retailers. They can be leveraged to reinforce us as card specialists.
One way to pitch these small format cards is to talk about the keepsake value of the acceptance card. Wedding couples love having cards to look back on ten, twenty and more years later. Our range of cards in-store allow us to help create these wonderful memories.
Facebook posts talking about making memories is one way we can leverage the opportunity of acceptance cards and similar for our businesses. A thoughtfully written social media post could educate engaged couples about collecting acceptance cards for future memories.
I think too often we expect cards to sell themselves without any out of store call out. We can’t rely on cards to sell themselves at all. No, we have to continually educate people about card giving. We have to show the importance of providing the keepsake memory in a form people will cherish in years to come. This is why I write about acceptance cards today – they lend themselves to this type of promotion.
While you won’t retire on the mo new you make from acceptance cards, you will benefit from reminding people in the area you serve that you have a range and educating them about how loved acceptance cards are by recipients.
This image is another example of how an image can drive social media engagement, which then drives in-store purchases.
A brief moment taken to put items together and photograph them pays off when a post drives outcomes at the register. It is easy to do this yourself, without using an ad or social media expert.
This is simple and effective marketing, for which your business can be known and through which your business can break free of the usual advertisements that hit people on social media and elsewhere.
Easy visual marketing is the best given the platforms to which we have access to today.
When photographing products for use on social media, photograph to a story. Ic you do this you will achieve better engagement. The best story brings together multiple items in a single shot. Here is a good example. My text for this photo would be Happy Monday or Inspiring or Desktop support or Portable inspiration.
Growth in the number of likes for your business Facebook page(s) is as important as growth in shopper traffic through your front door.
I see a direct correlation between the two, if you use Facebook well. Of course, if is the important word in that statement.
I have been actively using Facebook for business for many years. It is an excellent platform of reaching new customers and talking with existing customers. It is an important tool in business growth.
HOW DO YOU GET MORE LIKES ON FACEBOOK?
This is simple, provide good content, content that gives people what they come to Facebook for – entertainment, inspiration, a laugh. The more you do this the more your post will be liked and shared. The more likes and shoes the more people you reach.
Growth in likes for your page begins with your content. If your page likes are not growing, look at your content.
While you can ask people to like your Facebook page, resulting likes may not be as valuable as those who like your page of their own accord.
You can also buy likes. That, however, is a waste of money.
HOW DOES A BUSINESS USE FACEBOOK WELL?
Businesses that use Facebook well entertain. This can be by making people laugh, smile, feel emotional or be happy overall. They do it by being human, real and engaged. They do it by not trying to sell. They do it y not being commercial.
Photos are real, not studio shots, showing products in use more so than on the shelves. They show customers, happy customers.
They share something of themselves.
A newsagency uses Facebook well by not writing about products newsagents sell.
HOW DO MORE LIKES OF YOUR BUSINESS TRANSLATE INTO MORE SALES?
Someone engaging with your business Facebook page is similar to someone browsing your shop. Both can lead to sales.
People being on your page and engaging with your page brings them close to you and proximity = sales.
The more people who like your business Facebook page the more people you can pitch and offer to or reach out with an event or product announcement, them more people who will hear what you have to say.
Take Facebook seriously as a key business tool. The benefits are real and valuable.
Using a video on social media to pitch a product range can be far more effective that still photos. Experts disagree on time and other factors for videos. I have found that for most products I pitch, a video of between 15 and 30 seconds works best. It needs to be not over-produced. It needs to feel it is from you.
Here is an example of a video I used in a Facebook promotion recently, the engagement was terrific, including plenty of shares of the video. Purchases flowed as a result. It is simple, not produced. Those types of videos tend to work better in my experience.
Small business retailers love to call out for people to shop local and save jobs. Often, such pitches consist of sharing art created by others. I think a more personal pitch is more likely to get better engagement.
Make a more personal pitch by using your name and telling more of a story.
