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Are You Really Reaching The Majority Of Your Customers?

When the topic of marketing comes up with retailers, sometimes we'll hear comments like:

“We’re putting our marketing efforts towards social media.”
“We use email primarily because it’s cheap and effective.”
“Most of our business comes from word of mouth so we focus on getting reviews.”

Retailers that put all of their marketing ‘eggs’ in one basket run the risk of leaving significant dollars on the table. With stores dealing with lower traffic counts and high costs of new customer acquisition, the value of previous customers is greater than ever. Staying in contact with recent customers should be a priority, yet often they are ignored after they make a purchase. A major cause of this can be attributed to the retailers’ marketing mix (or lack thereof).

If you are relying on just one or two marketing channels there's a good chance you are not reaching a large segment of your customers. To maximize sales, be sure to avoid these common retailer misconceptions around marketing strategy:

1. I Don't Need To Market To Customers Who Just Bought From Me.

The rationale is that it’s a waste to market to a customer who just spent a lot of money at my store, because he or she won’t be buying from me again anytime soon.

The reality is that you are much more likely to get a response with your marketing efforts from this customer than a prospective customer. Did the customer buy all the accessories they need to go with their ski purchase? Was your customer informed of any maintenance packages you offer on fitness equipment? Maybe another family member needs a new elliptical, kayak, or sleeping bag. Don’t assume that a customer who just dropped some serious coin won’t buy again in the near future. The key is timing and giving them reasons to come back.

Enrolling them in a rewards program and/or offering financing during their initial purchase (which gives the customer an open line of credit on a card with your store’s name on it) and then following up with a thank you email after the purchase are all effective tools to get this customer back sooner than you think. Plus, these customers can help your word-of-mouth efforts. Since they just bought from you they are much more likely to give you a positive review, so be sure to include an option for them to do so in your thank you email.

2. My Email List = My Customer List.

Email is an inexpensive and effective tool, but most stores have email addresses for only 20-50% of their customers. That’s a lot of customers not hearing from you if email is your only form of advertising. A good exercise is to download your customer list and sort by email address. This will put in perspective exactly how many customers you do not have email addresses for.

You certainly will want to make an effort to get their email, but that will take time. To maximize results now, take your top customers from the past 2 years with mailing addresses but no email addresses and mail at least a portion of them. While a postcard costs more than an email, it will be worth it to get your top customers who haven’t heard from you back into your store to make another purchase (which also gives you another opportunity to collect their email).

3. My Customers Are Just Like Me.

Many retailers make the mistake of “mirror” marketing – assuming their customers are similar to them and take in information the same way.

"I don’t like getting texts so we don’t use text messaging."

"I don’t really see the point in (enter social media platform here) so we focus our efforts elsewhere.”

Sound familiar? If so, you’re doing mirror marketing. Just because you don’t see value in something does not mean your customers feel the same way.

Some customers may prefer emails and Facebook, but others may prefer texting and Instagram. With a multichannel strategy you will reach more customers via the platform they prefer, making your efforts more effective.

4. Who Has The Time To Do All This? Not Me!

The problem for many retailers is bandwidth. But with today’s technology, many tools like email follow-ups, rewards programs and social media content can be automated, saving you time to focus on other areas of your business. Where automation is not an option, your team can be a big asset, particularly with social media. They likely spend more time on social platforms than you do – take advantage of their knowledge while giving them the opportunity to do something new that they will enjoy.

CCA Sports Retail Services helps independent retailers maximize their profitability through combined economies of scale and through business savings, marketing and operations programs. These retail services include cost savings and advertising programs designed to save retailers time, increase their revenue and maximize their profitability. For information on becoming a CCA Sports Retail Services member:

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