Who works at your store?

I meet lots of retailers every month. In almost every conversation, store staffing comes up because it is such a critical issue. These retailers share stories (some good, some not so good) and usually point to having 2 different types of employees in their store. Which employees do you have working in your store today? Employee #1 looks at the clock longing for quitting time, doesn’t move from behind the register when there are no customers in the store, and has little interest in helping grow/build sales with any customer. Employee #2 is constantly busy doing tasks (some assigned, some on their own) that make the store achieve sales goal faster, make the store cleaner or run more efficiently. This employee is always asking what else can be done to help make the business better. Of course, we’d all like to have a store full of #2 employees all the time because we know that we would have the running smoothly and that sales would be humming along- even if you didn’t go in to the store for weeks on end. So how do you find employees that are constantly engaged with the business and who are looking to make your store the best it can be every time they work? YOU DO. Your leadership and training from the first day they step into the store sets the tone for their success. YOUR training makes the difference. Today we share tips for creating top-notch employees who are as committed to your store’s success as you are 1) Make your employees THE KEY part of your store success. Share overall store goals and missions with all associates every day so they know what is expected. 2) Create a new employee handbook (can be as small as 2-4 pages) Use this book to share goals and expectations from their first day of work. These can be dress codes, hourly sales goals or any departmental responsibilities they have. 3) Lead by example. Be on the floor to show them how to work with customers, teach them to merchandise the selling floor and windows and how to close a sale properly. 4) Have a sales book at the register with financial goals for every day. Make sure every associate knows the goal from the time the store opens. 5) Track sales results during the day. (Or have your manager do it – show that making goal is priority one EVERY day.) 6) Let your employees know that they must be creative and deliver contingency plans if sales are not trending toward daily goals- empower them to do small things to boost sales in the middle of the day. 7) Announce sales results daily. Praise associates for making goals, work on re-strategizing if sales are down to plan. 8) Give every associate an area of responsibility in the store. Wiping shelves in a certain department, cleaning cash wrap, front door or windows. Everyone is responsible for how the store looks. Not just you. (Rotate tasks if some are more tedious than others.) These are just a few tips to get your associates on board for your stores success. They are not the only ones. Share with us what you do to keep your associates motivated and delivering results. We’d love to hear.

Blog your way to new retail customers today

As we wind our way thru our March Marketing madness, we continue with todays' the retail tip of the day. Today we offer up a powerful communication tool for your retail business. The blog. Think of a blog as an online journal where thoughts are communicated and comments are posted by readers. It's like an online conversation. Through blogging, you can engage key audiences directly in fast, honest, conversations and while setting up a blog does have an initial time investment, it can be very effective for your business- no matter what size it is!



Why should your business create and keep a blog in it's marketing cache? 

• A blog is a place where you can share information with customers very quickly. You can also use a blog to generate interest with potential customers and even future employees. By writing a blog on behalf of yourself or your busiess, you can demonstrate your passion and more importantly, your knowledge and expertise on behalf of your business.
• Blogs can help market new products, services or events you have going on at your store on a regular basis. 
• And one of the most important aspects of keeping a blog for your business is that you show the readers the personality of your business. Today, retail is entertainment for many customers, and using a blog to showcase the personality of your store can have customers and potentail customers lining up to see what you have to offer.
• Maintaining an effective blog with effective inbound and outbound links can naturally help improve your search engine ranking

Note of caution: Blogging isn’t right for every store, so it’s consider your objectives and your target audiences carefully before beginning the endeavor.  If you decide you've got information that your customers are looking for, and that you have the time to write and coordinate the blog (or the employees who can help you maintain the blog)  then by all means, add it to your marketing tool box. A blog can be a powerful and effective tool to help your retail business prosper.

All Aboard The Social Media Train....

Congratulations. You've decided that March 2011 is the year you're going to embrace social media and start using it to help your business grow. That's perfect because today's retail tip of the day can help you understand what your challenges might be (or should we call them opportunities to overcome) as you look to implement usage of social media for your business.

1.Strategy first. Using Social media is not a case of build it and they will come. As with any marketing endeavor, you must begin with a strategy that defines your company goals and outcomes.  Ironically, the social media tools are not complex however it’s developing the strategy and finding time to commit to it that sinks many companies starting out. Don’t let this happen to your company.

2. Abolish the fear of transparency.  Anyone who has joined CBCG for a seminar knows we believe that this one is key to your success. As you seek to engage your customers in your social media activities, you may also receive some critical reviews of your brand. Do not hide behind your cyber walls. Acknowledge your failings in the public forum and try to right the wrongs as best you can. You may not ever completely resolve the disgruntled voice, but those who see the interactions and how you are trying to correct the situation will be most pleased with your words.

3. Stand out from the crowd.  Yes, you must have a strategy, but don’t forget, we’re talking about marketing here so you must create activities with your social media marketing that create  differentiation among your peers and help your customers see the value in your company and brand!  

