Along with offering competitive pricing and providing quality products, advertising is one of the most important things smaller supermarkets can do to attract customers to their stores.
Interest in smaller supermarkets is on the rise, and some creative advertising might be just what you need to turn your store into a local favorite.
Looking for some great supermarket advertising ideas? You’ve come to the right place! Read on for eight of our top advertising ideas that will help boost sales, drive customer loyalty, and help your business compete.
What To Consider Before Changing Up Your Marketing Strategy
To come up with effective supermarket advertising ideas, you need to do a little research. Start with these areas:
- Your customers: Think about the customers who regularly shop at your store. Dive into demographics. What age are they? What’s their average basket size? What questions do they usually have?
- Top-selling products: Use your point of sale (POS) system to determine your top sellers. A good advertising strategy should emphasize the sections of your store that are already doing well.
- Peak hours and days: Use sales data to understand your peak hours and busy days. This will help you plan events and create signage.
- Your competition: Look at other grocery stores and supermarkets in the area. What do they offer that you don’t (and vice versa)?
- How will you measure success? Before embarking on a new marketing strategy, make sure you set quantifiable goals and track results. Is the goal to increase produce sales? Maybe it’s to get more people to sign up for your customer loyalty program. Setting goals will help your supermarket advertising ideas stay on target.
Considering how your store is running now will give you a better idea of where to focus your advertising efforts. Instead of forcing customers to try something new, try scaling up what already works and is popular.
8 Effective Supermarket Advertising Ideas To Try Out Today
Supermarkets are a staple of local communities, but there’s a lot of competition. Supermarket chains have massive advertising budgets and resources, so it’s no use trying to compete by playing their game.
Instead, small supermarkets have to be more resourceful than their bigger counterparts to be effective. But with a little research and some new supermarket advertising ideas, your business can attract more customers and boost sales.
Here are a few key supermarket advertising takeaways:
- Establish your online presence and e-commerce offerings
- Engage customers with loyalty programs and events
- Forge partnerships with local businesses and products
- Leverage signage to boost awareness
Read on for eight simple ideas you can try today to help increase customer retention, expand your reach, and boost revenue.
1. Think Small — Go Local
Local supermarkets and grocery stores appeal to people because they’re, well, local. Many independent supermarkets already offer local items, so make sure your customers know about them.
Use signage and advertising to emphasize your connections to other local businesses. Create shelf labels for locally sourced products or build displays that feature local goods.
Partnering with local farms gives you a chance to advertise yourself as a “farm-to-fork” provider, which is popular among consumers. You could also partner with local artists and craftspeople to offer their products in your store. Building a local network is a win-win for everyone involved, so don’t be afraid to reach out to your fellow business owners.
Use your POS system to track the sales of your local products. This will help you understand which local partnerships are most profitable and identify opportunities to expand.
2. Build Your Online Presence
More people find businesses online than ever before — and more than half of US adults use Facebook and Instagram. That’s why it’s important to maintain a consistent online presence to reach new customers and keep old ones coming back.
Build an attractive website that highlights your selection and unique qualities. Regularly post on social media or send out newsletters to connect with customers, inform them about new arrivals, and offer discounts.
If you’re short on inspiration, here are a few marketing ideas to get you started:
- Weekly recipes: Share a new recipe every week and set up a section in your store with all the ingredients customers need to try it out. You could even use your POS system to create a custom product bundle for each recipe.
- Get feedback: Use social media to ask your customers about which products they’d like to see more of or what they love most about the store. Engaging with customers is a great way to stand out in their minds.
- Local highlights: Share posts that highlight your favorite local products or partnerships, giving yourself and another local business a boost in the process.
- Deal and selection spotlights: Sometimes people aren’t aware of your unique value. Use your online presence to highlight your selection along with any limited deals you have on offer.
Last, don’t forget to keep your website and Google Business Profile up to date. This will ensure that you show up in local searches.
3. Refresh Your Signage and Layout
Every supermarket uses signage, from aisle and wayfinding signs to large banners and window signs. However, many supermarket owners undervalue signage and its ability to improve the customer experience.
