Three retail PR strategies to grow footfall and inventory sell through.

As ecommerce continues on its trajectory of rapid growth, it is natural for focus to turn to optimising your brand’s online sales. However, with the last of distancing restrictions slowly being phased out, it is important retailers do not overlook the power of their physical stores. When mapping out your retail brand positioning strategy, there is one often overlooked tool that can boost inventory sell through across all channels and territories, retail PR strategies.

It is natural when talking about ecommerce to consider digital-first strategies, channels such as Google Shopping, social media, and online advertising. While these strategies can generate strong site traffic returns, they often lack the punch that retail PR strategies can have on generating physical footfall to your stores. Tempting shoppers back through the door remains an important goal for many retailers in the second half of the year, with up to 50 per cent of shoppers expressing a desire to return to shopping on the high street.

With that in mind, here are three retail pr strategies your brand can leverage to increase store footfall and inventory sell through.

Build regional retail PR media relationships.

Let’s say your brand has stores across the UK, but is struggling to generate sales in a particular region. Spending time getting to know the journalists in the region that cover retail and business stories will be crucial to achieving local coverage. The benefit of achieving this kind of coverage is that it generates highly-targeted brand awareness which increases the likelihood of increasing traffic to your stores.

The likelihood of achieving this kind of coverage depends on the strength of your pitch, and creativity of the campaign that you approach a journalist with. Researching previous stories that particular journalists have written will give you some clues as to what grabs their attention. Ideas could include partnering with local charitable organisations, hosting promotions around key local events, or sharing a story that highlights the significance of the business to its local community.

Partner with local influencers.

Another route to achieving highly targeted local brand awareness is to research local influencers. Where regional PR can boost your brand’s awareness, partnering with the right local influencers can be the tipping point that turns that awareness into action.

Influencers play a significant role in marketing as they can wield a lot of power over their audiences. Their followers are often highly engaged and place a lot of trust in the content shared. This factor is important to consider when devising influencer campaigns, authenticity should be at the heart of your campaign’s concept, with enough license for the creator to interpret your brief in a way their audience will respond. This remains a great example of this, where Mercedes partnered with YouTuber, Casey Neistat in producing a promotional film about its new CLA Class vehicle. A final note here, is to do your research up front, ensuring each creator  fits with your brand’s profile, brand and tone of voice before embarking on a collaborative project.

Harness the power of trade shows and events.

Attending local events is a great way to interact with a large number of potential customers and members of the press. We often work with clients that are attending local events, helping them to set up a number of meetings with journalists who visit them on their stands. This strategy can prove fruitful as it often creates an opportunity to provide quick and easy story opportunities for the media that is in attendance.

Look to target local shows and events in the regions you need to increase sales and footfall. Requesting press packs and media lists up front will enable you to be front-footed in approaching journalists with your pitch before the show, ensuring you make your way onto their meeting list.

As ever, once you achieve coverage, you have the opportunity to leverage this across your social media and online to drive further awareness both locally, and further afield.

If your retail brand is looking to increase its awareness, drive footfall and increase sales then get in touch with our specialist retail team to see how they can support. You can meet them on the team page, or call them directly on 0115 958 9840.