4. Givers gain. Companies must learn that using social media isn’t just about constantly selling your brand. They must learn to have a shared communication with customers and give information that your customers find useful.  Think about a cocktail party- if you listen to someone constantly talk about themselves, you are looking for the exits in a hurry, but if they engage in a two way conversation with you, it’s much more interesting and potentially rewarding.

5.Create Value. It matters to your customers. Make sure you use social media to help your company showcase the value in your brand. It’s not just being there that matters, it’s about delivering value in the eyes of your customers on a consistent basis that separates you from your competitors on a consistent basis.

Knowing the pitfalls can help you as you look to navigate the social media waters. Don't forget the advisors we mentioned last week who can also help you stay focused by offering information, education and inspiration on a daily basis thru their writings.

Do you have a retail social media strategy?

 

In today's retail tip of the day, we want to help you create a working social media marketing plan for your business. Like any good marketing plan, a social media marketing strategy also requires planning, preparation and the right tools, but if you have a well defined plan, you can focus your time to help produce maximum marketing effectiveness for your business.

Where should you be? The first thing you must do is to decide where you should concentrate your social media efforts. For most retailers today, creating a Facebook Fan page is a good place to start. This will give you access to more than 600 million potential people-- both around the world, and around the corner from your retail store. If however, your business targets a very young audience, perhaps using videos on You Tube and using location based marketing programs such as Foursquare or Gowalla would be a good choice.

Remember, the right answer may be to participate in more than one place on social media at a time and have different messages running to attract different audiences on those media sites. You will have to create specific messages for each media to insure they hit the correct target audiences needs.

What is our company goal using social media?  Once you decide where to be, then you must decide what your goals are and determine how to measure those goals. Your social media goals should be tied to your overall business goals? Ie. Do you want more market share for your business? Then your social media goal should be to gain follwers who may then turn into potential customers for the business.

Warning: Many retailers plan a sales increase as their "goal" for using social media. This can be risky. If you focus your efforts on creating mini advertisements all the time and do not work to engage your audience, you run the risk of turning them away from your business permanently. Build credibility and trust first. Then, and only, then, talk about your products in a selling manor.

What will we say about/for our business using social media?

Think of social media sites as another extension of your store selling floor. No matter what social media tools you choose to use, each one offers a chance to engage with customers in a venue that is their choice. (Remember, the reason social media is such a powerful marketing tool is that your customers find YOU there andthey seek to find more information about YOUR store. Unlike the old days of marketing where you placed a message and hoped they found the ad where you placed it!)  If you have a brick and mortar loation, and you are using social media correctly, your customers should get the same feeling when engaging with you online. So if you're funny in the store, you should show that same personality on Facebook or Twitter or your blog.

The goal is to share information, gain the trust and credibility of your followers and to engage them further with your brand to establish or maintain their loyalty.  

A good rule of thumb for posts (what to say) is the 40/30/30 rule. Spend 40% of your time sharing "personal" type information with followers. No, not your street address, but things like market trips, events in town, employee birthdays, customers of the week, etc. Your goal in this phase is to make yourself and your store human so you can build trust.

The next 30% of posts should be about sharing information. This is where you share knowledge- or share other industry experts knowledge with your fans/followers. This establishes that you are credible in your industry and you are doing them a favor by culling all relevant industry information for them. Even if you haven't written the article, your fans will appreciate that you saved them time and found them valuable, interesting information.

Then finally after credibly and trust are established, you can talk (ie.sell) for your business in the final 30% of your posts. If you've done the first two phases well, they will be engaged and want to learn more about the products you sell, the events you are having, etc.  While it may seem like a long time to get to the sales aspect of the business, think about when a customer walks in the front door. You never start out by saying "Can ring that up for you when they walk by the first table or rack, right?" It's the same with social media. Start with "small talk" then build to the sale!

 

How will I measure the results of my time and effort on social media? After spending your time and energy (the good news with social media is that there are less dollars spent than with traditional marketing mediums, but there is the time factor involved) you want to measure results against factors that will drive your bottom line. With every social media site you use, there are analytics that can help you measure your results. Some of them are shown in overall numbers such as the total number of fans, followers or blog readers you have. If you grow these numbers, than you know that more potential customers are following your business.

The next set of analytics involve the content that you publish. In essence, the more views, posts, or people commenting back, mean that your information caught their attention and you have successfully '"engaged" your audience. That is your goal!! Some potential measurement tools for you to review on a regular basis include the number of video or other content views, volume of user comments posted to your blog or fan page, number of re-tweets of your content.

Social media is a fun, engaging, low cost marketing tool which can and should be part of any retailers marketing program today.  The key is to create a strategy that ties to the overall goals of your business and engages your followers with your brand on a regular basis.