Trade Marketing is a strategy that consists of promoting a brand's products directly in the place where the consumer is going to make his or her purchase. To do this, you must know the consumer well, as well as take good care of both the price and the presentation of the product.
what is Digital Trade Marketing?
Digital Trade Marketing is responsible for winning over the customer at the digital point of sale, i.e. in ecommerce. And it is not enough just to include the product on the website and try to sell it, but you have to win over the customer and, once they have bought it, build customer loyalty.
Digital Trade Marketing is fundamental nowadays, as it is very likely that before going to the physical shop, the user enters the online shop to get information. If the information or data they find is not sufficient or does not influence them positively, they will not go to the physical shop.
what are the objectives of trade marketing?
- strengthen the brand: When you have control of the impact your product has on the customer who discovers it, it is easy to improve their perception of your brand. Therefore, when you present your product in a striking and innovative way, you create a memory in the customer's mind that positions you in their preferences, above the competition .
- choose the right channel: Study well what type of channel your potential customers prefer, as it doesn't matter how visible you are at a point of sale if it is not the right channel.
- gain visibility and exposure. You can do this by using merchandising or additional branding material, but samples also work very well .
- plan promotions and offers. Along with good visibility material, promotions are very good examples of trade marketing because they increase customer interest in the product and contribute to product turnover.
how to apply Trade Marketing to your business?
Now that you are clear on what Trade Marketing is and why it is important, we will explain how to apply it within your business step by step.
- Product information must be complete. You must include all the information about the product so that the user is clear about whether to buy it or not. In the same way, it is not only useful to have a complete definition of the product, it is also important that you add quality photographs, a coherent title, a detailed description, etc.
- User experience: The best thing you can do for your marketing strategy is to improve the user experience. If they feel that they can buy easily from your website or shop, they will not think twice and will finally get the product or service.
- Get a good SEO of your website: Add titles and descriptions of the products including the necessary keywords so that the organic positioning is always optimised within the different search engines .
- Audiovisuals are attractive: betting on design is a sure hit. Likewise, including images of your products on your website is like taking care of your shop window. If you also take care of the structure and layout, you will surely increase your sales .
- Train your team: It is advisable to do one or more training sessions explaining to the members of your team what objectives you intend to achieve with the strategy.
- Don't forget about your competition. Whatever sector you are in, knowing how your competition works is fundamental and essential, as this will give you an idea of what you can improve within your own strategy.
- Prepare the infrastructure: You may need a tool to collect data from different outlets and keep track of all of them, but you can also do it manually. The tool you choose will facilitate communication with the rest of the team, help you to get reports, as well as track the status of the product in the outlets.
- Design a Trade Marketing action plan. You must define what information your team is going to collect. This is done through survey forms, in which the field team collects information about the price of the product, its condition, visibility, competition, etc.
- Keep track of the operations. You must be attentive to the development of the entire action plan, seeing which objectives take longer to achieve and why, modifying the itineraries if necessary, and even retraining your team. It is important to be in constant communication with them, monitor stock-outs and propose alternatives for any unforeseen events that may arise
- Loyalty: If you offer the customer a very good experience, they will obviously want to repeat it, and not only that, they will also recommend you to people close to them.
In conclusion, Trade Marketing will help you generate great sales, so don't wait any longer and start designing your strategy.
