For the majority of brick-and-mortar retail outlets, which have certainly survived and thrived into the era of ecommerce, emphasis is naturally given to the appearance of the store itself. With brick-and-mortar, everything becomes more localized, and the range of customers is dependent on a geographical area determined by things like transport access and distance.
A brick-and-mortar outlet will also prioritize standing out within whatever location they might share with other businesses, be that a main shopping district in a major city or the main street of a small town. Customer loyalty is the great advantage of such outlets, with geographical convenience being the way to establish that loyalty in the first place. That’s all quite different from how an ecommerce company promotes itself.
For ecommerce, marketing and promotion naturally take place online, but it’s wrong to think that brick-and-mortar marketing, in some direct equivalence, must take place in the real world. Very few of them totally neglect online digital marketing. Digital marketing really does seem to be something that all ecommerce companies engage in to some extent.
Online Spaces
And there’s a very simple principle behind why digital marketing works for brick-and-mortar too. This is that physical spaces can be replicated online with virtual spaces. Say your physical retail outlet serves a geographically defined community, maybe a particular town; that town may have its own online location, for example, a Facebook group specifically for residents. For any brick-and-mortar outlet serving this community, some digital marketing placed here certainly makes a lot of sense.
With that, however, come a few challenges. How do you find your very specific customer base online? How extensive should your online marketing actually be? This latter question is an important one, as it is only too easy to end up paying for marketing which ends up placed somewhere useless.
The Question of Niches
Another reason why a brick-and-mortar outlet would engage in digital marketing as a priority would be if the business were a bit more niche than normal. Even if serving a set geographical area, a shop specializing in, say, fishing tackle or specific antiques is unlikely to appeal to the majority of people in that area. However, those that are interested in it would be willing to travel further because the outlet offers desirable niche products, and there are simply fewer such outlets in existence.
It should be noted though, that this is the reason why niche companies normally go entirely online. Reaching a limited niche is best done with the widest potential customer base possible, and being able to deliver to a wide area is often necessary. However, this is not always the case and, especially in the case of non-mass producible products, it is often the case that these are held in one location – the store.
Digital Marketing Advice
Ecommerce marketing agency Azola Creative says that, for purely brick-and-mortar outlets, digital marketing isn’t too different and still depends much more on what type of product or service you are selling. Nevertheless, the aforementioned tip about targeting online equivalents of physical spaces is important, and so too is having your brand clearly represented in marketing materials.
Furthermore, when it comes to that brand, it is also wise to associate it with the geographical area where you operate. The idea is to become known as “that store on X street in X town where you can get X”. Local food products and crafts can lean even more into the reputation of the geographical location.
Make no mistake, you shouldn’t neglect digital marketing if you run a physical outlet – the fact alone that so few do is evidence enough.
