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Marketing Tip Of The Week: “Green” Marketing

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When owning a store, you need to be caught up on all the latest trends. Whether it’s in new and exciting products or unique technology that will better your store, you need to be in the know. So, what’s trending right now? “Going green”, of course. This means that people are starting to pay more attention on helping the environment. Being more environmentally friendly within their everyday lives is something they are striving for each day. So, start incorporating it into your marketing strategy. How? FGmarket is here with to help you through this week’s marketing tip.

Now, are you asking yourself why? Consumers are being more environmentally aware of what’s going on in their surroundings. They are seeing how certain things are effecting the world and that changes need to be made. Therefore, this growing trend is becoming a popular market to target. Even if you start to implement small changes, you are still targeting this target market that not a lot of stores do. You’ll be targeting a small group that not many stores do, therefore you will be offering something to them that no one else does. Which means, more visits to your store and an increase in sales.

Marketing Tip Of The Week

So, you’re asking yourself, how can “going green” be an effective marketing strategy? Start offering your consumers more eco-friendly products or packaging. There are so many ways that you can incorporate this into your store! From the production process, packaging, advertisement and to the product itself, you can incorporate being environmentally friendly through almost everything you do for your store. Here are a few tips and ideas that will help you get started:

  • Recycled Paper & Packaging – Start implementing recycled paper into your store’s everyday uses. From receipts to paperwork, you can use recycled paper. Send your customers home with sustainable packaging, as well. They take that item into their home and whenever they see it they are reminded of being “green”.
  • Green Supplies – Start using “green” cleaning supplies and lighting can be something you implement into your store to be more eco-friendly.
  • Electronic Media – Instead of using paper on advertisements, take it to the web. Most everyone is on the web now, so targeting them on there is truly effective. You’ll be able to reach them better through social media efforts.
  • Eco-friendly products – Of course, this is a must. Find personal care products that are made from eco-friendly chemicals or gourmet food that are made with organic supplies. Carrying these type of products in your store is a must for a “green” marketing strategy.

Targeting environmentally friendly customers is a great way to get new customers into the store and spread the word of being “green”. You’ll Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: “Green” Marketing” »

Reward Programs: A Win/Win Marketing Strategy

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Who doesn’t love a reward?  Especially a reward you get from making a purchase.  For years high-end cosmetic companies used a “reward” based marketing strategy to entice and promote their products. As a way to get consumers in their door to try their products, these companies grouped and packaged their products into special collections that sold at a lower price than the separate items. For many, personal care companies offering this type of “reward” package boosts sales.

Creating “Reward” Packages For Your Store

Fragrant Candles
Candles, home fragrances and personal care items lend themselves to these types of packaged “rewards”. If you already carry these items, you’ve probably got a good idea on how to start. If not, check into adding personal care items, candles or home fragrance to your product mix.

See if vendors have trial sizes or bulk quantity specials that you can use in your groupings to defray the costs. Once you have the products and the packaging materials, all that is left will be the actual marketing.

Implementing a “Rewards” Program

There are several types of “rewards” programs that you can implement. The three types I suggest below are the easiest. So they are a good way for you to dip your toes into a customers “rewards” marketing strategy.

Offer gifts when you purchase an item. Offer smaller trial size products to entice your customers to try a product.  Give your customers a small sample or trial size body lotion if  they buy a scented candle.

Personal Care Products
Ask your vendors if they offer free or discounted samples and use these items in your rewards programs.  Another reward option is to offer a “buy x amount of dollars and get a free item.” An example would be – buy  $50 dollars worth of personal care items and get a free home fragrances spray.

Offer a free gift during a limited time period. This type of rewards program works well when you have an existing customer data base you can utilize.  Send direct mailers that offer the customers a free gift when they come in during a certain time period.

Partnering with other businesses. This type of marketing strategy is used when two or more business focus on the same demographics, yet have different products. For example, you could partner with a massage therapist. If a customer buys x amount of your personal care products they get x amount off of a massage. On the other side of the equation, if a customer purchases a massage they get a coupon off for your aromatherapy candles.

Don’t be afraid to try any idea you can think of to reward your customers. You know your customers and what would appeal to them.

