This is the 7th article of Retail Store Marketing Guide.

Many retailers don’t realize the value of returning customers. National retail chains already have the latest CRM software and staff for data mining and follow up. Some of them do a great job to increase the returning customer rate.

As a local retail store owner, you can benefit from email marketing in two ways. You can bring in new customers to your store and also increase your returning customer rate via email marketing. Let’s talk about both options with some examples.

Bring in New Customers to Your Store via Email Marketing

Email marketing is an affective way of bringing in new customers to your retail store, and it has the highest long term ROI between all online marketing methods. Think about all the fairs you attend, local events you sponsor, or participate. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to ask for the email addresses of attendants. You can also use several online marketing methods to create quality, permission based email list to promote your retail store.

Remember the basic rules of email marketing. Your email list needs to be permission based, therefore no spamming is allowed. If you start sending spam emails to prospective customers who didn’t sign up for your list, it will hurt your brand more than it will benefit it.

Make a list of all possible occasions you can start asking people for their email addresses. In local events, running small drawings would be a good idea to increase the number of emails you collect. Enter your email address, and enter a drawing to win a t-shirt type of thing.

The key here is, to contact these people asap. If you have collected email addresses on Sunday during a local event, don’t wait for monday, send them a thank you email on sunday evening right after the event. Constantly keep in touch with an informative, quality newsletter.

If you run a quality and niche newsletter, they will stop by your store sooner than later. Remember, do not keep promoting your store on every email, do a soft promotion. Focus on the niche and the local events.

Increase Returning Customer Rate via Email Marketing

Once the customers are in your store, it’s easier to collect their email addresses. Kindly ask at the register if they like to be added to the email list to receive coupons and special news. You will be surprised how many positive responses you will get.

If you are having difficulty collecting email addresses by simply asking, try being creative and run promotions in the store to collect more email addresses.

Offer a last minute coupon at the register if they enter the email list, or a local event invitation if they accept to be in the list. Be creative, and come up with smart promotions within your niche and local culture to increase the signup rate for your email list.

Once you have their emails, similar to the first part, you need contact them and keep in touch frequently. But again, remember, do not bother them, offer them lots of quality and free content. Remember to check out my email marketing guide for further email marketing techniques.

If done right, email marketing is the gem of all online marketing methods. A quality, followed, smart email newsletter is a long term, recurring investment with a great ROI rate. Do it right the first time, and enjoy the benefits of email marketing for your local retail store.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Increase Retail Store Sales via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

This is the 6th article of how to increase traffic to retail stores series, and I have already received tremendous positive responses from local retail store owners. It means, I will not stop after 10 articles, and will keep sharing tips and help retailers survive during the recession.

Do You Use Local Directories to Advertise your Retail Store?

Many local business owners don’t understand the importance of online local directories. If you are not advertising at these directories, you are sending a large number of potential customers to your competitors.

It’s never too late, get to work, and start promoting your store on these directories.

Why Should I Advertise at Local Directories

1. Most of them are free. Only investment is your time.
2. They bring direct traffic to your retail store and your website.
3. They are great at organic search results. If your store name is there, your listing will pop up in many related local searches on Google, Yahoo, etc.
4. They have customer reviews. Customer reviews are an important for potential customers to make decisions.
5. Before the internet era; Yellow Pages, after the internet era; Online Local Directories. You just need to be there.

List of Local Directories

*Alphabetic
http://www.citysearch.com/
http://www.citysquares.com/
http://www.genieknows.com/
http://www.getfave.com/
http://www.hotfrog.com/
http://www.insiderpages.com/
http://www.judysbook.com/
http://www.kudzu.com/
http://www.local.com/
http://www.matchpoint.com/
http://www.mojopages.com/
http://www.superpages.com/
http://www.truelocal.com/
http://www.tupalo.com/
http://www.tyloon.com/
http://www.uscity.net/
http://www.yellowbot.com/
http://www.yelp.com
http://www.zoominfo.com/

Above is a list of few popular local directories. After adding your store’s details to these directories, you should search for other local and niche directories related to your retail store.

Here’s a tip to search for local directories on search engines:

Try these searches:

“your keywords” + “location” + directory
“your keywords” + “location” + “add url”
“your keywords” + “location” + “submit site”

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Most retail store owners do not blog. Because they have no clue how blogs can help them to increase their retail store sales and also bring secondary income.

