In-Store Marketing Holiday Checklist: Part One

There are 26 full shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas (not counting Christmas Eve).  The relatively short holiday shopping season is approaching quickly.  Given its importance, many national retailers are already deep in the holiday planning process.

Independent retailers often require a smaller volume of materials and therefore have slightly more time to finalize plans.  However, it is never too early to begin strategizing.  Deloitte anticipates that holiday retail sales will reach between $981 and $986 billion.  This is an expected 4% to 4.5% increase for 2014.

How will you capture your share of the pie?

Do you have a holiday marketing plan in place?  If so, congratulations, you’re right on schedule.  If not, now is the time to start planning.  Here is a general guide for devising, finalizing, and executing your holiday in-store marketing plan.

Preliminary Planning

Begin by defining your objectives, audience, and budget.  You may want to increase sales, grow your customer database, or promote a specific product to a specific market segment. This is the first recommendation in nearly all of my posts.  However, given its importance, being repetitive in stating this is important.

Objectives, audience, and budget form the foundation for a successful in-store marketing plan. 

Next, review and evaluate your 2013 holiday marketing efforts.  Identify what worked, as well as what did not and why.  For example, did you execute a Black Friday promotion or percentage discount offer?  Was it successful?  If not, examine why.  Was the offer unappealing, not well promoted, or timed incorrectly?  The adjustment could be as simple as modifying the offer or promoting more aggressively.  The goal is to identify the areas with the most potential for ROI and invest budget dollars accordingly.

Explore your options.  Consider local holiday events.  Many neighborhoods with a strong sense of community and active Chamber of Commerce host events designed to drive holiday traffic to local businesses.  The City of Madeira, located just north of Cincinnati, does an excellent job of this.  The 2014 Madeira Chamber of Commerce calendar includes “Girls Night Out:  Holiday Edition” and “Shop Madeira:  Light Up Madeira”.  These well-marketed events allow retailers to leverage existing traffic.  Costs vary by community and may include sponsorship fees and/or a minor investment in refreshments for customers.  Check your local Chamber of Commerce web site for scheduled events.  Ask for references if you are uncertain about the event.  Our goal at this stage is to identify prospects and gather the information necessary to make an informed decision.

Next, gather your objectives, evaluations, and research.  Take some time to brainstorm prospective offers, events, and creative ideas.  Once these items are in place, think about how to promote them.  What types of in-store signage, packaging, direct mail, and social media programs will best reach your audience?  If you are fortunate enough to have an agency or consultant guide you through the brainstorm process, great.  If not, you may want to enlist the help of employees, friends, family, etc.  A neutral third-party will encourage you to consider all viable options without becoming emotionally attached to any particular concept.  Also, employees that routinely communicate directly with shoppers often have access to valuable feedback.  Last, as you know, good ideas can come from any source.

Finally, make a list of necessary materials, complete your “to do” list, and create a project timeline.  Include critical dates to complete artwork, order printed materials, and drop any mail pieces that are part of your plan.  Those who are tech savvy can use an Excel spreadsheet (useful for budgets), Outlook calendar, or “Siri” (great for reminders).  However, a paper and pencil will also do the job.  Note that the commitment to stick to the timeline is as important as the timeline itself.

Want more support on preparing for the holidays? Check out PART TWO of this article from Retail Minded here!

Contributed by Melissa Molymeaux, the Marketing Director for Boutique Vision. BoutiqueVision.com is an online source that provides high-quality, custom visual merchandising materials to independent retailers. Our mission is to provide the value of custom in-store marketing without high volume requirements or agency costs. Boutique Vision’s online catalog offers signage, sign fixtures, retail bags, and more. Users can upload original artwork or customize our professional signage templates. Our standard product offering includes the materials and sizes that are most common in the retail environment. However, we also accommodate custom orders whenever possible. Boutique Vision is owned and operated by InnoMark Communications (www.InnoMarkCom.com), a premier provider of visual merchandising solutions. The InnoMark team has been serving the mainstream retail industry for 20+ years. We are pleased to share our experience and expertise with small retail businesses through BoutiqueVision.com. We guarantee competitive prices, high-quality materials, and timely delivery.