Enticing Customers With Free Items

Giving away something isn’t the only way to use one product to sell other products. Display positioning for suggestive selling can help similar products promote each other.

Home Fragrance
This can be accomplished by grouping items that have similar functions or overlapping relationships. For example: candles, home fragrances and personal care products all have the same function; creating a pleasant personal experience or atmosphere.

This marketing approach is utilized by the big box stores. Properly displayed items will practically sell themselves, as well as subliminally sell compatible products located near them.

Choosing Compatible Products.

Your niche will help you decide what products can be effectively used in this type of marketing strategy. However, candles, home fragrances and personal care products are an example of three products lines that are very compatible. In fact, these three categories all mingle well, making them easier items to display together and creating a cross promotion effect.

Personal care items such as bath products often lead to aromatherapy candle purchases. This same need for ambiance can lead to a desire for a home fragrance when burning a candle isn’t an option.

Capitalizing On Cross Promotion?

It is all in the display and signage. A display containing a lavender room mist, candle and scented body lotion with a sign saying, “If you love the scent of lavender, you’ll love this room mist, body lotion and candle”, is all you need.

Focusing on a specific product attribute like organic, scent, color, etc. is the key. So, display your organic Continue reading “Reward Programs: A Win/Win Marketing Strategy” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Public Relations

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When we think of marketing, the word public relations comes to mind. It’s definitely one of the more popular terms used in marketing and what people are drawn too. Many people get the basics of public relations, like what it is and what sort of benefits you can receive from it. However, that’s all people understand, the basics. While marketing and public relations are intertwined, they are two separate words meaning different things.  So, this week’s marketing tip will focus on the 411 of public relations.

What Is It & Why Should I Do It?

Marketing Tip Of The Week

First off, lets define public relations. It’s a field that focuses on maintaining a company’s image. However, maintaining an image for anything, even a person can be referred to public relations. Focusing on how people perceive your company and what they see is part of this job. Which, is what most people will think of when they think of this marketing term. So, what are the benefits for this?

  • Great and affordable way to reach your mass target market
  • Stimulates awareness for your company
  • Strengthens the company’s image
  • Shows that your company is active and out there
  • Creates credibility for your company
  • Increases search engine visibility for your company

So, as you can see. There are numerous benefits that your company will receive from public relations. Getting your name out there is the best thing you can do for your company. What if you have great products, but have no one coming into your store? You don’t receive any profits and more than likely your business will go under. Your PR efforts don’t have to be ridiculously costly, just start out slow and you’ll start seeing the benefits immediately.

What To Do

So, you understand what it is and what you will receive from this. Now, how do you incorporate it into your marketing strategy? Here are a few tips that will help you.

Get Your Name Out There – A great way to let consumers know what’s in your store is to inform. Get your name out there. Do ads, articles, informational sheets and make appearances at town meetings and charity functions. The more people see of you and get to know you, the more curious they will be to visit your store.

Be Persuasive – Not only do you need to get your store name out there, but you need to give them reasons to come in. You need to give them a reason to come in. Make your advertisements appealing, do radio ads and interviews along with ads in the newspapers, press releases, event sponsorships and speaking engagements. Just do something that will spark the curiosity of potential customers to get them into your store.

Focus on getting potential customers into your store. Build a store name that people will find intriguing, trustworthy and up-to-date on all the Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Public Relations” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Marketing Tips You Should Already Be Doing

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When it comes to marketing, it doesn’t have to be all about the cost of what it’s going to take to get your name out there. You are the store owner and you CAN market yourself. So many times, people rely on paying someone to do the hard work for them. When in reality, you are the best marketer of yourself and your store. This week’s marketing tip features easy tips that you should be doing already to generate word of mouth on your business.

Network Yourself: Don’t forget that you are your best promoter. You should know all the ins and outs of your business, therefore, you can answer the questions best. So, get out and promote yourself. Check out the paper, advertisements and just be in the know on all special events.

Marketing Tip Of The Week

What can you do at these events? Network yourself. Generating good word of mouth doesn’t come easy, you have to work at it. Get out, talk to people and let them know about your fantastic business. Tell them about the wonderful products you offer, special promotions and why they should shop at your business.

