Promotions are useful when you’re trying to temporarily increase sales, attract new customers, and move merchandise before the season is over. However, a lot of retailers and boutique owners aren’t getting as much as they could through their promotions. Learn how to track the different aspects of a promotion so that you can evaluate, adjust, and repeat promotions year after year, becoming more and more successful as time goes on. Save time, energy and money by following a strict plan for your business.
- When coming up with promotional ideas, always write everything that you think of down. Something that doesn’t work for your current promotion may work in another one later.
- Decide which times of year are best for your promotions. Get out a calendar and plan promotions around holidays, busy times, and the beginning and end of seasons. Spread promotions out on a calendar and look for gaps in time that could be filled with special promotions.
- When coming up with an idea for a promotion, think of your brand image and your business plan first. Ask yourself how the promotion can help to strengthen your brand image. How will this promotion make my current customers happy? How will this promotion attract new customers? How will this promotion reward returning customers or customers that send in or bring in new customers? Make sure that you’re making the most use of the increased traffic and interest in your store.
- Promotions don’t mean much and can be a big waste of time and money if you don’t advertise them effectively. For smaller boutiques, you may only need to mention a promotion in your newsletter or on your social networking site. Make sure that you offer incentive for people to not only shop, but to bring or refer a friend. Use the opportunity to get more subscribers and followers.
- Make the promotion visible to people that are simply driving or walking by your store. The “Sidewalk Sale” is always a great way to get people interested. Moving a few garment racks, shelves and clothing racks outside of your front door will immediately let people know that you’re having a sale or promotion. You’ll draw in people looking for good deals.
- Another way to draw people in is to use mannequins. Mannequins are known for being the most effective selling tools available to retailers. Mannequins help people to imagine themselves in your merchandise. They make displayed clothing look great. They show people how to coordinate outfits and accessories. There are many more reasons that mannequins help people to feel comfortable shopping with you, but we will have to go into that in our next article.
- After all of your research, keep track of how people react to your displays and how they respond to your advertising. Ask for feedback and start conversations with your shoppers. Fine-tune your next promotion based on what worked in your current one. Repeat successful promotions year after year. You’ll be an expert in no time.
About the Author: John Garvey is on the staff of Only Garment Racks, a leading online source of clothing racks for sale. Find high quality clothing racks at Only Garment Racks