If you don't send out invitations to a birthday party, you shouldn't be surprised if no one shows up.
Getting people in your grocery store works the same way. If you don't utilize marketing to promote your store, no one will show up.
It can seem daunting to create a marketing plan if you aren't as well-versed in different marketing tactics or strategies. Buzzwords like "return on investment" or "ideal customer profiles" may make marketing your store seem complicated.
But, in marketing, doing the basics well can lead to greater success than attempting to work with a complex plan. A successful marketing plan comes from leveraging the right strategies to drive more people to your store.
We care about our customers’ success as much as our own. This article is here to help guide you through a few different marketing strategies you can use to attract, win, and retain more customers.
Core Components of a Supermarket Marketing Strategy
These are some key aspects every marketing strategy should focus on:
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Product - What items or services do you offer customers?
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Place - Where do customers find your products, and how do they get them?
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Price - How much do you sell your products for to ensure a profit?
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Promotion - How do your customers find out about you or your products?
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People - This includes both your customers and internal team.
People are the core of your business, and it's essential to keep them in mind when developing a marketing plan. Understanding these elements will help you focus on your core marketing goals and how to achieve them. It will also help determine which channels or strategies make the most sense to target your consumers best.
Whatever your ideal customer might look like, a few critical tactics that grocery stores employ include promotional pricing, social media, branded reusable shopping bags, delivery, in-store pickup, and optimizing your grocery store music.
1. Promotional Pricing
Bargains and deals will consistently bring in a loyal customer base, especially when it comes to select and specialty items. People are likely to buy in bulk if you offer discounts for limited periods — especially things that people like to stock up on regularly. This can include products like canned vegetables, cleaning supplies, or noodles.
You can even use promotions to invite people to sign up for loyalty cards so they can take advantage of promotional pricing. Grocery POS solutions like IT Retail can make loyalty programs easy to use by giving people online cards and enabling digital memberships.
Having regular deals or cadences for discounts can also influence customers to shop at your store regularly. They'll incorporate shopping at your store into their regular weekly routines.
POS systems can also help you figure out what products to promote. You can create sales for products that might go bad, or you can create campaigns to promote your most popular products. With regular reporting and analytics, you can use your sales reports to determine what to put on sale or what promotions to run.
Let the customer trends help direct what in-store campaigns you run.
Consumers spend many hours each week online scrolling through ads, which is a great place to target your customers. Daily reminders of your products and offerings are a great way to stay top of mind. For local grocers, it's an excellent opportunity to remind your customers that you're there to serve them.
It's a straightforward, cost-effective way to advertise special deals, tastings, holiday hours, and upcoming events at your supermarket. Host holiday taste-testing events, Christmas tree lightings, trick-or-treating, and anything that will get customers into your store.
Utilizing live-streaming social media features like Instagram Live can also allow you to promote things in real time or run events that customers will want to be a part of.
Got an exciting new product, or re-stocking one of your most popular items? Promote it on social media! Using geofilters and tags can also help local audiences find your business easier.
Social media can serve as an excellent tool for community management and connect you with your customers on a more personal or intimate level.
3. Branded Reusable Shopping Bags
Sustainability is increasingly important in today's landscape, and people regularly look for eco-friendly alternatives to everyday products.
You can save money by replacing the traditional bagging concept with beautifully designed and branded reusable shopping bags. You can even use QR code tags that take the consumer to your marketing campaigns or online website.
Not only can you save money ordering plastic bags, but you can also profit from reusable bags. You can even partner with local artists to print designs on reusable bags to engage the community further and connect with other business owners.
Reusable bags are great for the environment and serve as free marketing for your store.
Placing the bags in plain sight near checkout counters and having the bags readily available displays your supermarket's efficiency and dedication to eco-friendly alternatives.
4. Offer Delivery and In-Store Pickup
Delivery and BOPIS (Buy-Online-Pickup-In-Store) is a new strategy that not only keeps the customer relationship with your supermarket strong, but also keeps you a step ahead of the competition. BOPIS allows customers to shop from home, select store location and timeframe, and arrive in a designated area for curbside pickup.
Whether you hire delivery drivers or connect with a third-party delivery service, your customers will value the purchase options and convenience. It can also help you connect more with customers that may not be able to travel to your store or may not be as mobile.
Giving your customers this level of freedom and the options to choose for themselves shows a new perspective of care and adaptability. It also gets them back to your website, a great place to display promotions, advertisements, or discounts.
Online grocery shopping allows you to create multi-channel campaigns to engage your customers and make shopping even more accessible.
Use social media ads to attract customers to your website, use your site to display promotions or campaigns, and then enable customers to shop online for delivery. You can take customers through the entire marketing and sales funnel in a single sitting on their phones.
A cloud-based POS system like IT Retail is a core component of any grocery e-commerce strategy. We can help ensure that your online stock matches your in-store stock, so you don't have any discrepancies that lead to negative customer interactions.
5. Grocery Store Music
A strategy often overlooked is utilizing the music in your store.
The atmosphere inside your supermarket might not be considered when it comes to market strategies. However, your store’s ambiance is equally important to the shopping experience as anything mentioned previously. It can influence your store the same way different colored plates are used in restaurants to promote more eating or ordering.
While it's a dated study, supermarket sales in 1980 rose by 38 percent when slow music was played in grocery stores. Uptempo music left shoppers moving more dynamically, skipping impulse items, whereas slower music had the opposite effect. Understanding the right tempo/mode to mix can significantly impact the overall sales of a supermarket.
A Norwegian study showed that music with slower tempos and minor keys created a great environment for people to shop. A 2000 study found shoppers' time spent in stores was influenced if there was familiar pop music playing in the background. It also sets you apart from other supermarkets as it shows you genuinely care about the environment that your customers shop in.
Finally, working ads into your soundtrack can make in-store shoppers aware of promotions they may not have known about. If they hear that something they don’t typically splurge on is “on sale for today only,” they may pick up that product — adding to the value of their cart.
Supermarket Marketing Strategies to Win Over Your Customers
Developing the right marketing campaigns and focusing on the key elements that make campaigns effective can take your supermarket to new heights. The ultimate goal is to bring customers into your store and to keep them coming back.
Utilizing promotional strategies and being active on social media platforms to engage potential customers is an excellent start to attracting new customers.
The power of loyalty programs lets your customers grow with you and creates an emotional attachment to your store. Make them feel taken care of, and they'll also take care of you.
Allowing your customers to order groceries, save coupons, and gather points towards future orders within the same place on your website or through a mobile app will make them want to come back and earn more.
Carefully curating the right playlist mixed in with audible ads will enchant your customers. Comfort opens up a world of possibilities. The ambiance is essential if you want your customers to shop more and see all the deals you offer!
Reusable bags are a great way to show off your identity in the community. The loyalty of your customers can easily be turned into walking advertisements. This can also be a great opportunity to work with your local community to crowd-source designs. Personalized shopping bags show others your eco-friendly approach while drawing in a new audience.
Deploying new marketing strategies can be daunting, but a powerful POS system can make everything more manageable. IT Retail can help enable several of these marketing strategies, like online shopping and promotional campaigns, through robust inventory management features and reporting.
If you want to start growing your supermarket and connecting further with your local community, get in touch with our team!