Attend Public Meetings & Gathering:Is there a city or town meeting going on in your town? Attend it. Give your knowledgeable opinion and show people that you truly do care about the town and are wanting to make it better. This also helps you network. People will be wondering exactly who you are and what you do. So, they’ll ask. This is a great time to get your name out there and provide them with all the great qualities of your business.

Handout Information:What do you need when attending these public events? A handout, of course! Create something visually eye-pleasing that these potential customers will catch their attention. Provide useful information, such as business information, products you offer, what you do and the great customer service you will provide them with. It needs to have all the details so these potential clients will be able to contact you and keep you in mind.

Make Contacts: Whether you have friends or meet someone at these public outings, make sure to create contact for yourself. These contacts can lead to so much more than just a friendly hello. You can create joint ventures together to promote both of your businesses. Create a cross Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Marketing Tips You Should Already Be Doing” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Integrated Marketing

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This week’s marketing tip may be going back to the basics for some, yet it never hurts to refresh memories. Basics are the fundamentals. They are what everything else is built around. So, this week’s marketing tip is focused on integrated marketing. Reverting back to the fundamentals will help refresh the minds and build a more solid marketing strategy.

Integrated Marketing

Marketing Tip Of The Week
What is integrated marketing? Well, it is the integration of all forms of marketing. It’s a strategy that helps unify different marketing methods, makes sure they are effective and you are allocating your dollars where they need to be going. Advertising, sales promotion, public relations and direct marketing should all work together to create a unified force.

When focusing on integrated marketing, you might want to create an online/offline approach. Our world today is based around the world wide web and social media. Store owners are trying to determine who they should market to and where they need to be marketing at. A lot of their consumers are online, however, some still like to see advertisements on billboards or in print. This is where integrated marketing comes into play.

The Benefits

When using integrated marketing, your product will be able to be advertised through various channels. Internet, radio, television or print can be integrated into your strategy. You’ll be able to reach all types of customers that shop in your store. When first starting out, integrate your marketing into all channels. This way, you’ll be able to measure which ones work the best and which ones don’t, for future reference. You’ll be able to measure, do away with and invest more money into the ones that truly work. In the end, you’ll see an improvement on your return on investment.

How To Integrate

First, come into this approach with an open mind and clean slate. Be ready to think outside the box. You must be willing to change the marketing culture of your business, embrace emerging technologies, track the effectiveness of each marketing tactics, create cohesive marketing and have open communication with all your employers.

Create an advertisement and marketing strategy for your company. Make sure it has a cohesive design that will be able to go out through all Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Integrated Marketing” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Niche Marketing

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When finding products to offer in your store, do you ask yourself what type of customers will this appeal to? Are you wanting it to appeal to a wide variety of customers? That’s a hard thing to accomplish. Appealing to a variety of customers with different tastes and styles. However, have you ever thought about singling out one niche for your store? Are you afraid of losing business if you only market towards a certain target? Well, think of how hard it is to stand out among all your competitors trying to offer a variety of product, as well. Let FGmarket help you with a few marketing tips on niche marketing so you’ll be able to stand out in a crowd.

Analyze & Research
Marketing Tip Of The Week

When determining your niche market, you must first analyze and research potential customers. Figure out who will be your best potential customers, who your competitors will be and how well you will be able to serve these potential customers. You need to figure out all of this before jumping into it with full force. This is the key starting point, that way you will be able to determine their wants and needs afterward.

How do you determine your niche market? You may think of marketing research, surveys and questionnaires. However, it doesn’t have to be a long drawn out and expensive process to determine your market. The main thing to keep in mind is ask! Ask your best customers what they think. Along with asking your customers what type of products they enjoy in your store, you must ask yourself some questions too.

Can I identify a target market? Is it large enough? Can I find products that will suit their needs? Will I be able to find more of this target market? What competitors are serving them? All important questions that must be answered before moving forwards.

Why do I want to determine a niche market? First off, marketing towards a large group of customers with a variety of tastes and styles is a hard thing to do. Marketing towards them in one way may not reach them all, therefore, you must choose different forms of marketing to reach all of them. Which, in turn can be costly.

