Did you know that during the height of the pandemic, an estimated 4.7 million establishments suffered some type of decrease in customer demand for their good or services? During the countless lockdowns, brick and mortar stores suffered while eCommerce stores soared.
But with life slowly returning to normal, retailers need a way to remind consumers of the route back to their stores. This is what an experiential marketing strategy will do for your business.
Excited to activate your retail store and leverage this advanced marketing strategy? We have some winning trends for you to follow in 2022.
What Is Experiential Marketing?
Experiential Marketing is the bedrock of building emotional connections with your customers.
With this marketing strategy, businesses can build around their brands, and experiences their clients are willing to share both on their social media platforms and offline with friends. There is no better way to take advantage of word-of-mouth marketing.
Experiential marketing brings vibrant events in different spaces and opens up spheres where customers and potential customers can engage with brands.
This is how you build a brand experience.
How Does Experiential Marketing Affect Retail Marketing?
Retail marketing is the effort retail businesses put into getting their products before their audiences.
This is not limited only to digital efforts. It also spans to offline measures your marketing team employs to get your products before the public.
And when it comes to retail marketing, we cannot forget the four fundamental P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
Product
The product will refer to what you are selling. You will need a product that meets your customers’ needs and is in the right packaging for your target demographic. The first P is about both product and packaging.
Price
The second “P” for the price is where you include what it meant financially to produce the product. You want to have a competitive price that leaves you out of the red.
Place
The third “P” stands for “place.” If you sell the best plowing machines to farmers but you are not situated where they can reach you, then chances are it doesn’t matter how competitive your price is. Your location will negatively affect your sales.
With all your marketing ideas; be it your activations or pop-ups, you want to be in a place where your target audience can reach you and your product.
Promotion
And lastly, we have promotion. You know how in movies there’s that kid who has a party no one attends? That is because that kid doesn’t understand promotion.
You need to ensure that you achieve the right publicity and that your audience knows about your retail event.
Why Is Experiential Marketing Important for Retailers?
After being cooped up in houses for months, consumers are eager to experience the world again. In fact, 65% of brands reported seeing their sales go up after marketing events. That makes for a pretty decent ROI.
And that is why experiential marketing matters.
Here are a couple of other reasons you should be investing in more experiential marketing:
Experience Oriented Consumers
One other thing to consider is that consumers are becoming more experience-oriented. Statistics from the Harris Group report show that 72% of millennials prefer to spend money on an experience rather than products.
So, if you are a retailer looking to get this group into your store, couple your products with what they are spending on.
Customer Loyalty
Your marketing event will help you build customer loyalty. Leveraging your retail event can add to your customer service experience. Any interaction customers have with your business during events will give them an idea of your customer service.
Especially if 90% of Americans confessed that customer experience plays a major role in them making a purchase.
So, partnering with an event staffing agency like Auctus Agency will ensure your marketing event gives your customers the best service.
Experiential Marketing Strategies for 2022
Here are a few experiential marketing strategies to implement for your retail store. Remember that the importance of experiential marketing is to build experiences rather than only generate sales:
In-store Value
As retail stores are making their much-anticipated return, you want reasons to draw your customers through your doors once again. And that means offering in-store value. This could be an additional service or a giveaway available only to walk-ins.
If you own a t-shirt retail store, you can offer your walk-in customers t-shirt art customization. This could either be art classes or even a simple print-on.
Personalize the Shopping Experience
Use data available to you to personalize the shopping experience for your customers. Conduct customer research. Know what each age group within your target audience prefers and use this to build services that are personal to their needs.
Does your retail store have an app? Use the data about what your customers are browsing and viewing to build better in-store experiences.
Have an Omnichannel Sales Funnel
It is no doubt that the pandemic has accelerated contactless pay, and it is this kind of seamless service that customers are looking for. Your buyers want the ease of online shopping in a physical store. And that means offering an immersive experience.
Whether you offer more integrated contactless pay or just offer a wider connection between your physical base and your online presence, giving your customers a frictionless experience cannot be compromised.
Have Some Pop-ups
We cannot talk about experiential marketing without dabbling into pop-ups. Pop-ups are the best marketing tool to remind customers why they love your brand and give potential customers a reason to choose you.
Pop-ups provide a vibrant and exciting atmosphere for your customers to engage with your products. And the best part? They take advantage of the oldest trick in the book: FOMO, or the fear of missing out.
But pop-ups aren’t just an event to excite customers about your brand, they are an opportunity for you to tell your brand story; live.
Time to Build an Event Marketing Strategy
Experiential marketing is without a doubt the best marketing tool to leverage as a retailer. Not only will it help you grow sales, but it will also build emotional connections and loyalty between your brand and customers.
When it comes to event or experiential marketing, Auctus Agency is one of the best partners you could choose. Not only do we bring 15 years of experience, but we can handle everything from strategy to staffing.
Contact us to hear how we can transform your event ideas into sales realities.
