Launching a retail campaign and need to quickly ensure its success? Here are some very simple tips to optimize your retail advertising campaign:
- Social Media “Gut Check”: The new path that shoppers take includes an entire influence process. They are talking to their friends about you on social media before visiting your website. Listen to what types of conversations are taking place about your brand or retail location, and make sure it’s good – before launching a paid campaign. There are many free options for this, using a Twitter search, HootSuite, Google Alerts and more.
- Optimization: Make sure your media planning is fluid. Don’t lock into a schedule or commitment that does not allow you to optimize daily.
- Mobile: More customers are reacting to your retail campaign on mobile devices than you think. Your coupons and offers should be accessible on a mobile friendly website, and your campaign should be integrated with geo location sites like Foursquare.
- Call to Action: If it’s retail and intended to do some heavy lifting, make sure your offer or call to action is strong and compelling. Too many advertisers are using call to actions like this: “Look for our ad in this Sunday’s paper!” How many of you actually “rush” to do this – going through your Sunday paper seeking an ad? Strong, unique online call to actions will always work best. If you’re asking someone to call, give them a reason for why calling now is better than calling later. Countdowns and special time-limited offers help.
- Track beyond the sale. Be prepared to track the correlation between impressions and actions, coupon/rebate downloads, online visits, and social media lifts. There may be holes in the buying process that are affecting your sales, and the right analysis of data can help find those.
