Playback - Summer 2008 - (Page 16)

RETAIL 5 Ways to Drive Traffic into Your Store Elly Valas • Valas Consulting group • glEndalE, Colo. Before a retailer can sell anything, he or she must first drive traffic into the store. Here are five tips to help get customers through your door! 1. Promote consistently When business is slow, retailers often cut their advertising budgets. Since you never know for sure when a prospect might be in the market for a new guitar or accessories, you have to continually create top-of-mind awareness for your store. 2. Private sales Your customers are one of your best assets. Treat them well, and they’ll come back to you. Invite your best customers for a preview night prior to a special event. Offer them extra values that won’t be available to the public. Customers want relationships. Stay in touch with them and they’ll buy from you. The key to business growth is to make sure prospects think of you first when they need the things you sell. –Elly Valas Author of Guerrilla Retailing 3. Coupons Bed, Bath and Beyond built its business mainly by sending discount coupons to its prospects. The coupons never actually expire and customers can use one for each item they buy. Offer a discount on accessories or give away something free with purchase. Or try starting a birthday club, sending customers who sign up a coupon worth their age off on accessory purchases during their birthday month. Forty years old? You get a 40 percent discount! 4. Events Tent sales, sidewalk sales, truckload sales, warehouse sales and inventory clearance sales all tell consumers that something special is happening. Buy special promotional items and ask your vendors for giveaway items like hats, T-shirts and mugs. Make your store look like something’s happening—live music, balloons, special price tags and great signage help create a party atmosphere. 5. Web Site Today’s time-starved consumer goes to the Internet for information. Your site can be a virtual store or just a catalogue of your products, services and lessons. And you can offer your customers the best level of service if they can buy online and pick up their merchandise at the store. Get your customers to sign up for your monthly e-newsletter and include a special Web-only offer in each issue. Customers want relationships. Stay in touch with them and they’ll buy from you. The key to business growth is to make sure prospects think of you first when they need the things you sell. Co-author of the book Guerrilla Retailing. Elly Valas is an author, speaker and consultant who helps her clients build progressive, profitable businesses. Catch her special NAMM U Breakfast Session, “Guerrilla Retailing: Unconventional Ways to Make Big Profits from Your Retail Business,” at Summer NAMM on Saturday, June 21. 16 PLAYback

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Playback - Summer 2008

Playback - Spring 2008 Contents From the President NAMM Events Music in the News The Local Community Music Store: A Family Affair Commercial Retail Washington Watch Reps in the Field New Domestic Members International NAMM Foundation Music Notes Resources Viewpoint Playback Supplement : Summer NAMM08 Concerts & Events Artist Appearances What to See NAMM University Sessions

Playback - Summer 2008

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