How to succeed with in-store promotions

Now it's autumn and that means only one thing... Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas sales and mid-day sales!

By one thing I obviously mean four, but the fact remains that for most retail chains the last quarter of the year is when they sell the most. Which is perhaps not so surprising given everything that happens in quarter four and that often the most lavish promotions are run then.

But getting the full impact of your campaigns can sometimes be tricky. 

Imagine that feeling when you've made a really good deal with selected suppliers. Which means a punchy offer that in turn justifies a higher budget for really good signage and store exposure for the promotional goods. Promotional information has been sent out to all stores - both to the store email and intranet to be on the safe side. It's all supported by lavish advertising that reaches end customers in good time.  

The campaign starts, the sales were... ok, but it was not the success of all time. Many stores sold well on the campaign, but some stores performed much worse than they should have. 

Why do in-store campaigns underperform?

The campaign had all the makings of a success, so why wasn't it?

There are many things that can go wrong:

• Store managers who "always sold more from another supplier - why change for a promotion". 
• Someone might have made a (not so good) adaptation of the signs and display materials to fit better in their shop. 
• Then there are stores where everything was properly displayed and well exposed, but where the sales staff did not talk about the campaign with the customers. 
• Or worst, those materials were never unpacked because you didn't have time and then you forgot about them.

Failing to anchor their campaigns in stores is something many marketing departments recognise. But what if it was possible to see that this was happening even before the campaign started? What if it could be fixed before the damage was done?

The challenge with communicating promotional information via intranet or in-store email is that you don't have control over who has actually received the information. It is difficult to be sure that the information is understood and put into practice. And without a plan - or a way to follow up on the plan - for the campaign, you will never be able to understand why a particular campaign went well or not. Was it because it was well signposted, because the offer was right, because it was actively sold by the sellers?

How to succeed with in-store promotion

You need a plan and a system that works for you in a way that neither the intranet nor the shop email does. A system that allows you to see which shops and individuals have not received the information they need. So you can call that store manager even before the campaign kicks off and ask how you can help, because it's almost time and they seem to be lagging behind their colleagues.

Or better yet, to avoid making a call to those store managers at all. Because you have a system that automatically reminds and makes visible to store managers how they are doing without you having to lift a finger.

In summary, a successful campaign needs:

1. A rough plan of what should be done, by whom, when and what the objectives are. So you have something to compare the outcome against.
2. Communication of relevant information to each person in the stores who has a role in the campaign. So that signage is correct, sales people understand what and how to sell, etc.
3. Follow-up to ensure that the information is understood and that what needs to be done is done. So you can identify where you need to put some extra support to get those stores to the finish line.
4. After the campaign, a follow-up of all the data: the campaign material you have produced, the information you have sent to the stores understood and acted upon, together with the sales figures for the campaign and any customer feedback. So you can see which elements worked well and which can be improved.
5. That you take the lessons learned into the next campaign and the next plan.

The good thing is that this doesn't have to be very difficult. The plan doesn't have to be very advanced. A system like Evercate can help you, with minimal effort, to both get the information out and follow up with all store staff and to document how it went. That leaves the sales figures that you hopefully already have in hand. So with the right tools, it's mostly a matter of doing.

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