Marketing Strategy

Marketing Tip of the Week – Building Your Brand

June 7, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

It’s so important when you own a business that you build up your brand. Why? When people see your business, they should recognize it. That’s what’s going to get them making visits to your store. How do you come about building up your brand though? This week’s marketing tip will focus on how you can build up your brand and get recognized.

Reputation – Before people buy, they research. Therefore, it’s important to have a good reputation. People go online, talk with their friends and read to find out the best of the best. Don’t you want to be in that category?

Be Visible – Yes, having a great reputation is good, but, it doesn’t do any good if you’re not visible to your target market. Research where you can reach your target market.

Increase your visibility with great content, partnering with local businesses around your community and social media. These three ways are great ways to get noticed.

It’s important to build a great brand. And two key ways to do this is with a great reputation and being visible to your customers. Of course, once they find your company, [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – Stand Out and Be Noticed

May 17, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

When creating and building your online presence, it’s important that you get noticed and you’re remembered. Sure, you might grab the attention of potential customers, but you also need to have a great marketing campaign to make sure they remember your company. So, this week’s marketing tip will focus on standing out and getting noticed.

Getting Noticed & Being Remembered

Here are a few tips on what you can do to gain potential clients:

Create a clear-cut marketing plan so potential customers know who you are and the services or products you offer.
Be branded. Create a well-defined brand to entice customers to want to get to know you better.
Engage your customers with your website and anything that represents your company. Let them see that you offer value and trustworthy with the services and products you offer.
Create an integrated marketing and social media platform. Social media is a major part of marketing today. So, engage, entice and serve your potential customers.
Be consistent within your marketing strategy. Make sure everything is cohesive and consistent among all marketing platforms. You’ll send mixed signals and people won’t understand your company.
Attend conferences. Are there trade shows and conferences within your industry? Attend these, make yourself known and get your name out there. This puts you as a professional.
Get well-known in your community. Serve your community through volunteer work or just interacting with activities that go on within your community.

There are plenty of tips out there that can help you get well-known and noticed. The important thing to remember is to get noticed first, but learn how to keep those [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – Reach a New Audience with Partnerships

May 10, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

Are you wanting to reach a new target market? There are multiple ways you can achieve this. One way is building partnerships. Yes, some of you already know this. However, it’s important to stay ahead of the competition with this tactic and think out-of-the-box. This week’s marketing tip will focus on building the right partnerships.

Where are your future clients already fans? Where is your target market already at? What are they fans of already? Take a look at where they’re currently at and consider joining forces with that business. One way to create a partnership with that current company is to maybe host a trade show or workshop together where potential customers for you and your partner will attend. This will give you and your partner the opportunity to get to know them and let them learn more about the companies.
Search out a partnership with the same values. It’s important to find a business with the same core values as you. Having a partnership is truly reflective on you. If their reputation or values aren’t great, that reflects on you. However, maybe you share the same philanthropy, this will get your business noticed and build you a good image among potential clients.
Create a rewards program. Even if you’re a small business, you can still create a rewards program. How does this work with a partnership? One way is that you can let your clients work towards getting a coupon, discount or even a freebie in your store. Then, you can let your customers work towards getting credit with your partner. Your partner can do the same thing as well. It benefits both of you by hopefully gaining new clients.

Can your store use a partnership to gain new customers? Are these ways that can be effectively implemented into your store? Building the right partnership can truly be [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – Create a Strong Direct Mail Strategy

April 26, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

There are many forms of marketing that you may be using to promote your business. However, it’s smart to use only the strategies that are working for you. You must use the strategy that reaches your target market. So, is direct mail one of them? This week’s marketing tip will focus on helping you create a strong direct mail strategy.

