Big companies can teach SMEs some relevant lessons in branding and customer retention. Here's how to make your business as successful as the high street giants
It's not all doom and gloom on British high streets. Tills are still ringing for the retailers who have worked out the formula to convert footfall into hard sales.
The 'death of the high street' label does not apply to stores that can evolve fast enough to compete with online retail. And these success stories can act as blueprints for smaller retailers looking for a piece of the action - and a share of the profits.
The principles of retail success come down to volume of sales and profit margins, but the ingredients for success start with location, location, location.
Whether you're a vintage clothing boutique or a technology giant, get the location of your store right and you'll not only get footfall, but the right audience too - whether the target market is students, professional women or men, young families or retirees.
Get to know your customers
Knowing your audience is crucial, and products stocked must be relevant. There's no point trying to sell organic baby food to students or surround-sound systems to pensioners.
Some big retailers collect postcodes and email addresses from willing customers, and log their purchases. Not only does this help customers easily identify their favourite products when they return, it's also useful market research that enables retailers to keep track of who's buying what, whether or not they'll buy the same product again and how often they return to stock up.
Fortunately for smaller retailers, getting to know your customer doesn't mean commissioning market research costing thousands of pounds. It can be a simple case of collecting data via an emailed survey, in-store or making the most of free social media polls.
Make sure customers return
Large retailers know that keeping customers loyal is far less expensive than attracting new ones, which is why customers will often be asked to join a brand's loyalty scheme, entitling them to discounts or free gifts after a certain number of purchases.
Smaller retailers can implement loyalty incentives too – and rewards don't have to be pricey. Perks can benefit the retailer as much as the customer.
A branded canvas shopping bag, for example, is not only useful, but free advertising for the retailer. Another idea is inviting loyal customers to an exclusive out-of-hours shopping event, with a 10-20% discount on purchases on the night, and you have a captive audience to show off your latest stock to.
Brand consistency
Forging a strong brand with a consistent message will help secure repeat custom. The more recognisable your brand and the clearer the ethos, the more consumers will invest in it. Ben & Jerry's ice cream is a good example. The brand is quirky, humourous and underpinned by support for good causes like their 'happy cows' campaign and commitment to recycling, green packaging and fair trade.
The importance of branding can be overlooked by small businesses, but is relatively cheap to implement. Keep logos and pantones consistent across all channels, from your shop fascia and product price tags, to your website, social media profile pages and any marketing material. The same rule applies for the tone of any copy used in advertising campaigns, and on your website.
Small bricks and mortar retailers should take online retail just as seriously as webtailers. Websites and social media channels can be looked upon as additional shop windows, enabling retailers to reach a much larger audience, including overseas customers. With that is the potential to seriously boost profits.
It's also important to look at ways to enhance traffic to your website, which can be done with a clever SEO strategy. Adwords can add to your costs, but regularly updating your site with unique content, fully optimised with relevant key words and phrases, is completely free of charge. Likewise, social media, if done properly and updated routinely, can drive traffic to your site and costs nothing.
The key to retail success isn't down to how much cash is behind your brand. Work clever and get the basics of retail right - from your website to your in-store sales approach. You'd be amazed how many small, and large, businesses get them wrong.
Chris Masterson is the CEO of shopper marketing agency Mesh Marketing
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