Tag Archives: Local

Apr 03 2023
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Narrating the Customer Journey to your Door

One positive outcome that happened in our communities post-pandemic is that local communities have rallied around their small independent businesses, in particular retailers. Whilst multiples close unprofitable locations on the high street decreasing their retail doors, independents are swooping in to do what the big names have failed so spectacularly to do, namely talk to their immediate audience.

The vast majority of multiple retailers, including retail banking, are clueless to what the local community and their consumer actually needs and wants. They continue to cite financial woes as a reason to close more doors, abandoning towns and in the process, they fail to realise that being part of the community can actually create growth for them and increase brand advocacy.

Retail used to be amongst the most innovative of industries, where a progressive approach to understanding the consumer and creating experiences that made your store a destination. But this seems to have dissipated and all that’s left is a lot of whining retailers wondering why people no longer want to shop with them.

Offer boring and consumers will literally walk on by. A recent study by Shopify found that 35% of consumers prefer experiential shopping. Seasonality can create these experiences, boost marketing and sales efforts but most retailers fail to even engage at the most basic of levels.

At the other end of the spectrum is the pathetic attempts by local authorities to support their communities, understandably failed by this government which has overseen local authority budgets being squeezed almost to bankruptcy. The government offers idiotic solutions to regenerate local communities and fail to even protect local jobs let alone increase the local economy and create thriving, energetic towns.

It’s about time retailers, local authorities and the government sorted their acts out and focussed on delivering for people and not merely themselves. The result will be that all will suffer.

But what can a local independent retailer do with their local marketing to succeed where the behemoths have failed and do it better and uniquely in your own style to speak in a voice and tone that your local community understand and find appealing?

Footfall across UK retail destinations increased in January, despite the impact of the many rail and other strikes. The annual increase in footfall was largely unaffected, with the gap from the 2019 level even narrowing slightly. Retail footfall remains 14.2% below the 2019 level but showed progress from the 20.8% recorded in January 2022.

It’s said that 96% of small businesses say they use social media in their marketing strategy of which 41% depend on it solely to drive revenue. In reverse, 74% of consumers state that they rely on social media to guide purchasing decisions and 81% of shoppers research online before purchasing.

With so many researching before they shop, bearing this in mind, what’s more important to your business? It would seem that a recommendation in the form of reviews is essential as it’s claimed by Forbes that 90% or purchasing decisions are based on these positive reviews. Therefore those comments and likes really do matter when people search for products that potentially lead them to your landing page and  e-commerce site.

This is particularly important for any business and their marketing mix as more than 50% of consumers won’t use a business if it has less than a four-star rating and 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as they trust personal recommendations (Birkett, 2020).

Interesting to know that over 50% of all “near me” searches will result in an offline store visit and 62% of consumers will disregard a business if they can’t find them online. More significantly 88% of potential customers look for online reviews before choosing local services and 24.4% of all clicks go to the first result of local business searches. So having a top Google search result is proven to have an average click-through rate of 31.7%. (Backlinko) and increases the need for your reviews to be exemplary if you’re to get those 81% that research online, through your doors.

That professional approach you take in-store to deliver a positive customer experience and so encourage purchasing, needs to translate equally through reviews and online presence. This should be evident to the consumer through your marketing either on socials or search, to ensure a seamless and frictionless customer journey. A journey that is likely to start online from search to your marketing, either on third party platforms or your own, that enhances your proposition to convert that search into a customer you engage with in person.

Use local marketing to talk about what makes you different, your approach, offers and more. Make sure your staff know what you are marketing to ensure a joined up approach, from what the customer sees and reads and how that translates into the experience they receive on your shop floor. Train your staff to mirror your local marketing in their approach with customers and set targets with staff to identify those who were attracted into the store through your advertising. Use this intelligence to understand what is and isn’t working effectively to fine-tune and ensure your tone resonates with your customers.

So when considering your local marketing approach it’s imperative that you understand the importance of SEO for local businesses and how utilising it effectively and professionally, can result in new customers through the door.  Once there, the seamless journey kicks-in where you’ve curated the narrative and the shopper will receive the service reviewed or promised and hopefully become repeat customers and spread the word online and in person on your behalf.

