We are promoting our latest ink offer through a two-page catalogue in thousands of letterboxes as well as in the shopping centre and some other external marketing initiatives. The result is a terrific sales spike.
You know you have a catalogue which works when customers bring it in with the items they want circled. In-store we connect with the promotion with flyers as well as shelf compelling price labels – as shown in the photo. This whole of business approach to a category pays off as we are seeing at the moment.
Too often, newsagents will engage in one tactic – an external ad or a flyer or a display in-store – without using this as one of several tactics to form a campaign. As we are seeing with ink right now, we can convert shoppers visiting for something else into an ink customer while at the same time attracting new customers because of our external marketing. Operating on multiple levels and attracting business from different customers makes it an efficient campaign.
Ink responds very well to marketing investment. There is plenty of market research around to indicate that consumers think newsagencies are expensive. We use it to promote that our newsagency is not expensive in this competitive category. Once we win a new customer on price they are highly likely to stay with us.
Large, clear ticketing also helps. Many a time I’ve gone into a small retailer or newsagent to purchase ink and I have to actually grab the ink cartridge to see the price (normally with a meto gun, etc) clearly. Never underestimate how a clear, easy to read ticket can create potential sales especially for those who do have sight issues. Clear merchandising of each type also helps a lot (again, citing small retailers or newsagents selling ink I’ve seen some horribly mixed and poorly merched displays).
We participated in our first HotInk promotion and are really happy with the results. People were coming down on the day they received the flyer to pick up their printer cartridges. Those we didn’t have we ordered and with the great turn around time we are not missing out on sales!