I am not going to write about the basics of blogging, if you like to start learning more about blogging before you start, here’s a great guide by ProBlogger Darren Rowse. If you are serious about blogging, spend some quality time and read every single post before you start blogging.

After reading through Darren Rowse’s guide to blogging, you have a general idea about how blogs work and help in business. Now, let’s talk about how you can benefit with a blog as a retail store owner.

Choose Your Vertical and Become Authority

Choosing your vertical is the most important part. If you own a women’s fashion store, you can start a blog about Women’s Fashion. Or you can choose a location based vertical. Let’s say your store is in Dallas, Texas, and you can start a Dallas Shopping Blog. If you own a vitamin store, you can start a Vitamin & Health Blog, or if your store sells organic food, your blog can be Organic Food, Recipes, and Health.

Before you decide on your niche, take some time and search on Google for alternative blogs in the same niche. Create a list of what they do and what they don’t do right. Also make sure you will enjoy writing about the niche you pick. You don’t want to start a blog, write daily for a few weeks, and let it die. Blogging needs constant attention and time. Do you have enough time and courage to write frequently?

Another very important point to consider is your language. I’d highly recommend using a personal tone instead of a promotional tone. Try not to promote your store or yourself until you become authority in the field. Your first goal should be create a community of followers who’d love to read your new posts, subscribe to your RSS and email lists.

You did your research, you believe you can spend the time to write a blog, you have picked your niche and started blogging. Now let’s talk about the benefits you can get as a niche blogger and retail store owner.

Benefits of Blogging for Retail Store Owners

1. Authority & Recognition

Whatever your niche is, creating an authority blog in your vertical will start bringing direct and indirect benefits. When you blog, always keep in mind, you want to be the most trusted blogger in your niche.

2. More Foot Traffic to The Store

You are writing your blog as yourself, and sharing daily challenges in your store also. When you start forming that special bond between yourself and your audience, you will start getting more traffic to your retail store. Now, you have a place to tell your followers about the specials, promotions, deals and events you run at your retail store. Nowadays, people are spending less, and you should try every marketing method to drive more traffic to your retail store to survive.

3. Secondary Income

Other than bringing in more people to your retail store and increasing your reputation in the niche, you will start making extra money through your blog. There are many different ways to monetize a blog. If your content is quality and your blog traffic is increasing, you have a fair chance of getting sponsors to your blog, and create a secondary income through your blog.

Writing a quality blog, and becoming an authority in the niche is more important than ever. I have given only a few, simple examples of how you can benefit from a blog as a retail store owner. Depending on your niche, you can add many other options to this list.

Whether your retail store is doing well or not, start a blog and start creating your community of followers. A quality blog will bring value and reputation to your business and your name in the market.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Before the internet era, it was hard to get your company mentioned on local or national media. You needed connections, a PR firm working for you, or even a full time staff to contact the media one by one.

When press release distribution has become a part of online marketing, these rules have changed. With the press release distribution sites, you need a good story and you need to know how to submit it to these sites.

I’m just a local retail store owner, how can I make national news with my story?

From a small story worth mentioning on a local paper to a true well crafted story worth mentioning on national media, you have a fair chance to get publicity if you know what you are doing.

Tips to Write a Great Press Release for Retailers

1. Research What Others are Doing

Before finding a topic for your press release, start researching on press release websites about what other popular press releases are. This will give you some great ideas to pick the right topic.

2. Write a Unique Story Instead of a Press Release

If you try to come up with an idea for a press release, you might get stuck. Instead, try to come up with a unique story. Unique and personal stories always get attention.

3. Which Local Stories Get Your Attention?

When you read the daily paper, or watch the news, what type of local stories get your attention immediately? Also ask the people around you for their favorite local story they have read or watched recently. This will help you to come up with some great ideas for your press release.

4. An Ordinary Story for You Might Be Interesting for Others

Let’s explain this with an example. You own a retail store in New York City. One of the popular TV Shows was shot in or in front of your store. This might be ordinary for you since many movies are shot in the city, but it might be a great press release if crafted and written well.

5. Hot Topics Always Sell

Nowadays, recession is the hot topic. People want to read stories related to recession. You might come up with a great story how you have doubled your store’s sales during the recession, or something similar.

6. Never Underestimate the Power of Local Media

A story you have might not be suitable for national media, but it might be a great fit for the local paper. You’d be surprised how much free retail traffic you might get with a successful local press release.

