In busy grocery stores, standing out during product demos can be tough. Even with quality samples, shoppers may forget your brand quickly. While giveaways help, more is needed to ensure lasting impact. Here are key techniques to make in-store product sampling a memorable and effective marketing tool.
On the crowded floor of a busy grocery store, it can be challenging to make your demonstration and the products you offer stand out. Even if you provide samples of outstanding natural products, the shoppers who try them can easily forget about you, even with the best promo modelling.
You’ll have to take steps to make sure your brand identity sticks with them long after the sample is gone.
Offering a samples and other marketing giveaways is a great start, but there is much more to ensuring that your in-store demonstration meets your business goals. Here are some key product sampling techniques that make in-store samples a successful marketing technique:
Use social media integration and guerilla marketing ideas to grab attendees’ attention and make them want to stop by your display. You can:
• Hire brand ambassadors with large social media followings to promote your in-store event before and during the event. It will help get the word out and will motivate attendees who are fans of the social media influencer to seek out your event.
• Work with leading industry websites or blogs to spread the word. You can pitch a guest blog, advertise on their site, or send a marketing email to their subscribers to drive interest in your display.
• Send targeted emails to local fans to help establish who you are and why they should seek you out. If you plan on offering special discounts or other incentives for shoppers, you can tease these offers without sharing all the details ahead of time.
Creating this kind of buzz will help you get interested customers to stop by. For the most part, these prospects are easier for your brand ambassadors to convert into customers since they already have some information about your offerings.
No matter how well you plan, no promotional model is foolproof due to factors beyond your control. Monitoring the success of each event will help you refine your approach for the next one. It will also do away with costly marketing expenses that aren’t helping you boost your ROI.
Having ambassador staffing report back to you will help assess how well your approach is working and which parts of the display need work to connect with prospects. Make it easy for them to provide feedback via email or smartphone app. Doing so will allow leadership to assess key performance indicators, such as sales and remaining inventory, instantly. This information helps your organization plan better for the future and avoid issues, like product shortages, at future in-store events.
You can also seek out feedback from new and existing clients who visit. Social media integration and brand-related hashtags during the event to see if you receive any customer praise or criticism. If someone mentions your brand negatively, you can take action to rectify it before it grows into an incident on social media.
After the in-store event is complete, try to get feedback before the experience fades from everyone’s memory. Send out a survey shortly after the event to find out how attendees think your brand ambassadors did to see if there were unreported issues you can address.
Some of the shoppers you encounter are in a rush, but others are looking for new products and exciting innovations to make their lives easier. They’re in the mood to buy, and it’s a great time to capitalize on their interest to drive sales.
But this will only work if your staff is ready to answer questions about your company, address concerns that buyers may have, and overcome objections to close a sale. Your employees should be dynamic and friendly so they can draw people in as they pass by, but also well versed in your products or services.
In all probability, there will be competing brands with similar offerings within the same store. Your employees need to know what makes you stand out and why you are a better option than other brands. Comprehensive and interactive training experiences will help them prepare for working the floor at the crowded grocery store. If you don’t have time to train them properly, add a monitor with a video explanation of your offerings to help clarify what your brand is all about.
With plenty to do and a full agenda for each day, grocery store shoppers won’t have much time to engage with your display. Be sure that your staff can engage them in a meaningful way for no longer than a minute and emphasize your key selling points during that time. Make your demo short, but engaging and useful, so it will stick with them long after they walk away. Ensure that they have heard the benefits and price points, so they can make an informed decision about your brand when they review your offerings and decide what to buy.
If you need help to make your in-store sampling a success, contact Attack Marketing today. Our team can help you incorporate product samples into your marketing approach to drive potential customers’ interest. We will come up with product sampling techniques and strategies to help you engage people so you can communicate with them long after the in-store display ends.
.png)
.png)
.png)
Christian Jurinka serves as the CEO and oversees the business development and strategic vision for the agency. Attack! connects brands with consumers, driving loyalty, purchase and velocity through comprehensive, ROI-focused field marketing services.
Hire ChristianTrending Articles