Friendly, clear signage is an important advertising tool, as it establishes the vibe of the customer experience the minute they walk through your doors.
More importantly, signage helps draw your customers’ eyes to exclusive offers. To be most effective, make sure your promotional signage is branded, not cluttered, and at customers’ eye level. Use colored signs to highlight limited-time offers and local products.
Your store layout is also an effective advertising tool. Ensuring that the most popular items are front and center helps entice people in and encourages them to explore the rest of the store.
4. Host Free Tastings and Events
When most people think of supermarket tastings they think of a person in a hair net handing out samples on a toothpick. But supermarket tastings can be so much more.
Set up a grill outside your store and offer samples of fresh-cooked meat and vegetables. Work with local chefs and host cooking classes using ingredients offered in your store. If you do offer samples, make sure your employees are knowledgeable about the product and ready to engage with customers.
Since local businesses are an attractive selling point, you could set up sample tables with people from the local business themselves during peak hours. They’ll be happy to have a chance to promote their products while you benefit from the boosted sales.
To maximize your return on investment (ROI), schedule events during peak shopping times. Your POS system can tell you when your peak hours are. Also, make sure you use your POS system and social media accounts to promote your events well in advance.
5. Create a Loyalty Program
People love earning points. Ringing up their groceries to find they’ve earned a discount sends a rush of dopamine straight to the brain — one that will keep your supermarket top of mind.
With a modern POS system, you can easily set up and customize customer loyalty programs.
For example, you could offer points for every purchase that customers can redeem for discounts or free products. You could also use a loyalty program to upsell customers, offering them double points on specific product categories for a limited time.
Better yet, by tracking the sales data of people signed up for your loyalty program, you can better understand the preferences of your most loyal customers. This will help you make smarter decisions about discounts, stock, and more.
Make sure you advertise your customer loyalty program using signage at checkout. Also, train employees to ask customers if they are part of your loyalty program and customize your POS user interface to make signing up new customers easy.
6. Streamline Online Sales
Shopping for groceries online is an increasingly popular and convenient way for busy customers to get their staples. Supermarket POS software makes it easy to set up an online shop that is directly connected to your in-store delivery. Solutions like IT Retail also include integrations with marketing and delivery to help expand your reach and ensure online sales run smoothly.
Even if you’re not ready to deliver groceries, you can still use an online store to offer a buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) option — just make sure you’re clear about how fast customers can expect orders to be ready.
Offering a convenient, digital way to shop will help your grocery store stand out.
7. Encourage Online Reviews
A massive 97% of people read reviews for local businesses, and positive online reviews can increase customer spending by 31%. Online reviews can make or break a brand, so don’t ignore them.
Use signage, social media, or even messages on your receipts to encourage customers to leave you positive reviews. Check reviews occasionally and respond to them (whether they’re good or bad). Responding to a bad review may give you a chance to fix a one-time mistake and improve your reputation.
Customer reviews are also a great form of market research. They give you a chance to see what people are drawn to in your store and can help you figure out your strengths and weaknesses.
8. Offer Branded Reusable Bags
Sustainability is increasingly top of mind for supermarkets and grocery stores, especially at the local level. Reusable bags are popular with consumers and are a great chance to advertise your brand.
Print reusable bags with your store name and colors on them. These are not only useful for customers but also act as free advertisements every time they use them to shop. For maximum effectiveness, put reusable bags right at checkout. That way, if a customer needs more bags, they have the option to buy them right then and there.
Enhance Your Marketing and Customer Experience With a Leading Supermarket POS System
Many effective advertising strategies are made even better with a supermarket POS solution. IT Retail was built specifically to handle the challenges of running independent supermarkets. With IT Retail you can create more effective marketing by:
- Monitoring sales data
- Finding your peak hours
- Customizing customer loyalty programs and discounts
- Offering online sales and e-commerce
- Ensuring accurate stock levels with real-time inventory management
…and more.
If you’re looking for cost-effective ways to roll out your ambitious supermarket advertising ideas, look no further! Speak with our experts at IT Retail to see how a modern POS system can help you achieve more.