To read the full article by Dan Todaro, Managing Director please visit ERT

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Mar 30 2022
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I See You But I Don’t Hear You

At the time of writing, retail footfall is up 3% week on week to 80% of that in 2019 and while this is encouraging and further increases are anticipated, we must temper expectations for a full recovery simply because of changing consumer habits and their increasing propensity to head online. So the question is, what are you, as a retail business, doing to make yourself heard and adapting to the current market situation? 

In the world of Amazon, things have been going very well. Their latest figures show that its revenues grew by 20% last year in the UK, with sales leaping to £23.6 billion for 2021 from £19.6 billion in 2020, and far ahead of the £13 billion of sales taken in 2019.

While online share of sales has declined over time from its peak during lockdown, Amazon has continued to thrive regardless and it’s a clear indication that if your competitors trade online, they are seeing the value of an omnichannel approach to retail.

The core driver to any retailer’s success is making it clear, through effective marketing, as to what you sell, where you sell it and how you sell it. Doing this effectively will lend itself to drive your footfall and clicks to keep those customers and potential orders coming.

In the MDA and CE sectors, the appetite to ‘upgrade’ and ‘refresh’ remains and growth continues at a pace, so making your store the de facto supplier for the local community, if it isn’t already, is an easily achievable objective that doesn’t have to cost a fortune to realise through local marketing.

Indeed there are some fantastic examples of how ERT Award winners have used Social Media to great effect in their marketing mix. By using Instagram, Twitter or Facebook to run competitions, announce winners, promote new products or communicate promotional savings and be part of the community. Through this approach much can be achieved to target the local consumer. By putting a strategy in place and driving these communication channels as part of your marketing, social media can be a useful tool to create a community-centric voice that lends itself to serve the local community. It’s worth remembering that recent Barclaycard research has identified that nine in ten people who have shopped locally, say they will continue to do so. Don’t lose them.

With this in mind, think about the importance of Google in your marketing mix as it’s increasingly more valuable not only as a service you can utilise for free from Google but also how consumers search. Key findings have been that:

  • 46% of all Google searches are looking for local information.
  • 72% of consumers that did a local search visited a store within five miles of their local.
  • 97% of people learn more about a local company online than anywhere else.
  • 72% of computer or tablet users and 67% of smartphone users want ads that are customised to their city or postcode. (Source: Think with Google)

Springboard expects this year’s retail footfall will remain 10% below pre-Covid levels and this largely relates to pressures on household incomes through increased inflation and the general cost of living.

Retailers and brands need to bear in mind this fact, so while footfall will be impacted, the shopper returning to stores will be more discerning and as such their customer experience will need to be positive and rewarding to encourage them to spend. Using local marketing techniques to attract consumers into your store is critical in harnessing the potential of that 10% gap. So what can you do to help drive traffic to your store or website:

  1. Set up detailed radius location targeting in Google Ads
    1. This is key, as advertising to a broad audience will attract the wrong audience. Using demographics will be much more effective and efficient. It will also have a better return on investment.
  1. Run local Facebook Ads
    1. Most of the population are on Facebook, why not target on that social platform
  2.  Encourage reviews
    1. Shoppers increasingly use reviews as an essential part of their decision making and buying process. So, in addition to visiting your website to see what you have to offer,  potential customers will also use what other people say to get insight on the products you sell and the service you offer. After all, local shoppers are far more likely to be wanting a friendly personalised service from their local retailer. If your business shows up in a directory and there are no reviews, they are likely to turn to a competitor who has reviews. Optimise your local online marketing by asking customers to write good online reviews for these directories and make it easy for them to do so.
  3. Running a contest
    1. As shown by a few of these local businesses selected, competitions, especially for a local business, gets customers interested and involved. Customers like a locally run competition as there’s a higher chance to win as opposed to a big global business with millions of potential contestants etc.

Through targeted marking, it can assist to increase loyalty to your store and does not mean that price is always the deciding factor for loyalty, service and experience can negate the need to always be the lowest in price. Competing on price with competitors, as you are no doubt aware, is never sustainable in the long term as it chips away at your bottom line. With a loyal customer base, you can then concentrate on maintaining a quality service worthy of the price..