If you start marketing towards a certain target market, you’ll be able to reach them conveniently and offer a better variety of product that will fit Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Niche Marketing” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Generating Word Of Mouth

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You can only take yourself so far, the rest is up to the customers. Advertising and promoting your business can take you far, but the rest is up to word of mouth that your customers provide you. Therefore, you must treat your customers to A+ customer service! Doing so will keep your customers coming back and spreading the word to their friends. You’ll have a growing community with the help of word of mouth. So, this week’s marketing tip is featured of how you can make sure that word of mouth is positive.

Marketing Tip Of The Week
Let Them Be The Testers: Ask them to try your products. They feel like they are apart of your store. Customers will feel as though they help pick out different products and mainly feel included. Plus, your customers are the people who actually buy your products. Ask them if it’s something that they would be interested in, give a sample to see if it is what they expected and let them give feedback to you. If your product isn’t any good, they will tell you. However, you could have a fabulous product on your hand and they will be ecstatic that you are offering it to them.

Ask For Feedback: Keep a customer database to keep file of what your customers bought and how much they’ve spent in your store. It not only helps with returns, but helps keep track of how much they shop and what they’ve bought. When that customer comes back, ask them how their last store visit went and how they liked their product. Your customers will feel like they have valuable input.

Extended Family: Treat your VIP customers as an insider to your company. Let them know that you will be having sales and promotions during this weekend ahead of time, new products that you saw at market or when your Spring shipment will be arriving. If your customers spend a lot of time and money in your store, then they are your VIP customers. Therefore, you should treat them like that. Feeling like they are apart of your store’s extended family will make them feel good and want to spread the word so their friends can feel like that too.

Number One Customer Service: The key to generating good word of mouth is customer service. Even if you’re not working towards Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Generating Word Of Mouth” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Marketing Trends

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Things change. It’s that simple. People change their ways to keep up-to-date on the latest trends, technology and what the world is doing. Trends evolve whether we like it or not. The world changes. Now, the question you need to ask yourself, do I need to change too? Yes! You don’t want to be left behind in the dust while every other competitor is changing with their customers to keep up their business sales. You’ll be left in the dark ages if you don’t keep up with the ever evolving trends. Therefore, this week’s marketing tip is all about marketing trends. What you need to stay on top of to keep your business ahead of the rest.

Social Media: Yes, we’ve all heard of social media. But, have you taken it seriously? Social media is a huge trend right now and it’s a great way to reach your customers. You may have a Facebook page or Twitter account, but do you actually use it to help promote your company? Have you integrated social media into your marketing strategy for your store? If not, now’s the time to start doing so.

earn the ins and outs of your social media page, find out what attracts customers and figure out what works and what doesn’t. These all play major roles in targeting your customers the correct way through your page. Integrating this strategy into your marketing plan is a great way to set goals for yourself using this platform.

Marketing Tip Of The Week

Online Marketing: First, determine your target market. Do you find most of them are online now? The days of newspaper, radio and billboards are slowly being put behind us. Yes, they are still great ways to reach some customers, but are they your customers? A lot of consumers are now leaning towards researching online.

Consumers research products online and even buy online. If this sounds like your customers, you need to ask yourself if you’re allocating enough resources to your online marketing. If not, then you aren’t reaching your customers properly. Online marketing is a huge trend that you’ll need to start diving into to reach consumers properly.

Mobile Marketing: With the evolutions of mobile devices, your marketing dollars may need to be allocated to this too. Now, consumers are using their device for almost everything. There’s a GPS, games, price comparisons, social media platforms and online researching. Again, if this is your customer, you must market to where they are spending most of their time.

Start researching mobile ads or creating a mobile friendly website. Mobile websites are easy to access and use right from their device. It will Continue reading “Marketing Tip Of The Week: Marketing Trends” »

Marketing Tip Of The Week: A Stylish Store

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Marketing towards your customers needs to be in full force 24/7. You may think, “Alright, I’ve got them in my store. Isn’t that enough?”. The answer to your question is no. Sure, you’ve got the customer into the store, but now you need to sell to them. Do you have the right products that appeal to them? You may or may not. Lets say you do though. However, is it accessible to the customer? Can they find that particular product? If yes, great! However, if they can’t make find it then you won’t be making a sell. Well, here are a few marketing tips that will help  make your store more accessible and start making those sales!

