Did you know that grocery store sales have more than doubled over the past thirty years? The grocery store industry has been growing steadily for decades, and it’s important to maximize your store’s growth by implementing a strong marketing strategy.
The best grocery store advertising plans include ideas that you can implement in your store and out in the world. Take advantage of a wide range of creative approaches that capture grocery shoppers’ attention, boost sales, and promote products effectively.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed with the number of options out there, this article will help you understand the best marketing ideas that will help your supermarket advertising campaign thrive!
Prepare an Effective Grocery Store Advertising Campaign
Whether you’re building a new grocery store or updating your existing store’s marketing strategy, here are eight effective ideas that will give your store the boost you’re looking for.
Develop a Brand
Building a brand is one of the most important steps in any marketing campaign. Your brand is a point of reference for your customers, and it symbolizes who you are and what you stand for. Your branding includes your color scheme, font, and tone in all of the materials you produce, both print and digitally, and helps foster customer loyalty.
Your brand is one of your most important marketing materials because it makes such an impression on potential customers, so it’s worth taking the time and effort to develop it with your store’s goals in mind. When designing or updating your branding, consider the following:
- Reflect your values. Does your grocery store focus on locally sourced or organic foods? Consider using the color green, which demonstrates your environmentally friendly practices.
- Reflect your products. Do you sell luxury food items? Create branding that reflects this with a stylish and sophisticated logo and font.
- Reflect your customers’ identities. Create a look for your branding that customers see themself in and feel at home with. This means that it’s important to understand your target shoppers.
By building a brand that’s immediately recognizable and reflects your store’s identity, you set your business up for success.
Printing tip: For help creating effective branding, work with The Print Authority’s expert graphic design team! They can help you formulate brand standards for reaching a captive audience.
Utilize Posters and Signage
Well-designed posters and signage get your products the attention they deserve. This advertising technique can alert shoppers to new products, special deals, recipe ideas, and any other information you want them to know. Posters are easy to display in your front windows, on the walls inside the store, and near products.
When you open a new location, make sure to display a large sign or banner to let passersby know about the new store. Signs made of materials such as vinyl are waterproof, making them great options to let people on the street know about announcements and special events at your store.
Printing tip: At The Print Authority, we print high-quality signage that helps businesses make a great impression. We offer a wide range of materials, as well as both offset and digital printing to create the exact product you have in mind.
Launch a Mail Campaign
By sending direct mail to households in your target demographics, you increase the chances that recipients will decide to visit your store. Mail campaigns are easy to print and send, and they help as many people as possible know about your great products and low prices.
Make your mail count by sending announcements and deals that recipients will use. Include coupons and special discounts on your mailers that will inspire your customer base to get in the car and drive to the store.
Two of the best marketing materials you can mail are postcards and staple-bound booklets. Postcards are short and to the point, and they include just enough space to let recipients know about your store and one or two important deals. Staple-bound booklets can function as coupon booklets, which you can fill with great discounts for your customers. When recipients see how much they can save, they’ll be more likely to shop at your store.
Printing tip: A great printing company such as The Print Authority can take care of targeted mailing for you. Simply explain which demographics you’re interested in, and your printing partner will take care of the rest!
Partner with Local Businesses
Shoppers love eating locally grown and locally produced products. By partnering with local businesses, you provide the items your customers are looking for while creating a unique identity for your store, and you add a local flavor to your store.
Make sure to include these partnerships with local businesses in your advertising. Shoppers want to support local businesses and know about the special items you sell!
Advertise Sales
When people know that a product is on sale, they’re more likely to buy it. Therefore, printing posters that advertise which products are on sale is a great way to help customers take advantage of your offers. Put sale posters outside the store and near the sale products to make it easy for supermarket shoppers to make a purchase.
It’s a good idea to spread the news about sales through as many channels as possible. Post on social media about your weekly sales, and put information on your website. In short, when you give readers as many opportunities as possible to know about your great deals, you make it more and more likely that they’ll decide to take advantage of your offers.
Place Signage on Shopping Carts
Placing ads on shopping carts is an easy way to attract thousands of eyes. Shopping carts are great locations for effective ads that get seen every single day, so they build name recognition and trust. They provide enough space for a few lines of text, some bullet points, and an image or two. If you can make your message easy to understand in a small amount of text, it’s perfect for your shopping cart.
Shopping carts are flexible–you can either include ads for your own store or sell the space to other local businesses that want to do their own advertising in their community. Consider reaching out to local businesses, realtors, and insurance agents to see if they’d like to place ads on your carts.
Take Out Ads
Ads are a crucial part of marketing for any business, and your grocery store is no exception. Both print and digital ads are important for your store’s success.
Local newspapers are an effective way to reach local communities, so take out ads that inspire readers to shop at your store. Consider including a coupon or a special deal that convinces readers to take the leap and visit you.
In today’s digital world, purchasing digital ads is also a must. Consider online advertising on Facebook and Instagram, as well as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising on Google. These all increase your profile among your target audience and help community members see your name and branding regularly.
Seek Out Feedback
Providing excellent service is the number one way to retain and increase customers, so make sure you’re providing the service and products that people are looking for by asking for feedback from customers and then reacting accordingly.
You can choose from a wide range of strategies when you ask for feedback. An employee standing at the exit can poll people as they walk past, you can offer digital or paper feedback forms, and you can even send out satisfaction surveys to customers’ email addresses. By making it clear that you care about shoppers’ experiences, customers will feel more confident in your store and are more likely to come back.
Print Authority: The Partner in Grocery Store Advertising
Creating an effective advertising campaign is the key to making a great impression in your community and attracting the shoppers you’re looking for. When you’re ready to start developing your next campaign, work with The Print Authority!
With over three decades in the print business, we print all of the materials that make your marketing a success, including banners, posters, mailers, and more. We love seeing our clients succeed! To learn more or get started, contact us today.