7. Blogs Rule, and It’s Easier to Get Featured On a Blog

Blogs, specifically niche blogs related to what you sell might be great places to share your press release. If they like the press release, they might come up with their own stories, and send you tons of targeted traffic.

8. Target Vertical Niches

Let’s say you own an auto parts store. Instead of writing a press release related to auto parts and your store specifically, come up with a story similar to “Smart Consumers Save 40% by Changing Their Cars’ Oil Themselves”. This idea just came to my mind, if you spend time, and be creative you can come up with many ideas focusing on vertical niches and interests instead of products you sell.

9. Expert Thoughts & Statistical Data

Media outlets absolutely LOVE press releases with statistical data, I mean any type of data. Let’s say you have a Vitamin Store, and you’ve received the monthly press release from FDC about Vitamin A usage. Come up with a story, add your expertise and write a press release like; “The Reason Americans Consumed 20% Less VitaminA This Year”. National media loves this type of press releases. Do not promote your store, instead add your title, name, and store name in the resource box.

Being creative and unique, you have come up with a great story for your press release, wrote it and got it edited by a professional writer. The next step is distributing it to the right contacts.

Tips to Distribute a Press Release

1. Use a PR Firm

If you have the budget, using a PR firm might the best option. Established PR firms have some tight connections with media outlets. Keep in mind that some PR firms have fee structure where you pay when your story is published.

2. Submit to Press Release Websites

This is your best option if you have a low or zero budget for the press release marketing. Most of the press release websites let you submit your story for free, and some of them charge to feature it.

3. Contact Media Outlets Yourself

What are you going to lose? You can start creating a list of media outlets, and contacting them one by one. Remember to contact the bloggers in your niche also. You can also use this option along with submitting to press release sites.

4. Use Social Media

Whether you submit your press release yourself or get help from a professional, remember to promote it through the social media channels. Remember, most of the journalists are using social media. Make a list, start following them (on Twitter, Friendfeed, etc.), you might get their attention.

Checkout some of these lists of free press release websites (1),(2)

I hope some of these tips will help you create a successful Press Release Marketing Campaign. Remember to share your success stories at the comments section.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Coupon Marketing Tips for Retail Store Owners

• Do you believe coupons are old school and dead?
• Do you assume shoppers who use coupons are cheap?
• Do you think coupons might hurt your business?

Think again…

Experts say, coupon usage is rising in the US, even among young adult consumers who may not have used them before. Among more than 5,400 consumers surveyed across the US in November 2008, 88% said it was more important to save money now than in the previous year, with many looking for a bargain with coupons, according to Valassis (NYSE:VCI) , a Michigan-based marketing company that provides print and online coupons. The survey found 41% spent between 10 minutes to an hour each week seeking coupons.

According to a Dec. 10, 2008 comScore report, coupon use grew 63 percent for the one week period beginning Dec. 1, 2008 compared to the first week of December 2007 as a source of referral for ecommerce sales. Coupons represented 1.8 percent of all sources of referral for ecommerce sales, comScore said. Similarly Google Insights for Search tracked a 51 percent growth in searches for the keyword “coupon” in December 2008 compared to December 2007.

If you are looking for a recession proof marketing method, coupons are your best bet.

Things to Consider Before Starting Your Coupon Marketing

• If your margins are already tight, consider upping your prices before creating your coupon marketing plan. Yes, you want more customers, but you don’t want to lose money after all, right?
• Create a system where you can track your ROI with each marketing channel for your coupon marketing. Many retail POS systems allow you to create trackable coupons with barcodes. If your POS software doesn’t let you create coupons, find another online solution, and teach your staff how to enter the coupons into the system. Any marketing campaign without proper tracking system is a failure from the start.
• Dedicate at least one part-time staff for coupon marketing, and include the cost of staff within your coupon marketing finances.

Now, you are ready to start your coupon marketing. Our ultimate goal is to bring in more foot traffic to the store, and increase sales. Come up with as many coupon options as possible such as dollar off certain amount, percentage off, combinations, etc.

Coupon Marketing for Retail Stores

1. Advertise at Coupon Sites

There are literally thousands of coupon sites. Specifically, search for “in store coupons”, “printable coupons”, etc. to find sites offering in store coupon listings, and start posting your coupon codes.

2. Advertise at Local Classifieds Sites

We have already talked about Craigslist Marketing for Retail Stores. Craigslist is a great place to advertise your in store coupons for free.