The Letter – Yes, the envelope has to be creative for them to open it for the first few times, but if the letter isn’t interesting it will definitely end up in the trash. Make sure the letter contains useful information in a creative context.
Create a Deadline – Create a sense of urgency for your customers to respond. Whether it’s a sale or a special in your store, always create a deadline. If they think it’s always at your store, they won’t feel the need to visit and then they’ll soon forget. Creating urgency requires them to spring into action.
Information – Don’t forget to include your phone number, address, email and URL in the header of the letter. They’ll be able to easily locate it.
Testimonials – Including testimonials in your direct mail campaign is always a wonderful idea. Use quotes from your customers that love shopping with you and even include their photo if they don’t mind being featured. It shows that you connect with your customers and makes you more trustworthy.
A Little Incentive – Give your customers a little incentive for coming into your store. They can even bring the direct mail piece they received to ensure they saw it and are reading it. An incentive, like a discount, is always a nice little way to entice your customers more.

Direct mailing may work for your business, but do you have a strong strategy? These tips will help ensure you have a strong direct mail campaign to attract more [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – E-Marketing

February 22, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

Online marketing is huge now. This is how people interact, do their research, and even find out about your business. It’s essential that e-marketing is done to promote yourself and build relationships. So, FGmarket has a few tips on e-marketing this week.

Marketing Tip Businesses can no longer blast their customers with identical emails that are the same boring things over and over again. You must make it compelling and draw customers’ attention. When is the best time to send your emails and what catches their eye?

In order to find this out, do your research and pulling from your data resources. How do you gather data from your resources? Start with your store. Do you ask customers for their emails or collect login information from your website? Track conversions and traffic to your site as well. You can learn a lot about your customer’s behaviors. You can research what they’re looking for and create emails tailored to their specific needs.

For example, if you find that a customer is looking at your housewares for or keeps coming back. Create an email that is targeted specifically for them. Or, maybe they [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – Competitive Advantage

February 8, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

What makes you stand out from the competition? Do you have that competitive edge that makes you the place to shop? Do you even know how your store stands out or how it can? Now is the time to sit down and figure that out. It’s important to know how you can set yourself away from the competition. This week, FGmarket has a few tips on finding your competitive advantage.

marketing tip Think about why you shop at some places. Why do you? What’s their competitive advantage? Some stores focus on a low-cost marketing strategy. Can this apply to your store? Smaller businesses normally can focus on lower cost strategies since they have lower overhead costs. Does this work for your store? Focusing on lower costs will intrigue your customers to come in, everyone wants to save a few dollars for themselves. If they can get a product they’re looking for, for a bit less, they’ll choose that store. Take a look at your overhead costs and see how you can get the costs down for your customers.

If you can’t seem to get lower costs for your customers, what about focusing on differentiated products or services. Finding unique products that your competitors don’t offer always makes for a reason to visit your store. Do your research and make sure you find items that are on trend for the season. Keep in mind that your target market [Read more…]

Marketing Tip of the Week – Build Your Business

February 1, 2013 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

Building a business has its ups and downs. It’s hard to build a business, but the struggle does pay off. If you do it right. What are some great tips for building a better business? This week’s marketing tip will focus on a few tips that will help you build a better business.

Learn from the past – Look around you. There are a ton of businesses out there that are successful. Many businesses have started a brand new business and have been truly successful. Don’t try to reinvent that strategy. Do some research on companies that are close to what you plan to start up. See what worked for them and how they started their company. Learn from their success and their mistakes. Work smart. Yes, there’s hard work involved, but you also have to be smart about it as well.
Think like an actual owner – Since this is a new business, think like an owner. You may have been an employee before, but don’t think like one. Delegate the tasks and appropriately. Don’t think you can take it all on by yourself. Work with other businesses to design brochures, logos, or headers. This is great for you and you can network. Also, hire employees. You can’t do it all by yourself.
Learn what works – Again, there were many businesses before yours. What makes them so successful? What do you like about them? Research and see how that [Read more…]

Stick with the Fundamentals

November 27, 2012 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

Increasing sales each season is a goal of every store. So many times, business owners get caught up in trying different marketing tactics and they forget the fundamentals of basic selling. Keep the basics in mind. You know these selling and marketing tactics have worked in the past, stick with them. FGmarket wants to help you get back to the basics by revisiting a few fundamentals.