In fact, the Gartner Group found that 20% of your loyal customers generate 80% of your profits. Meanwhile, Marketing Metrics found that the chances of converting first-time customers is 5 to 20%, as compared to existing customers which is 60 to 70%. This is where effective local marketing to drive customer loyalty comes into play to increase your footfall, conversion rates and your average transaction value.

Loyal customers are more likely to check your campaigns as they already have experience with your business and are more likely to trust your product and services.

The secret to all marketing is getting the tone right and appealing to a diverse base of potential customers to visit your store, in addition to those who know or shop with you already. 

Use local marketing to talk about what makes you different, your approach, offers and more. Make sure your staff know what you are marketing to enable a seamless journey from what the customer sees and reads and translates into the experience they receive on your shop floor. Train your staff to mirror your local marketing in their approach with customers and set targets with staff to identify those who were attracted into the store through your advertising. Use this intelligence to know what is working effectively and maybe not so, to fine-tune and ensure your tone resonates with your customers.

With more consumers happy to shop locally, this trend will only continue if you offer the products and service that makes shopping local a pleasure and never a chore.

To read the full article please visit ERT

Photo by Rachel Hannah Photo on Unsplash

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Apr 11 2020
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Smaller suppliers need the support of big business like never before

Fresh Blog

Small British businesses are facing an existential crisis like never before on the back of COVID 19. Recessions bite slowly and in those circumstances small businesses can see and plan for every eventuality across sales, cashflow, headcount etc, but this virus has hit us like a bolt out of the blue and a lot of small businesses have seen revenue ravaged literally overnight and that’s both consumer and b2b.

So now more than ever big and small business need to work together.  This is no longer about David and Goliath, but the fabric of the business ecosystem that keeps this country afloat and people able to feed their families.  Often small businesses find themselves in situations where they are scared to ask for help or argue with big business in case they lose a contract – but this isn’t the time for self-deprecation, it’s fight for what’s right.

Big brands often have more support and cash to deal with such challenges yet many are pulling deals, campaigns and agreed contracts at a stroke.  And having been in this situation myself here’s my advice when faced with big brands not playing fair.

Practice what you preach:

If you own your own business, you are in charge of your own destiny and the people that work for you.  Rather than shareholders telling you what to do, in these unprecedented times, you do what’s right.  Be proud of the strategies you are implementing and articulate clearly to big business – especially if you’re currently operating not for profit so you can keep your team employed.

Scalability:

If big businesses want to stop contracts overnight, push them with alternative solutions like scaling down spend slowly rather than switching it off immediately, paying a proportion of fees for their next project.

Don’t believe the Hype:

Diageo has this week announced a $1million pot to help its on-trade customers through these difficult times, so it is possible for big business to put people before profit. Don’t be fobbed off, keep working with them on a solution that works for them and you.  They also have a moral duty and it’s incumbent on them to do their bit to support you.

Unscrupulous brands who turn their back on their responsibilities, relationships and partners are the brands that need to be called out. When they act in this manner, they also fail the consumer as the brand values that portray in their marketing are the antithesis of the brand values they trade on.

To read the full article please visit Fresh Business Thinking.

The photo that accompanies this article by fauxels from Pexels

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Mar 02 2020
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Why millennials are ignoring the environmental impact of online shopping

The Drum Blog

As high street retail continues to deplete and more people shop online, increasing to 19% of all retail sales in December 2019, a new report by retail marketing experts Gekko shows there’s increasing consumer concern about the environmental and societal impact of this transition and a marked difference in attitude depending on age.

The younger generation may tout their eco credentials but they are more easily lured into wasteful spending and shopping online with over half (53%) of 18-24 and 46% of 25-34 year olds admitting to being tempted into buying things they don’t need online, with just 19% of canny 55+ year olds saying the same.

More than five times as many 18-24 as 55+ year olds admitted to regularly buying goods online that they regret, so return them – 17% versus just 3%. And 45% of 18-24 and 42% of 25-34 year olds also admitted to being wasteful buying items they didn’t want and failing to return them, compared to only 17% of older consumers.