3. Use Related Forums & Blogs to Advertise Your Coupons

Related forums and blogs are targeted traffic for your store. Do not spam, write friendly, and explain your store and post your coupon codes to these communities.

4. Start a Niche Coupon Site

Take your coupon marketing plan one step further, and start a coupon site specifically to your niche. There are many general coupon sites, but very few niche specific coupon and deal sites are out there. This might be a great way to increase traffic to your store, and also create a secondary income stream through this site. If you have enough resources to create a niche coupon site, I’d say, go for it.

5. Use Your Email List to Promote Coupons

You have a targeted, quality, double opt-in email list, right? This is the best place to advertise your daily/weekly coupons. If you don’t have a targeted email list, start building now.

Above are just a few examples of where you can promote your coupon marketing. Be creative and come up with niche specific ideas to promote your coupons all over the internet.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Craigslist Marketing for Retail Stores

Craigslist should be your best friend if you are a local retail store owner, especially during these tough days.

You might say, “Craigslist is an online classifieds site, I think it hurts my local business, how will it help?”.

Yes, if you don’t use it, or if you don’t know how to use it right, it might hurt your business. But if you start taking advantage of the limitless opportunities on Craigslist, it will be your best friend during these tough times.

Let me share some creative and successful Craigslist Marketing ideas that I have been implementing for my own businesses, and for my clients for years (*I’ll use Craigslist New York in the examples since it’s my local area, change it to your local area while implementing these. Also, keep in mind some of these techniques might be called as “Gray Hat Marketing” Techniques, so use them at your own risk):

1. Post products for sale at Craigslist For Sale section:

Do not advertise your store name, it will get flagged. Post a picture, price and a short description (mention if it’s brand new or not), then wait them to contact you. When they do, either email them back or tell them on the phone, you are a local retail store, and make them visit your store. You will be surprised with the amount of positive response, store traffic and new customers you will get, if you do this right.

2. Use Craigslist Free Section Wisely:

Free section is one of the most visited sections on Craigslist. If you use it wisely, you can get so much foot traffic to your store you’d be surprised. Here’s the basic idea. Create/Pick a cheap promotional product to give away for FREE. No gimmicks, no tricks, offer it completely FREE. And advertise it on Craigslist Free Section. Again, do not advertise your store name. Mention the free product and address, tell them come and pick it up (just like a regular free ad). When they come over to your store, put up signs on the window for “FREE XYZ”, and give it away for free. They will be in the store, they will most likely buy something else. Remember to make them fill a short form “name, email” before picking up the form. Now, you start creating your targeted email list. This is GOLD. Setup an autoresponder, and send them an email that night, thanking them for coming in for the promotion, and kindly ask them if they like to be included in your VIP email list to get early notices for next promotions (double opt-in), most of them will say yes. Next time, you run any type of promotion, you have a targeted, local, valuable email list you can advertise to for absolutely FREE. Offering a free promotional product is only one idea to use Craigslist’s Free section. Be creative, come up with other ideas. Trust me, there are many more.

3. Craigslist Local News Section:

Any sale you do, any promotion you run, any news worth reading, post it to Craigslist Local News section. If you are a family owned business, mention it again and again. If you ran a promotion the previous day using the Craigslist Free section, post at Local News section as a success story. Write it personal, not promotional, just like you are writing to a friend or family member. Remember, these are the tough days, you need to treat your customers just like you treat your friends. Come up with creative ideas and stories. If you have recently renewed your store lease for 10 years, come up with a story to write, mention your previous 10 years, how you love that location, how you create jobs for the local community, and why you want to be there 10 more years, and post this story to the news section. Anything you do in the store, if tailored right, might be a story worth posting on the local news section. Use it to share with the local community and create a bond with them.

4. Craigslist Local Events Section:

Since you are a local retail store, you must be a part of the local community. Create events that attract local community and advertise at Craigslist Local Events section. Let the local community know that you care about the community. Let’s give an example. You town’s high school football team won the state. Create a celebration party in your store. Invite the team members, families, and everybody in the town. Offer free drinks, appetizers, and advertise heavily on Craigslist and elsewhere. The cost will be worth and you will bring in so many new people to your store otherwise would never come.

