When it comes to marketing your retail store, you might rely on in-store sales and leave it at that. Maybe you don’t feel like you have time or experience enough to dive into the big world of Internet marketing.
I’ll make it easy for you. These tools are simple to use and will help you drive traffic to your store.
1. Hootsuite
Being on social media is a must for any retail business. Whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, or all of the above, your company profiles need to be updated regularly. But that’s pretty time consuming, isn’t it? That’s why I love Hootsuite. You can manage multiple profiles from different platforms, schedule your posts in advance, and respond to people, all from one place.
It’s free for basic use (which is more than enough for most businesses).
2. MailChimp
Email is another essential tool to reach your customers and keep them coming back. But before you fret that you don’t know HTML and are not a designer, check out MailChimp. It’s email marketing made easy: no design skills necessary. Choose from beautiful email templates and customize them with your company logo.
It, too, is free for basic use (which is more than enough for most businesses).
3. Google Analytics
It’s important that you know how many people visit your website, and where they came from. Google Analytics will tell you exactly that. You can find out which other sites sent traffic to yours, which ads people are clicking on, and which pages people are visiting the most. You can tweak your web copy or decide which products you want to discount based on this information.
It’s free!
4. WordPress
If your company isn’t already blogging, run — don’t walk — to WordPress after reading this. It’s a free tool that helps you set up a blog in seconds. There, you can share pics of your products with customers and fans, write about the latest in trends, or show sneak peeks of upcoming products. Blogging is a great way to stay in contact with your customers, as well as attract more to your site.
5. PRWeb
Press releases provide your company with the unique opportunity to get the word out about your brand’s news and promotions. Issue a press release to be distributed through PRWeb whenever you have something newsworthy. Unfortunately, due to recent changes to Google’s search algorithms, press releases will no longer directly improve your search results (or have very minimal impact). However, if the press writes about your business, that can definitely improve your ranking!
Find the marketing tools that work best for your retail store. Play around with them and figure out the best way to use them to grow your business.
For more tips and tools on marketing for your retail store, visit our blog articles: How to Get Publicity for Your Retail Store: Part 1 and Part 2.
Photo Credit: thinkretail via Compfight cc
