Our Top 6 Retail Marketing Tips From Total Retail

Retail. It’s always evolving. When an industry is affected by digital habits, the economy and customer changes, businesses need to evolve with the industry to get ahead. To help your retail business keep up, Total Retail published “Total Retail’s 50 Best Retail Tips of 2018.” These tips have been sourced from articles published on their website and in their e-newsletter throughout the year.

Although all fifty tips were helpful, we picked our favorites and came back with the six most important takeaways, which are relevant and actionable. 

1. Email Marketing

Gmail is the most popular email service provider, so optimizing messages for Google is key. Offering an incentive, whether it’s a discount, free shipping or a chance to win a prize, proves to be the fastest way to grow your email marketing list. Plus, if you offer a social sign-up option and reduce the number of personal questions asked, you’re more likely to attract consumers that would like a quick opt-in process. Joe Montgomery, 250ok, “Lessons in Email Marketing From the Top 500 Internet Retailers,” Total Retail Report, Jan. 9

2. Content Marketing

Creativity can find a friend in data. Rather than create net-new content, marketers can look to their preferred analytics platform or content management system (CMS) for content that’s already performing well. High-trafficked and high-converting assets can be repurposed into countless other formats. For example, a highly viewed lifestyle image of a woman can be deconstructed to form outfit ideas on product pages. If these outfit ideas help generate more clicks or conversions, they can then be turned into a seasonal lookbook that’s emailed to opted-in customers. If the email performs well, perhaps the lookbook is adapted into shoppable Instagram ads. All of these assets work together so the shopper stays on track with relevant content each time they click. While there are some resources involved here in the repurposing of content, the ideas can start flowing from what’s already performing well. By using similar copy, colors, images or layouts, retail organizations can begin to make decisions based on data to reduce time impacts and revenue repercussions since these assets are known to perform well against other assets. Once companies create a habit of analyzing data to create content, they can set processes in place to track their assets. Jeff Cheal, Episerver, “3 Ways Retailers Can Work Smarter to Create Content,” Total Retail Report, August 23

3. B2B

Even for complicated B2B sales, a website should not require an advanced degree for customers to find what they want. In actuality, a B2B site should help simplify the purchasing process. Give visitors in-depth product information, tools to generate custom quotes, advanced search options and bulk ordering capabilities to enhance their experience on-site. Consider how each of the included site features will complement — not duplicate — the work of the customer’s existing account manager or sales rep. Jimmy Duvall, BigCommerce, “Why 2018 is the Year to Amplify B-to-B E-Commerce Sales,” Total Retail Report, July 13

4. CRM

It’s important that companies shift their focus from understanding what has happened to a customer to why something has happened to a customer. Enterprises that can work across big data/Hadoop and traditional environments to integrate data and effortlessly migrate from data flow design to production at scale will more easily and quickly realize the full potential of predictive analytics in understanding the why. Patrick Tripp, RedPoint Global “The Customer Journey: 5 Tips for the 5-Minute Service Window,” Total Retail Report, Feb. 19

5. Influencer Marketing

Entrust content creation to influencers. Marketers are skilled in writing commercial content, but influencers share a common language with their followers and can inspire them to visit an online store and make a purchase. Here, they have an important advantage — a unique personality that has attracted people, and trust they’ve built with their subscribers. Influencers know their audience and understand what style of advertising would better resonate with it. Igor Goltsoy, ScienceSoft, “5 Tips to Optimize Your Influencer Marketing Strategy,” Total Retail Report, Feb. 1

6. Personalization

Upon each visit to your website, greet customers by name; show them new, relevant products that might be of interest; and remind them of categories or products viewed during their last visit. This level of personalization can also be applied to email communications and digital ads. Ron Jacobs, Jacobs & Clevenger, “5 Tips to Re-Energize Your Retail Marketing Strategy,” Total Retail Report, June 1

From email marketing to personalization, employing these new strategies and tactics can drive growth and boost your bottom line. If you stay on top of the marketing changes of the retail industry, you can stand out against your competitors in an ever-changing retail landscape. Click here to check out how J&C can help you with your retail marketing needs.