With over 8.6 million people living in London, it is the hub of business within the UK. With so many shops covering such a broad area, how can using planned digital & social media marketing strategies increase your online sales and in-store footfall? We’ll be following up from my previous post about the music industry, focusing on musical instrument retailers within London.

 

But first, here’s an overview of the benefits of online marketing.

 

Low Barriers to Entry/Running Costs
Even small businesses can set up social media accounts, usually free of charge. URL domains can be acquired for a small fee, making it cost effective too.

Virality
It’s been revealed that over 100 million hours of video is watched on Facebook every day– if you can create a video funny/cool/interesting enough to share, your reach will grow organically through the networks of the people sharing your content. Sharing a video that interests your fans, such as of a musician performing an iconic song in an unusual style, may lead to them sharing it with their friends, some of which may also share the same interest, leading them to your page.

 

 

 

Multi-channel Purchasing & Communications
With e-Commerce projected to acquire a larger percentage of total retail sales each year, it will become increasingly important to create a cohesive multi-channel experience for consumers. Make sure that those who won’t be able to visit your store in-person will still receive the same standard of service online, as they are still a valued customer no matter the means of purchase.

Analyse Your Customer Base
Analytic tools let you get rather in-depth: you can see the gender, age group, location and other characteristics of your fans, depending on the platform you are investigating. Google Analytics lets you follow the customer journey through your website. Once reviewed, you may identify key trends and implement continuous improvement strategies- if your XL cowbell is your most viewed product, but sales have declined, ask yourself why, and what could be done to improve- will a temporary sale on them may stimulate purchases?

Attract Anyone At Any Time
The World Wide Web is open 24/7, so consumers can access your business at any time from anywhere, rather than being constricted geographically. Making yourself more accessible opens up new opportunities, including the ability to converse with customers in real-time without the need for them to be in your shop (Chaffy & Ellis-Chadwick, 2015).

 

Okay, so why create a planned strategy? How could it benefit London music retailers?

Direction
It doesn’t have to be a 200 page report- even a few SMART objectives can help identify clear goals and come up with the most affective and efficient way to achieve them. Here’s an example of a Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-bound objective to work towards: Increase sales of drumsticks by 50% by the end of this quarter by offering a 10% discount alongside full drumkits.

Integration
Whilst the sales of physical copies of music in-store are in decline as online sales/digital downloads increase (Ryan & Calvin, 2009), due to the higher monetary investment, lots of musicians are keen to test the product before they purchase, something which they are only able to do in-store.

When mixed with a planned digital strategy, they can complement each other seamlessly. As another example, if you’re holding an in-store competition to win some merch, why not make a song and dance about it on your social media platforms and reach out to your fans on there too?

Scheduling
Social Media management platforms like Hootsuite can help businesses plan ahead, scheduling statuses and updates to be posted at a later date, which is ideal if you have identified that your fans are most active on social media outside of office hours.

 

 

Budget for Promoted Posts
If you want to stand out and get noticed, putting a bit of money behind a status you think will catch peoples’ eyes can go a long way. By tailoring the duration of your campaign, along with settings outlined below, you can avoid saturation and reach the right amount of people for an optimal ROI. In order to avoid unnecessary spending, budgeting ahead may help you keep better track of your money and evaluate the effectiveness in retrospect. Got a big end-of-year sale planned to get rid of excess maracas? Put aside a tenner to do a few paid posts on Facebook and Twitter a couple of weeks before.

Hone in on Your Target Audience
As mentioned, London is a big place with lots of people- marketing to everyone within the area will be costly, and may be ineffective due to the diversity of interests. If there’s a particular segment you would like to penetrate and grow within, Facebook allows you to target your message to specific fans- you can target your post to 18-35 year old males within 10 miles of London, who have ‘liked’ the O2 Arena on Facebook and are browsing on a mobile device (it really can be that precise!). You could even target users that have ‘liked’ rival stores in a bid to win them over.

 

Academic References

Chaffey, D. & Ellis-Chadwick (2015) Digital Marketing: Strategy, Implementation and Practise. 6th ed. Harlow:Pearson

Ryan, D. & Jones, C. (2009) Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation. London:Kogan Page