It’s the start of a new year so why not do a little store clean up. Making this happen at the new year will help you achieve this all year round. Your customers will think your store is accessible and will have no trouble at all finding the things they want from you.

Marketing Tip Of The Week
Store Comparison: The first think you need to do is write out what you like and what you don’t like about your store. It may be hard to figure out what you don’t find appealing about your store, but it’s a must. Ask friends, family members or your loyal customers and they’ll tell you the truth. Also, write down what you like about other stores. You may be able to carry some of those ideas over into your store.

Store Revamp: Once you’ve figured out what you find most appealing in other stores, your store and what customers like; go from there. Start to revamp your store. Maybe its been awhile since you’ve updated your store. Now is the perfect time to do so.

  • Color: Maybe you would like a new wall color or a new color scheme to your store. Some colors are said to enhance senses. It is said that blue suppress appetites and green creates an emotional response. So avoid blues, stick with greens and consider your target market. If you have a younger target market, they seem to like funky color schemes. Lime green, pinks and turquoise are ideal colors. However, don’t get too crazy with it, as some color combination can turn customers away. If you’re afraid of color, you can never go wrong with a modern, fresh white. White and neutrals keep things clean, simple and classic.
  • Lighting: Lighting can certainly change the mood of your customers. Maybe you have a new item that you want to feature in your store, dim the lights and make that one of the focal points. It seems that customers move towards the lighting to see what’s in it. It gives them a feel of intimacy. Or change it up and create a fresh, appealing look with all the lights on so customers can see all you have to offer.
  • Display Ideas: This is where you need to get in the mind of your customer. Look at each product in your store and figure out who this product is catered towards. Is this product for suitable for children? Place it lower on the shelves or near check out lines for them to better see the item. If the product is for women, display it on lower shelves too, they tend to be shorter than your male customers. Create clean lines for all your products, no one likes to see a messy clutter. Come up with creative displays for your store, customers are definitely attracted to the uniqueness. Clean, simple lines with a little bit of creative touches will have your products flying off those shelves.

Marketing Tip Of The Week: Long-Term Customers

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When trying to lure customers in, do you just want them for a one time buy? No. When you’re marketing to new customers, you want them to be long-term. If they buy from you just once, you’ll never make a profit that way. Plus, you’ll never develop a great relationship with that customer. You don’t want that, now do you? No. What marketing strategies do you use to make them a long-term customers?  Well let us help with this week’s marketing tip by focusing on a few key strategies that will help turn customers into long-term customers.

Quality Product And Service

Marketing Tip Of The Week
Product differentiation is the key word here. What’s so special about your product? Why should I purchase your product? These are all questions that consumers will ask themselves. Feature a product in your store that is truly substantial.

You need to offer quality products that receive customer loyalty towards it. Don’t forget about the knowledgeable and friendly customer service that needs to go along with it. Combining these two elements will leave an everlasting impression on your consumer’s minds.

Not The Only Ones

Again, this reverts back to featuring quality products in your store. Customers don’t want to be the only ones buying this product, which in their eyes makes it seem low end. They need to know that other people are buying this same product and that it’s in style and is functional. People like to stay on top of the latest trends, especially if they are truly valued products. Of course, consumers want that product to be something unique, but also up-to-date. Staying on top of the latest trends is a must in any store. You need to know what’s going on in the world.

Staying On Top

Show consumers that you care about them by staying up-to-date on all of the latest trends and technology. Of course, offering new and improved products in your store solves the first problem. Second, stay on top of all the latest technology. This includes email blasts, social media and various types of programming. The best way to keep in the loop is to keep your customers in the loop. Having better technology will help better serve your customers by keeping the in the loop.

Sending out mass email blasts about new promotions or products in your store will help them stay informed.  Better yet, create a social media page on Facebook. Your customers will feel apart of your store’s team. Being knowledgeable in things going on in the market today will help better serve your store. Plus,you’ll turn those one-time buyers into long-term customers.

These 3 marketing tips are simple. You must stick with them though in order to turn customers into long-term customers. You’ll receive great benefit from it though. Building relationships and profits, all from creating long-term customers.

Hope this was helpful!  Until the next marketing tip, check out the latest news and wholesale suppliers at FGmarket.

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