FRESHNESS IS KING

What’s new with your vendors? – Customers walk into your store asking what’s new every time they visit. Ask your wholesale suppliers the same thing. Give your customers what they want by doing your part in keeping products fresh. Talk with your wholesale suppliers and stay up-to-date on all the current trends. Being able to offer your customers “hot-off-the-press” products will ensure a freshness that keeps them coming back for more.

Changing With The Seasons

Freshness may be the king of the retail industry, but seasonality is the reigning queen. Preparing and making changes for the current season gives customers yet another reason to pop into your store. Think about your customers particular needs and wants during each season.

For spring & summer – During the spring & summer months, customers aren’t shopping for the holidays, but they are shopping for normal everyday events. Give them a reason to visit your store. They may need a gift for a birthday or wedding shower, but what can you offer them that your competition can’t? Make sure you focus on finding new and innovative products for these seasons. Then create hype around these unique and interesting products. Don’t wait until the last minute to find products for this season. Always be on the lookout for fresh, new spring and summer products.
Shop for the holidays – During the holiday seasons, customers have more of a reason to visit your store. However, they are still looking for fresh, new products to give as gifts. Keep the same concept in mind by shopping for great products that will bring consumers to your store. But remember budgets are stretched this time of year. Always find one new and interesting product that you can offer a very budget-friendly price.

Old Is The New Fresh

Location! Location! Location! Sometimes an item just doesn’t work in the area where it is displayed. Simply moving or displaying an item differently can make it seem new and fresh. Bundling is another way to give tired products a renewed interest. Grouping or pairing products together creates a new product that can attract interest as well as a sense of freshness.

Success Always Looks Good

Before you can entice customers with freshness, you have to understand your store, it’s products and your buying patterns and how they all work together. Look around your store. What has been on the shelves for a while? Have you ordered anything new or gotten any new shipments in lately? How are you displaying items. Do the old items and the new item displays compliment or distract from each other. What visual impression does your store give when a new customer walks through the door.

Sticking with the fundamentals can and will help you achieve success and a reason for customer to come back time and again.

Receive Personalized Tableware from Prissy Plates Gifts & More
When shopping for products for your store, you want to find products that will satisfy most of your customers. However, not everyone has the same taste. Having personalized items in your store are always great items to have in your store. Read More About Prissy Plates Gifts & More

Get Inspired by Praols Story Bracelets & More
When looking for jewelry, you look for great designs. What about meaningful jewelry? A piece of unique jewelry that has meaning behind it is even better. Your customers may relate to it or know someone who does. Read More About Praols Story Bracelets & More

Be Environmentally Friendly with Wrapagain llc
These days it’s all about staying “green” and being environmentally friendly. If your customers are wanting to go “green”, feature products that will help them lead a healthier lifestyle. You can find all-natural personal care products, organic home textiles, organic gourmet food and even eco-friendly wrapping paper. Read More About Wrapagain llc

Package It Right with Gift Box Corp of America
When it comes to having gift items in your store, it’s important that you have the right packaging as well. Find the right packaging that will make gifts stand out even more. The right packaging is almost as important as the gift. Read More About Gift Box Corp of America

Be All-Natural with Sororia Organics
Leading a healthier lifestyle is definitely on trend and seems to be sticking around. Are you following this trend? Of course, you think about offering organic and healthier food options. However, you can also feature all-natural personal care products. Read More About Sororia Organics

Take All You Need with You on Your Next Walk with Dawgs on the Go
Do you feature products for every member of the family? Parents, children and even the dogs all need products from your store. Dogs definitely need the right products, even ones that can benefit both the animal and owners. Read More About Dawgs on the Go

Chris Brogan – When thinking about content marketing for your business as a way to get attention and draw people into potential business activity, it starts with thinking about and conveying the bigger story of the community you serve. No matter the size of your company, this isn’t as difficult as you might think. Story is how we’re built to think. That’s a good start.