Surprisingly and despite the high profile of Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg, younger shoppers make less conscious choices than some may think about the environmental impact of online shopping versus older consumers. In general, 73% of consumers are concerned about excess packaging associated with online purchase and deliveries and 74% are worried about the amount of single use plastic in packaging.

However, just over a third (38%) of 18-24 and 33% of 24-35 year olds are unconcerned about the use of excessive packaging. This compares to 19% of over 55 year olds. And despite it being such a huge national issue and talking point over the last year, 34% of 18-24 year olds and 31% of 24-35 year olds aren’t concerned about single use plastic, versus 19% of over 55 year olds.

Even the gig economy does not seem to be a problem for the generation arguably most likely to be more exploited by it, with 50% of 18 to 24 years olds unconcerned about online shopping increasing it versus 33% of 55+ year olds. And 44% of 18-24 year olds don’t fret about the impact on the High Street and local economy of online shopping, versus 23% of 55+ year olds.

According to Daniel Todaro, MD of Gekko: “Younger generations spend more time online and are therefore less inclined to resist that impulse buy. They are far more likely to buy things they regret, order more than one size, items they never intend to keep and send the goods back, but this convenience has an environmental impact.

“The future of the High Street is a vital societal component and offers a more ethical approach to shopping. If you can try before you buy there’s less transport, packaging and waste without the need to order multiple sizes or colours of the same item. The High Street sustains the heart of a community, no shops means no point heading to the High Street – there’s only so much coffee a community can afford or want to drink.”

Please visit The Drum to read the full article.

The photo that accompanies this article is by Mister Mister from Pexels

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Jan 16 2020
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Live the Experience and Feel the Brand

gekko-retail-marketing-smart-home-tablet-phone

Henry Matisse once said “creativity takes courage” and we’ve certainly seen a lot of creative bravery from brands that now have an incredible marketing canvas on which to paint. It’s a great time to be a marketer, leveraging opportunity and enabling people to immerse and engage in what a brand has to offer. And this has seen some incredible business transformations, with brands rising out of the ashes to new-found fame whilst others find themselves, sadly, unable to capitalize.

Let’s take Gucci, for example, and think about where it would be without social media. Partnerships with the upper echelon of society and celebrities were no longer cutting it – Gucci is a beautiful, classic, heritage brand that had lost its relevance. But wait a few years, bring in the influencers, and Gucci is massively cool again. If Billie Eilish wears it, then who am I to judge?! And, of course, this is all backed up by expensive, gorgeous, and glamorous ATL activations.

However, one thing that these currently successful brands all appear to have invested in is the ‘brand experience store’ — and bringing marketing to life on the shop floor. If you’re going to buy a Gucci handbag that you see on Instagram, Facebook or TV, you’re certainly going to want to touch and feel it before you buy it. For some people, it may be like buying a high-street bag but for others this purchase will be a naughty bit of extravagance or a once-in-a-blue-moon treat.

Creative brand artistry needs to live in the ‘real world’ for consumers and to maintain longevity for a brand. Consumers need to be able to feel, see, touch, and engage with a brand and its products to truly buy into it, not just for one purchase. So, with brick and mortar retail struggling globally, it’s important that we hero its role for brands, consumers, the community, and society in general. In the UK, 78% of purchases are still made in physical retail — a figure that astonishes most people.

Retailers may have axed 85,000 UK jobs in the last year, according to the British Retail Consortium, and yes, it’s tragic, but a lot of the blame lies with those brands that didn’t have the agility to reimagine their business models quick enough, with too many stores and not enough experience. But juxtaposed against this — and interestingly alongside fashion and beauty brands which you’d expect — it’s the ‘technology super brands’ doing brand experience really well. The exact brands you think would shy away from a traditional retail presence are sharing their creative artistry and putting the customer experience at the core of their strategy.

Brands like Samsung, Microsoft, and Apple have invested heavily in their experience stores in prime retail sites. These stores are cool and innovative — mixing retail and leisure — showcasing full product suites, curating ambiance with luxury lounges, and most importantly ‘talent’. Those people who work on the shop floor, greet your customers, represent your brand and product portfolio every day and who drive sale through your product by creating interactions that are rewarding for everyone.

