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Eloise Freygang | 28 December 2015

Smarketing – now that is what you need for your store!

Smarketing – now that is what you need for your store!

As a marketer, I really like the world of marketing. But to be effective with our marketing, we need terrific selling skills to increase sales, and the ability to deliver top-notch customer service. So, what we need is “smarketing”, sales and marketing in one. Although they are closely related, marketing and selling are NOT the same thing. Marketing includes all the efforts you engage in that cause your customer to become likely to buy from you. It includes many very different activities, from advertising and social media posting, to special events and email newsletters. In general for a retail store, the foremost goal of marketing is to get the customer into your doors, with high purchase intent (that is, eager to buy) and carrying positive attitudes towards your brand. On the other hand, selling is person-to-person interaction where you match up your customer's needs, wants, and desires with the right goods from your store - and complete the sale. Imagine a sports goods store that decides to hold a promotion where all golf clothing merchandise is 20% off the weekend before the golf season starts. The store will:

  • send the promotion to customers in their list who have bought golf merchandise before,
  • post about the promotion on their social media pages alongside pictures of the merchandise on sale,
  • send SMS text reminders,
  • and create a great display window highlighting the sale.
All of these efforts are part of marketing. Now imagine that this campaign proved very successful, and you got many golfers to come into the store, eager to buy. In the store, an employee discovers what styles the customers like, shares expertise about fit and fabric, and helps the customers try on different suits, until they have found the perfect one(s). Perhaps the employee will also suggest some great shoes that match the outfit, or a new golf club to complete the sale. The customer feels amazing about how he/she looks and makes the purchase. Now, that is selling! To be successful in retail, you need them both. All too often, retailers think that just getting the customer through the door is enough to make the sale. That could not be further from the truth. To deliver the best service, with the highest sales, you need smarketing.   Do you want to increase your sales before end of year this year? We have the system to assist you to exactly do that. Schedule a demo with one of our experts to find out more.
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