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Get Clean with Tooth Tissues You want your customers to be happy and lead a wonderful lifestyle. Therefore, offer them products that will do exactly this for them. Read More About Tooth Tissues	Kick Your Food Up a Notch with Picky Vicki Gourmet BBQ Sauces & Rub Food can definitely be the way to your customers’ hearts. You can offer tasty gourmet food or sweet gourmet candy and your customers will love it. Read More About Picky Vicki Gourmet BBQ Sauces & Rub
Create Unforgettable Jewelry with Eloxite Corp Do you consider your customers’ needs when you are purchasing items for your store? This is a must. You want to offer great products that will meet all their needs. Read More About Eloxite Corp	Find the Right Packaging for Your Store with Bags & Boxes 2 Are you a nursery looking for some great products to feature in your store? Of course, you have great flowers, accessories and all the supplies they may need to create a beautiful landscape.Read More About Bags & Boxes 2

Giftables for the Holidays
What’s on everyone’s wish lists this year? There are new and fun trends out there that you should be following. Stock your store with these trends so you can see them fly out the door to be put in stockings or underneath the tree.Read More About Giftables for the Holidays

Artisan Products Your Customers Will Love
Artisan products are wonderful items to feature in your store. They are truly unique and have some stand out elements to them. Your customers love having great and out-of-the-box products to feature in their home or even give as great gifts. Read More About Artisan Products

Prepare for the Upcoming Holidays

September 18, 2012 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

The holidays are literally right around the corner. So, have you planned out your marketing strategy? This is an important time to come up with a marketing plan specifically for the holidays. It’s also the time when you will see an increase in sales, especially if you have a well thought out strategy. One thing you must incorporate into your plan is a holiday open house. Need some tips? FGmarket has a few tips that will ensure a successful open house.

Promoting Your Open House

Just like anything, your success does depend on how many people you can actually get to your open house. It requires some out-of-the-box thinking. Think about the various tools that are at your disposal. Mail out invitation postcards or flyers, purchase or barter ads on your local radio station, television station & newspaper and create posters and newsletters. If you plan in advance, you can even have a billboard made for the event. It’s especially important to promote your open house on your social media pages. Also, if you have client base, consider contacting them by email.

Along with promoting your open house, don’t forget to include your website information or social media links so people can get a better understanding of your company and what your open house will offer.

Hostess with the Mostess

You got potential customers through the door, now what? Be a great hostess and go all out! An open house is basically like a party at your store. Serve refreshments, offer information about your products, have fun giveaways & specials and set up your store in an efficient way. While doing this, always keep your budget in mind.

Since you will be displaying holiday products, come up with various themes around the store. One corner of the store can be reserved for fall products, another Halloween and the rest of the store can be designated for holiday products. However, if you’re just displaying your holiday line, think about color coordinating everything.

Place your refreshments in an open area, maybe where they walk in or in the middle, so guests are not all bunched up and just hanging out near the food table. Make sure they mingle and check out your products. However, be available for everyone and have extra staff on hand to answer any of their questions and assist cashing people out.

Holiday open houses are great for boosting those sales and gaining new clientele. Also remember, a well executed and thought out open house will definitely help generate some buzz amongst new customers and get them to return to your store.

Receive Luscious Home Fragrance from Bridgewater Candle Co.
Candles are always such a staple piece in anyone’s store. However, with candles, you should always offer variety in fragrances since no one enjoys the same scents. When looking for variety for your store within candles and home fragrance; always choose Bridgewater Candle Co. Read More About Bridgewater Candle Co.

Carrie Belle’s Calicos – The Place for Beautiful Baskets & More
Are you looking for great products for your store that are great for your customer’s whole family? Do you also want products that serve a variety of uses. One company that features beautiful baskets, home accents, as well as various other home items is Carrie Belle’s Calicos. Read More About Carrie Belle’s Calicos

Bring Any Table to LIfe with Images Defined, LLC
Every party has a story. To tell that story, your customers must find the right party decor. This goes for their party decorations and party accessories. One company that wants to help tell your customer’s party stories is Images Defined, LLC. This company will bring your customer’s party to life on the table. Read More About Images Defined, LLC

Seth Godin – Slogans never change anything. They don’t grow market share or find you a job or win you an election.