It was recently reported in The Times that Amazon, once deemed as fully responsible for the demise of the high street, is discreetly building a team of British property experts amid speculation that it will expand its physical presence. So, if the most successful online business, whose Amazon Go and Whole Foods brands are examples of physical retail, believes in bricks and mortar as part of their commercial strategy, then surely everyone else must?

It becomes too easy to believe the self-fulfilling prophecy that online shopping is perfect, and the high street is a busted flush. So, the moral of this story? Brands can spend as much money as they like creating extraordinary marketing artistry, but at some point this has to live in the real world, with real brand advocates in-store, selling your products, making the tills ring, and giving the customer an experience worth coming back for and spreading the word. People are never going to stop shopping on the high street; It’s just the way and where they are doing it that has changed. Retail, as an industry, is vital to the global economy, so as we enter a new era of brick and mortar retailing, my advice to brands is: Always let consumers ‘live’ the experience and feel your brand.

To read the full article please visit Branding Mag.

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Mar 11 2019
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The glue that connects all communities

ert blog

By riding a crest of goodwill, utilising new digital channels and tapping into the networks of big brands independent retailers can punch above their weight, boosting sales and awareness.

Independent retailers have long faced competition on multiple fronts. The big threat for many years were the big chains gobbling up the high Street. Now that threat has moved online with digital pure play sites like Amazon eroding market share. The truth is not many customers are particularly sentimental about the plight of some of the bigger chains in trouble. However, the threat to local stores from the likes of Amazon and Omni Channel retailers has been met with much more concern from the public and big brands.

A series of initiatives have sprung up in defense of these traditional bastions of the high street, from independent record store day to independent retailer month. Additionally, reports from organisations like the New Economic Foundation have highlighted the benefits to local communities from spending in independent shops versus bigger stores or online. These messages have cut through. A survey last year by Pure 360 found that consumers are three times more likely to shop in independent stores than large shops in the next five years.

This approach has been noted by large brands who have started to latch onto this trend to boost their own credentials and bottom line by supporting local independent retail. Visa chose to focus its Christmas campaign on local heroes and independent stores. Visa’s focus was on switching the focus of the traditional format of a Christmas marketing campaign, from what people are buying or who they are buying for, to where they are buying things from. American Express did their bit too, with a ‘Shop Local’ campaign that rewarded AMEX customers with a £5 statement credit for shopping in local independent stores.

The digital revolution may represent a major threat to independent retailers in terms of competition, it also represents a huge opportunity in terms of marketing. Independent retailers have always had an intuitive understanding of their customers and this can be bolstered by digital channels. While local newspapers may be closing, local newspaper websites are seeing more growth than ever in readers. The explosion of SMART phones has also led to a huge increase in the figures accessing local radio and content, another great route for independents to get their messages out. This is not to mention social media, both paid and organic with the ability to offer a micro-targeting strategy and hyper local personalisation, enabled by both Facebook and Google. Clued up retailers are seeing the benefit of connecting with increasingly online communities springing up.

In electronics particularly, many product brands are wising up to the opportunity and skill local independents possess. A great example of this is Freeview. The Freeview Retail Development Team are a strategic field team, supporting independent retailers across the UK. The team are unique in that they do not sell a specific product for a specific brand. Instead, the team supports all Freeview (including Freeview, Freeview HD and Freeview Play) enabled products across all brands and stores.

Where some brand teams are selective in their retail support, the RDE team’s brand independence means they can offer the best possible service for independent retailers, cooperating with OEM brands such as Panasonic, Humax, LG and Toshiba to deliver up-to-date training on all products and services.

As well as assisting retailers through training, the Freeview team also supports independents with local marketing campaigns, in the past having managed localised radio, press and social media campaigns supporting selected retailers with a Freeview focus.

Through long-term training support, local marketing campaigns, and regular visits to ensure all staff are knowledgeable on all aspect of the brand, they help to ensure that independents are the destination of choice for Freeview customers. They understand the fact that independents can provide the glue that connects local communities.

By focusing on their strengths, connecting with these bigger brands and tapping into the needs of their customers through targeted local advertising, independent retailers can grow as a destination of choice for customers and become their local hero.

To read the full article please visit ERT Online

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