• Kevin Natapow

 

This is always a very difficult expense to track, unlike inventory, we are not able to often directly track the impact of our marketing and advertising dollars spent. That being said, I think there are some effective ways to maximize your dollars spent in these areas with closer ways to track their impact.

 

Many of you have heard me say this before, but I am not a huge advocate of print media and conventional advertising. Again, that is not to say you should never do it but pouring your money into newspaper/magazine ads, in my opinion, is not only ineffective but next to impossible to track. Many newspapers and especially magazines, do not like or allow ads that offer a discount, etc. So unless you are asking every customer what brought them in today and they are giving you and honest answer, you likely will never know if that ad in the monthly local magazine reached them.

 

As I often say in my workshops, plan on spending 6-8% of projected sales in year one to build brand recognition and 4-6% in subsequent years (less if you are in a high foot traffic area). That being said, HOW you spend that money and categorize it in your expense accounts can vary greatly. For example, we did VERY little print advertising (a few special events 1-2X’s year) and did 2 annual NPR underwriting bits. The NPR was expensive and still hard to track but we did notice a lot of verbal comments appreciating our support of NPR and general comments like, “I heard you on NPR this morning”. Again, not a direct conversion of $ but good to know people heard it and that they appreciated it. Instead, we poured our $ into what we considered guerilla marketing.

 

We still spent 5.5% in 2012 on marketing and advertising but this is how it broke down:

 

Advertising

Radio- 0.1%

Print- 0.8%

 

Marketing

Newsletter- 0.1%

Print Materials- 0.3%

In-Store Events- 0.2%

Customer Rewards- 3.9%

 

So what does that mean, we spent money on our loyal customers. We developed a rewards program, called the Momentum Membership. In 2013 when we sold our store there were over 11,000 members. Members were mailed a $15 Gift Certificate and birthday card every year on their birthday. An additional benefit is a $50 store credit for every $500 spent, which was tracked automatically in our POS system.  Customers benefit from membership in this free program and Momentum also benefits by being able to track sales and trends in customer purchasing. Thanks to the program, best customers were not only known (their name popped up on the screen and employees were able to put names to faces) but they were also rewarded for their patronage.

 

Beyond that program, we would appreciate the top customers quarterly by mailing hand written thank you letters and 20% off coupons which had a note on them that helped us track their rate of return.

 

  1. What POS did you use to track your shoppers? 2nd question – does anyone know if this is available with Quickbooks POS?

 

 

  • Kevin Natapow

 

It is- QB POS is what we used and it is called their rewards program. Many POS systems have some sort of program that can track and reward customer and that is a critical question to answer if you are shopping for a POS system. Also, I think it is only available with the PRO version of QBPOS

 

  1. Tracking marketing success is very possible these days, especially if you have an online store, but also for brick and mortar. You can use google analytics and also the analytics on a newsletter like Constant Contact to see what people are interested and how those clicks contribute to sales.

 

  1. Not Basic version- QB POS

 

 

  • Kevin Natapow

 

Help me- I can’t find the dislike button

 

  1. Indeed

 

  1. How do you track how clicks contribute to sales in a brick and mortar?

 

  1. If you are doing a particular promotion for a product or several products, and you see a correlation between clicks on that item and an increase in sales for the item over the course of the campaign, it’s a safe bet that there has been some impact.

 

  1. Thoughts on comparative time spent on instagram and pinterest and facebook? We could spend hours on any one

 

 

  • Kevin Natapow

 

I think FB and IG can be more effective in reaching customers and drawing them in but I also never dealt much with Pinterest. I always used it for VM ideas…

 

  1. Instagram can save time for you if you start there because it will automatically post on Twitter and Facebook.

 

  1. If you have time though, you should always post different content on IG and FB and Twitter. Otherwise there is no reason to follow you on the different platforms. Additionally, the audience for each of those platforms is typically very different

 

 

  • Kevin Natapow 

 

Exactly- use tools that minimize your time managing these multiple platforms and spend that time with customers in your shop!

 

  1. You can Pin an item and credit your store, especially if you have an on line presence you can reach around the planet!

 

To clarify with Pinterest you are pinning a photo on a board (which you can have many). Others see your Pin because they follow, like the theme or are searching. So, you Pin the felted hot pads from Ganesh Himal Trading and it spreads.

 

  1. pinterest isn’t something that we are using as a wholesaler. Do you follow many wholesalers on Pinterest?

 

  1. No I don’t follow any wholesalers. I have found someone of interest on Etsy through a Pin. I was searching by keyword. I’m just saying it’s another vehicle.

 

  1. I follow any of my vendors/wholesalers/artists who are on Pinterest including Mata Traders, Mira Fair Trade, Global Mamas, Dsenyo. Just another way for me to keep up with new items they have. Their pics also give me ideas for how to couple and display my/their products.

 

  1. good to know. How does this compare to Instagram for you?

 

  1. Instagram seems to create immediate responses. I’ll post a pic and customers contact me that same day asking me to hold it or they come in to buy it.

So I guess I would say I use Pinterest for inspiration and to help me, as a retailer, buy. Instagram helps me connect to my customers and helps me sell.

 

  1. One other use for Pinterest: one of my employees creates private Pinterest boards for me with her product recommendations along with her notes as to why she thinks they are a good fit. She also includes vendor name/SKU/link so if I’m interested I can go right to it. Totally her idea, great employee.