Press Room: 04 Mar 10
RETAILERS - Creating a splash
Creating a splash
However unusual your stock and however well you display it, if you don’t actively promote your business you really are missing a trick in attracting potential new customers. There are many tools available to market a business, from traditional PR and advertising to the new ‘social media’ available online. Giftwrap spoke to some members to see what works for them and looks at the various methods at your disposal.
“Public relations can work very well to promote your business,” says Bonker’s founder, Lindsay Adam, “but you do need a story. You have to win something, like a retailing award, or have done something notable. I have a friend who is a PR and I use her on an ad hoc basis, when we have something to say.”
When it comes to having ‘something to say’ ‘Bonkers’ is well placed. Over the past few years this go-ahead retailer has won more than its fair share of accolades. Winning both the UK and Scottish Independent Gift Retailer of the Year Awards has brought it a presence that extends well past the High Street in St. Andrews where it is based.
Winning competitions and the resulting PR has also helped the gift shop at Pembroke Castle to promote itself. The castle uses a wide variety of promotional tools to attract tourists, but for Susan Bulkeley, its Retail Manager, it is important for the gift outlet to also engage with the local community. “We always join in the window competition organised by the local chamber of commerce. It’s great local publicity,” she says.
Getting involved in local or national competitions is certainly one way to achieve favourable PR but there are many other things retailers can do which will be of interest to the local press and getting to know journalists on your local papers is a must. Invite them along to any events you organise in your shop and keep them informed about any new and interesting products which you may be stocking – especially when they may be putting together special features for Christmas, Valentine’s Day or other special occasions. Most suppliers can let you have excellent product photographs and having these featured as editorial in your local press will certainly pay dividends.
Advertising in local newspapers or county magazines, is another option, although not all GA members are convinced of its efficacy. “All it has ever done for us is to bring in loads of telephone calls from other newspapers and magazines wanting us to advertise with them,” says Brian Wiseman of Present Company. Mike Linton of Cornucopia in Worcester is not much of a fan of advertising either, although his business has in the past taken space in the local country magazine and in a special Christmas magazine for the city. “It can be quite expensive and I’ve never felt it has done us much good,” he told me, “but perhaps you need to commit on a regular basis for it to work. One business for which advertising seems to work a little better is Bonkers who, Lindsey told me, do ‘a little’ with some success.
Bonkers is also a fan of the new media. “We keep in touch with our customers by email with ideas for things like Valentine’s Day and news about what’s new. We also have a Facebook page and are fans of Twitter,” says Lindsey.
Social Media is undoubtedly the coming thing but for the not-young it can be intimidating. The term describes any tool on the internet where people can interact with other people in a variety of ways. These tools are increasingly being adopted by companies to help their business interact with their customers, not least because nearly all sites are free to set up and use.
Giftwrap spoke Edward Elias of the London, Social Media Consultancy Quelea to find out which are the most useful online social media for a small business. Here are his suggestions:
Twitter: Twitter allows users to post a very short message (just 140 characters) about what they're doing. Any of their 'followers' can read this message - and you can read messages of people who follow you. It can also be used to post a link to a webpage or article that you think other people might find interesting, or that could be relevant to your field.
YouTube: Is a website where you can upload short videos. This could be useful if you wanted to have a short product demonstration, for example, and then you could point people to that video (or 'embed' it into a different webpage), or to have a slightly different sales pitch or advert online.
Flickr: is a free photo-sharing website. It may be useful to post pictures of your products there. For example, if you had produced a leaflet with some pictures of products in, you could suggest that people could see more pictures on Flickr. It may also be useful in that sometimes people search photo sites for pictures they might want to use - and if that's of your product, so much the better!
Blogging: There are lots of free, easy-to-use blogging sites. A blog is normally a fairly short piece, perhaps of no more than two or three hundred words - which allows a small business to have a personal voice. It also allows comments and feedback - so it could be used as a sounding board for an idea, perhaps ("What would everyone think if we brought out this product?"), or to get feedback on what the company's doing.
Facebook: Facebook is perhaps the most obvious and important site for a small business to join. Like the others mentioned here, it's free, easy to use, and allows you to put up information about your business online, complete with photos, links, phone numbers, plus any articles you might want to attach. People can become your 'friends' or 'fans', and it's very easy for them to recommend you to their friends so that they also become a 'fan' of your company. This is a great way to spread quickly any positive feedback or recommendations from satisfied customers.
For further advice and assistance on marketing contact Stephanie Hale at The GA on 0121 237 1149 or stephanie.hale@ga-uk.org
Edward Elias of the Social Media Consultancy ‘Quelea’ can be contacted at ed@quelea.co.uk or on 07731 399225.
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