Underneath the slogan, perhaps, is a story. And the slogan well told is a symptom of that story, a shadow of what you’re truly up to. A slogan might be evidence that you have a story, but it isn’t a story. A story is something you live and connect with and come back again and again and again.

If the story of your work is consistent, if it resonates with your audience and if you can defend it, then you’re likely to succeed. And if your slogan reflects your story, good for you.

Enhance Your Products with Boxes Sleeves and More Are you a floral or gift shop? Do you have the right accessories in your store to make your products stand out? Read More About Boxes Sleeves and More	Receive Fantastic Designs & Words from Words and Watercolors Do you have wonderful gift items in your store? What goes with that? You need the right accessories to go with your gifts, such as great packaging and greeting cards. Read More About Words and Watercolors
Find Inspiring Products from Scripture Art Are you looking for great inspirational products for your store? There are many great products within this category. However, find something unique.Read More About Scripture Art	Stay Fresh Longer with AirNovo Are you looking for great shop technology that will help your store run more efficiently and save you money? If you’re a florist, you know flowers are delicate.Read More About AirNovo
Stand Out with Dazzle Pet Finding something for the whole family is a must, this goes for finding great pet products as well. Pets are a part of your customer’s family just as much as anyone else. Read More About Dazzle Pet	Always Receive Sweet & Adorable from MK and Company Are you looking for wonderful baby products? The key to finding the right baby and children products is a great design and quality, just like any product in your store.Read More About MK and Company

Planning for the Holidays
Are you ready for the holidays? This fourth quarter is huge for any store. So, now is the time to start planning to make sure you have the best possible quarter of the year! How can you come up with creative ways to get consumers into your store and serve them to the best of your ability? Read More About Planning for the Holidays

Find the Right Baby Products
Do you purchase items for all your customers of all ages? One thing you may overlook are the children that come into your store. However, adults need these items as well. Whether it’s for a gift or just because, they need great baby and children items. Read More About Finding the Right Baby Products

Marketing Tip of the Week – Planning for the Holidays

September 14, 2012 by Kelly Curtis Leave a Comment

Are you ready for the holidays? This fourth quarter is huge for any store. So, now is the time to start planning to make sure you have the best possible quarter of the year! How can you come up with creative ways to get consumers into your store and serve them to the best of your ability? FGmarket’s marketing tip of the week will focus on getting you ready for the holidays.

Receiving with joy – Don’t forget about the orders that you may have placed back in January of this year or the ones you placed at market. You should be expecting to receive those any day now. Clear out room in the back to properly get your merchandise ready like pricing it. Try grouping products together by vendor, color, theme or price. Also, don’t forget that when you get busy, you may need to run to the back to restock shelves. So, have it organized or even try having stock underneath tables or cabinets up front.

Section off your store – Of course, section off your store properly by displaying holiday merchandise where everyone can see it. However, don’t forget to create appropriate areas for wrapping and shipping section. For your wrapping area, have your boxes set aside, pick out your holiday bags, tissue paper and ribbon and don’t forget to have the scissors, tape and pens ready to go. You also need to train your employees on how to wrap properly.

Along with the holidays, you will also have visual merchandising that needs to be done. Make sure you have a storage area set up for your props like lighting, wreaths and decor. Make sure everything is up to par and purchase new items if need be. Set up amazing holiday displays, this is what attracts customers to even look at the products.

Take a break – The holidays are a busy time. Make sure you have a designated area to take a break. You may have a smaller store, but even if you just set up a table in the back of storage where customers can recover from the rush of customers. This can also be where you hold your meetings and let employees know what is going on in the store. You can also post reminders and inspiring quotes, as well as the goals everyone should obtain. This is also a great place to hang emergency phone numbers and [Read more…]

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Getting Noticed & Being Remembered

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FRESHNESS IS KING

Changing With The Seasons

Old Is The New Fresh

Success Always Looks Good

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Promoting Your Open House

Hostess with the Mostess

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