What is considered retail marketing?

Today, retail marketing, also known as retail advertising, can mean organic content (like blog posts), paid content (like advertisements) or a mix of both. This includes both in-person and digital strategies, which can encompass everything from running giveaways on social media to having a sign outside your brick-and-mortar store detailing a special promotion. 

In many cases, businesses benefit from using a combination of retail marketing strategies at once (which is sometimes referred to as a “marketing mix”) to reach more people. 

However, knowing exactly which portions of your budget to allocate to each part of the mix isn’t cut and dry. Some companies will get by with an entirely social media based strategy, while others thrive with direct mail and referral campaigns. The trick is to know what retail marketing strategies work for your customer base, which means testing and recording results to fine tune your approach. 

Retail marketing has 4 key components, also known as the “4 Ps”: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.

o   Product. First is the Product, which is the physical item that’s being sold.

o   Price. The second is Price, which refers to the pricing strategy that the merchant uses to sell the item. (Examples include “everyday low prices,” implementing pricing psychology like using “$9.99” etc.)

o   Place. Third is “Place” which refers to the location or platform used to sell products.

o   Promotion. Finally, there’s Promotion, which is what the retailer does to get the word out and entice sales.

Successfully executing your retail marketing strategies requires a solid handle on the 4 Ps. Tracking these components and ensuring that they’re all working together is essential to any marketing initiative.

For best results, use a POS and retail management system that allows you to manage the 4 Ps with ease. With the right platform, you can keep all your ducks in a row (i.e., your products, prices, places, and promotions) and focus on bringing your retail marketing ideas to life.

When you’re considering which advertising strategy to use for your business, it’s a good idea to look at a number of different options to see what would work best.