As someone who has been working in a shop environment for 18 years, I understand that working in a shop is difficult. There are a lot of plates to juggle and marketing can slip down that ever growing list of jobs to do.
I have created a list of tips that could save you time and if implemented correctly will help you with your marketing.
Use quiet times in the shop to plan and schedule
When you have a quiet few minutes or just before you open, you have a chance to create and plan your social media. One easy way of doing this is to decide on your top 20 key messages that you want to send out. These should be a mixture of Broadcasting messages (showing products, services, websites links etc) and Engaging Messages (these can be polls, questions, pictures of stock asking people’s opinions and anything else to create engagement).
Once you have these 20 key messages you can schedule these into your social media. That way even if you get busy you will have a presence on the platforms where your customers can see you.
Also, use this time to take photographs and videos to use later. This will give you content that you can use and a library of images to send out if and when you need it.
Do not link your Facebook to your Twitter Feed!
This is a big no!! Facebook and Twitter’s timeline are different and linking to your Facebook page shows that you do not care about Twitter and your followers. It doesn’t take long to keep the original message (link, picture, video etc) and put it on Twitter or a scheduling tool to tweet later and will make a massive difference to your engagement.
Choose a product of the week at key times
This is a great way to you showcasing your products and introducing your audience to other items. To start off with these could be your best sellers, New items of stock or reduced items. The secret with this is that you can also introduce other items that could work well with that item at the same time. This means you might get the original sale but also create interest in another item!
Update your website with fresh content
All of the pages on your website can be used on your social media and in turn, your social media should drive traffic to the shop or your website. If the information on the website is outdated then you are not giving your customers up to date information and not giving you the best chance to showcase your business.
Take your most commonly asked questions and turn into Blogs
You know your business and your customers better than anyone! This means you know what they are not sure about, what they are concerned/interested about and how you can help them.
I would suggest that creating a blog with these questions would be an easy way of educating your customers and helping new customers build engagement. Make sure these go out regularly (once a week is ideal) and send that blog out to your existing database as a newsletter.
Had a new delivery, video or photograph it.
This is brilliant as it creates new content you can use and people want to see what is coming out of the box!! This helps with content creation and people will want to look at your feed just in case you post something new.
Do a countdown to a new promotion
Make every promotion or launching an event in its own right. People love to see new and exciting products or services so tell them about it. This guide gives you a little idea of what I would do.
Before-
- When you know the launch date, make a poster to advertise on-line
- Make a Facebook Event and invite your following along (make sure you then update this regularly).
- Send out a newsletter to your database and blog about it (to share on social media).
1 week out-
- Make it the main message on your social media.
- Send out another newsletter and blog.
- Video yourself in the shop giving a few details of it to show how excited you are.
- Do a daily countdown on social media.
On the day-
- Go all out and advertise everywhere!
- Schedule posts on social media as hopefully you will be too busy.
- Do a video in-store to show the latest launch and the people’s reactions to it.
After the launch just keeps banging the drum and keep the excitement there! (I will do another blog about this soon and can help you 1-2-1 with this if you need a hand).
Know what events are happening in your town and see how you can get involved.
In every City, Town or Village, there are events happening that you can get involved with. These are a great way for people to see you outside of the store and get you in front of a new audience. Some of these events could include Christmas and Summer Markets, Art and local Fairs just to give a few examples.
Include the Hashtags that work and are popular in your location.
Hashtags are a way of getting your messages to an audience that might not be following you. This is because people search for hashtags to see who is talking about them. Every location will have 1-2 hashtags that people use but make sure you are using the ones that are popular and are being seen by people.
Hope you enjoyed these tips and if you need anything then please let me know!