5. Craigslist Volunteers Section:

I own a commercial business, why should I use the volunteers section to advertise? If this is what you think, you have to change your way of thinking and start being creative in marketing both online and offline. Run a charity event (e.g. 10% of the sales will go to support local library on next Saturday), and ask people to volunteer to help. Post it to Volunteers section on Craigslist as well as events, small biz ads, etc. Think hard now, and you will come up with dozens of ideas to use Craigslist Volunteers section for your local store.

There are literally tens of other ways to promote your retail store on Craigslist, absolutely for FREE. So, spend some quality time on Craigslist, check out what others are doing (in bigger cities, etc.) and start implementing these Craigslist Marketing techniques right now. If done right, these techniques will increase the foot traffic to your store, and will create a bond with you as a local business owner and your local community.

Did you try any of these Craigslist Marketing Techniques successfully to increase your retail store’s foot traffic? Share your experience at the comments section below, and help other local retail store owners survive during the recession.

Craigslist is the most visited local classifieds site online, but remember to use the same marketing techniques to increase foot traffic to your retail store at other local classifieds sites such as; Kijiji, Oodle, Backpack, etc. More sites, more ads, more traffic, and more sales to survive during the recession. Good luck.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other articles in this guide to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Generate Free Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Google Local Ads

Online shoppers usually start their research on Google search. Many of them search for the product within their local area. Here’s an example:

Google shows local search results along with a Google Map above the organic search results (in most searches). And, here’s the best part; It’s totally FREE to include your retail store website to the Google local search results.

Don’t even waste another minute if you are not already listed, go to Google Local Ads Center, add your retail store website, if you don’t have one, create a 1 page site with phone number, directions, and a few store pictures. DO IT NOW.

Best Practices to Create a Google Local Ad

• Title is the most important part. Remember to include your main keywords (product, brand, etc.) to the title.
• Complete all the fields during the registration (store hours, payment types, store pictures, product tags, etc.)
• Customer reviews are important. Encourage your customers to write a review for your Google listing.
• Double check your address at Google Maps, make sure it is correct, and remember to include a store phone number.

Google Local Ads is the easiest and one of the most effective ways to increase your retail foot traffic right away without any cost.

You can also create free local search listings at Yahoo Local and MSN Live Search Maps. They work very similar to Google Local Ads.

*This article is a part of 10 article series; “10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing“. Remember to read the other online marketing methods to increase your store’s foot traffic and sales.

Giant retail chains going bankrupt, small retailers suffering from the recession, many retailers are desperate to find alternative solutions to increase foot traffic to their retail stores. Days are tough in the retail industry, every dollar spent on advertising and marketing is more important than ever now.

US foot traffic at major shopping centers and retail stores for the month of February fell by 9.3 % compared to January, while sales dropped 1.5 % for the same period, according to ShopperTrak RCT Corp. Foot traffic in January 2009 was 12.9% down compared to previous month also.

Unfortunately, good & old days are over for retail stores. Competition is much harder than ever now. As a retail store owner, especially for small retailers, you have two choices:

Either Give Up, and join the thousands of retailers going out of business or play the game with the new rules to survive and even grow your business.

There are literally tens maybe hundreds of ways to increase foot traffic to your retail store, but I will show you only 10 most effective ways to do this via online marketing. If you use your creativity, you can come up with many other ideas with these start points.

Since I wanted to explain these methods in depth specifically for retail store owners, I have written 10 separate articles for each marketing method.

10 Ways to Get Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Online Marketing

1. Generate Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store via Google Local Ads
2. Increase Sales and Foot Traffic of Your Retail Store via Craigslist Marketing
3. Increase Your Retail Store Sales via Recession Proof Coupon Marketing
4. Free Foot Traffic via Press Release Marketing for Retailers
5. Benefits of Writing a Blog for Retail Store Owners
6. Advertise at Online Local Directories to Increase Retail Foot Traffic
7. Increase New & Returning Customers to Your Store via Email Marketing
8. Create a Customer Review Site to Increase Retail Store Traffic
9. Host Local Meetups to Generate Foot Traffic to Your Retail Store
10. Start a Niche Shopping Directory to Increase Your Retail Store Sales

These are 10 main online marketing methods I personally use to help my retail store owner clients to increase their foot traffic. The best part is you can start implementing all of these techniques for FREE (or with a very small investment).

Start implementing these online marketing techniques to increase your retail store’s foot traffic, and share your own methods of increasing foot traffic via comments below. Economy is tough, and we all want local retail stores survive during the recession. Good luck.