Here is a pitch I saw in front of a coffee shop recently. That I noticed it shows some level of cut through.
Here is a close-up of their second sign. I am sharing this as it is an interesting type of engagement – shoppers donating to get a tattoo for the business owner.
This shop is in Copenhagen so there may be local interests and culture at play here. Jack wasn’t there so I couldn’t find out.
I guess my point is that we all have to find our own way on how we engage to pitch shop local. Sometimes it is easy. Other times it takes a few missteps before we find our way.
Using an interest tag on a Facebook post can reduce the reach of the post. However, it can also ensure the post is seen by more people who will appreciate and / or engage with the post.
My advice is that you research a tag prior to using it. Get a feel for its value in terms of reach. If you gauge sufficient appeal, use it.
I used the tag teacher recently and got a post seen by people who may have otherwise missed it. The actual reach of the post was lower than usual yet the practical engagement was higher.
Tagging interests takes time. The rewards can be valuable.
Years ago, Saturdays used to be big in retail newsagencies, back in the day of fewer lottery draws, little or no Sunday trading and less late evening trading.
Today, the value of Saturdays has slipped for many retailers including many retail newsagents.
Something needs to be done to reinvigorate Saturdays. What it is that needs to be done will vary based on local situation. My advice is that you engage with a considered, planned, campaign to lift Saturdays. Make shopping your shop on a Saturday more fun and more valuable.
Here are some suggestions to get you thinking of what could work in your shop:
What ever you do it has to be about your business as it is the commercial outcomes you are looking for. I mention this so you can focus on what you need rather than what a local group may need / want ahead of you.
Of course, you could do nothing about Saturdays and your numbers in the future would continue the trend you are on today.
You can pay Google to have your company listed if people search for a competitor. In a real-life high-street situation, this is like putting a billboard up directly in front of a competitor business location, so that everyone heading for that business saw your billboard first.
This is a common form of online advertising. Google advertisers pay Google for each click on the ad.
Newsagency software company POS Solutions recently complained a competitor of theirs, Retail Express, was doing this to them.
This week POS Solutions has been doing it to my POS software company. This is a reasonable form of paid advertising allowed by Google.
Landing people on your business website naturally, without having to pay for the click, is the most valuable landing you can have. It is free and the click to the page is purposeful as it was a sought-after destination.
The best way to achieve this, to land the people you want on your web page is to have fresh and valuable content. Google has smart algorithms for assessing this. Their determination shows in the natural search results, those listed after the Google ads, the entries that say AD. AD means the position has been paid for, the positioning is not a natural result based on content.
I do not use Google AdWords for any of my businesses. Rather, my focus has been and continues to be to ensure fresh, relevant, trusted and enjoyable content on each website with which I am connected. The high Google ranking of each of the websites, more than twenty in number, reflects the value focussing on these points: fresh, relevant, trusted and enjoyable content really does matter, to Google and to people searching online.
If your site is not ranked in Google search results where you want it, work on the site before you start spending money with Google to get it placed ahead of competitors. By work on the site, I mean: ensure fresh content, on-point meta data, regular SEO work and more to ensure Google sees your site as offering value to the Google ecosystem. Paying for ranking is an option but searchers do see this as an ad and not as a natural result.
Best practice in retail layout and fixtures today is to no longer use traditional built-for-purpose fixtures. The more everyday warm furnishings you use the better, with different colours, shapes, sizes and textures. Real life used is even better. Sorry traditional shopfitters.
No longer does everything you use to display and hold product need to look the same or connected.
Here is a good example from a leading US fashion and homewares store I saw recently. Their use of the cupboard is exactly what I am talking about.
Click on the image for a larger version.
I don’t understand why newsagents share on their Facebook page a post from another newsagent’s Facebook page where they have no commercial or group relationship with the other newsagent.
If you like what they have done and you have the product in your shop too, write about it yourself.
Sharing can be lazy posting. It is okay sometimes, but often not.
