Every manufacturing brand we talk to wants to drive more revenue through their retail partners. Of course they do! This is sorta like me wanting to get in shape or save money, I know I need to do it, but I need someone to help kick my butt. Enter the Promobooxx team. With or without us, you’ll need to get retailer engagement first, before you can build revenue. So, here’s a quick breakdown of retailer engagement, and an example of how a manufacturing brands can get it.
What is Retailer Engagement?
Retailer engagement is a retailer’s willingness to market on behalf of a brand they sell. It’s the result of a bunch of things, both logical and emotional. Including:
- · Brand Awareness
- · Driving Sales
- · Local Marketing Support (Co-Op, MDF, POP, etc.)
- · Brand Trust
- · Like-ability
Combine the above with bunch of
“what have you done for me lately” and you’ll have a good measure of what drives engagement with retailers. The brands that have the most engagement from their retail partners also tend to be the sales leaders in their verticals. For example: John Deere, Coca-Cola, Trek, and Nike do an amazing job with their retailers, and their retailers reward them with engagement, which leads to more revenue.
How Do You Grow Retailer Engagement?
The best way to grow revenue with your retailers is to encourage the retailer to market for you, but getting them to do anything can a challenge. So, what’s the first step? Start with an ask, you’ll be surprised how many are wiling to work with you. Then, supply them with a launch-ready campaign that can be tailored to their brand and location(s). Remember it’s a partnership, and you need to respect them on an equal playing field. You might be bigger than they are or think that they’re lucky to even sell you products, but if you honor their local brand they’ll reward you with participation.
Where To Start
If you’re a automobile manufacture like Chevrolet, you create a campaign to measure engagement, like they did for Super Bowl XLVI, then you try something that monetizes the network, measures effectiveness again, then repeat. Like so:
- 1. Engage
Send an email to dealers, activating, and asking them to opt-in to campaign efforts.
- 2. Co-Market
Create and launch your co-branded campaign to dealers. Exclusive content is best,
but any online brand content will do.
- 3. Share
Encourage your retailers to share their customized versions of the campaign in
ways that reach the most customers.
- 4. Measure
Track the percentage of retailers who share, which ones were most effective.
- 5. Repeat
Create a consistant cadence of campaigns, always trying to increase your
percentage engagement along the way.
How To Measure
The health of your retailer marketing channel should be judged by your engagement percentage. So, your high-level metrics are the percent of retailers who participate in a campaign. More specific things you can track are where your retailers are promoting or sharing online (Facebook, Twitter, website, email newsletter, etc.) and which of these channels are most effective at getting customers to the campaign.
What’s Next?
You can give it a shot yourself. If you’re interested in connecting, shoot me an email (ben at promoboxx dot com). I’d love to talk retailer engagement.
