I wrote an article on Local Store Marketing & it seems fitting for this thread. Rather than just posting the link, here's the article - Enjoy - What is Local Store Marketing? Local store Marketing (LSM) Individual store marketing efforts designed to develop sales opportunities in the area immediately surrounding a particular store. LSM Includes 1.) Local advertising efforts - Local newspapers, school bulletin advertising, local publications, local communities, etc. 2.) Sales Promotions - Monthly sales promotions & events plus the advertising & sales materials that support them. 3.) Direct Marketing - Distribution of door hangers, flyer's, business cards, direct mail, post cards, etc. 4.) Support or sponsorship of local community & charity programs or events. This LSM Publication is a working tool. It is the base from which you can customize a store-specific plan to build immediate sales & long-term success. We've included several worksheets to help you in your efforts to constantly improve your local marketing efforts. These can help you & your staff shortcut future planning efforts & maximize their success. Taking the time to understand these worksheets & update them will determine how to best utilize your limited time & budget resources. Step #1: Identify specific objectives & strategies to meet your profitability goals Evaluate your stores marketing strengths & weaknesses to determine how local promotions & advertising can help you meet your unit & profitability goals. The following are some questions, which can help in your assessment. Are you Successfully reaching your best prospect audience? 1.) Have you clearly identified a local profile of your current customer (Age, income, ethnicity, etc.)? 2.) Do you believe that this profile matches the profile of your prospect (Potential Customer)? A.) How is it similar? B.) How is it Different? 3.) Are there specific geographic target areas (Zip codes, neighborhoods, etc.) or Target audiences (Caucasian, Hispanic, German, etc.) in which you should concentrate your efforts for greater return? Historically, has your local advertising worked as well as it could have? 1.) Has it driven immediate traffic into your store? A.) How has its success been evaluated? 2.) Is your current local advertising message relevant to the audience that you are targeting? 3.) Is your advertising straightforward & easy to understand? A.) Does it have one primary message? B.) Are you trying to say too much in a small space? C.) Does it stand out from other advertising? Step #2: Identify Opportunities An Opportunity is defined as something in your trade area that has the potential to create or increase sales &/or awareness for your company. Your trade area is defined as the geographical area surrounding your store where most of your customers live, work or shop. This is the area you should concentrate your local marketing efforts. Once you have identified likely audience segments & their location, find ways to target them directly. 1.) Use materials/publications that allow you to efficiently target households in neighborhoods where your audience lives. A.) Church Bulletins B.) Little League rosters C.) Local Club rosters D.) Chamber of Commerce Materials E.) School athletic program rosters F.) Use your imagination, there are Thousands of possibilities! Or refer to our Marketing Tips section(s) 2.) Use flyers &/or door hangers to reach your audience where they live &/or shop. 3.) Utilize bilingual materials to reach a larger Hispanic/Russian/German/etc. opportunity audiences. Determine the best local events &/or charities to support, based on relevance & visibility 1.) Which would be most relevant/meaningful to your target audience? 2.) Minimize the number of events or programs you support, maximize your participation & your visibility. Leverage the corporate advertising by supporting key Tv & Radio messages in print 1.) New radio spots &/or "Offer" tags will be running in your market to support each monthly promotion. 2.) Matching the newspaper/print message to the promotional radio message will increase your stores opportunity for success. Step #3: Plan the Program This will ensure the success of the program. You need to determine what resources you need to empty prior to, during & following the promotion to increase the likelihood of success. Determine program requirement 1.) People 2.) Marketing Materials 3.) Premiums/give away items 4.) Budget Evaluate if the costs of the program will result in a decent return on the investment 1.) Pre-determine how much your individual store will be investing in the program, including incremental employee hours & out-of-pocket costs. 2.) Project how much additional business the program will create A.) Does your projected return equal or exceed the costs? B.) If not, are there ways that you can economize without jeopardizing the success of the program? Step #4: Execute the program professionally 1.) Advertise for at least one week prior to & on the days of the promotion 2.) Prepare the staff for the program/promotion A.) Encourage full participation & commitment; Get staff excited while ensuring that their expectations are reasonable. B.) Make sure that the staff has seen/heard samples of all advertising & marketing materials. C.) Ensure that all employees know the parameters of this program &/or promotional offer & can communicate it clearly to customers. 3.) Once you commit to a promotion or other program, follow through on the plan A.) Make sure that you have all point-of-sale materials displayed 3-5 days prior to the kickoff & throughout the promotion. B.) Staff adequately C.) Have any premiums or give away items on hand D.) Ensure that you have a contingency plan in place, in case you need incremental materials or staffing to fulfill your promises. Step #5: Evaluate the program (Final step) 1.) During the duration of the promotion, track traffic (Phone & Foot), sales & Coupon redemption. 2.) Evaluate actual results. Compare the time, costs, & efforts associated with the program. Did it pay off? 3.) Include qualitative evaluation as well as quantitative data. 4.) Evaluate & write down specific tactics that worked well or didn't work A.) What worked? B.) What didn't work? C.) Which specific tactics were easy to implement? D.) Which were not worth the effort? E.) Which program/tactics created the most sales for the least amount of money? F.) What can you & your team do to improve the promotion or local advertising in the future? Utilizing these 5 steps should aid in an effective local Campaign... Hope it helped. Author: Eric Lyon - Scorpion Agency
Thanks... Anytime.... ------------------------------------------------------------------ Glad to see it's Useful - I'll be Posting more articles as time goes on
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