Would you like to know if your marketing plan is delivering the results you wanted? Need some quick tips on how to drive more customers to your website? Would you like to know about the latest technologies that retailers are using to increase foot traffic in their stores? NSSF is here to help!
This year at SHOT Show University (SSU), the premier educational event for the firearms retailer, NSSF will be a hosting a number of educational tracks to meet the needs of all retailers, no matter their experience or market focus. There are four tracks scheduled for Monday, Jan. 13. The tracks include: ATF Compliance, Retail Operations, Range Operations, and Marketing. Attendees of SSU can jump from one track to another, allowing them the ability to attend the classes of most importance.
The marketing track’s seminars are being hosted by Curtis Jazwiecki. Mr. Jazwiecki is the President/CEO and Founder of Outdoor Business Network, Inc., a firm dedicated to providing e-commerce solutions to the Outdoor Sporting Goods and Shooting Sports industries. His specialties include multi-channel retail, website architecture and development (both B2B and B2C), internet marketing, and online merchandising.
The first session details marketing with social media. The results are in from this year’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and the winners are clearly the retailers that used social media to help drive customers to their stores and websites. This session will cover the pros and cons of engaging your customer through social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Forums, and YouTube, etc. to educate them about your product offers and services and help build loyalty within your customer base. This session will also highlight the use of these critical tools to reach out and attract new customers.
The second session focuses upon new technologies that can be used to help drive foot traffic to your store. This class will highlight the latest technologies retailers can use to engage customers and bring them into your retail space. Is your website maximized for mobile devices? Is your website registered with the Google and Yahoo so that local users can find your store? Are your ads easily viewable on mobile devices? The seminar will review a number of tactics that you can easily employ to ensure you are reaching your target customer.
The next session reviews the process of creating a marketing plan. The class will cover what goes into creating a marketing plan, critical information that needs to be included and those items that are not necessarily needed. This class will also include a discussion of creating metrics to ensure your plan is delivering per projections.
The fourth class of the day will review Search Engine Optimization of your website. Curtis will cover eight strategies that you can utilize to improve your search engine return rank. This session will cover not only the strategies, but more importantly, the logic behind the each strategy. Studies have shown a direct correlation between a higher search return and increased revenue. Learn how to do both in this critical seminar.
The final session of the day will provide a matrix for determining the return on investment (ROI) of your marketing plan. Session will review what data you need to have to accurately calculate your ROI, what the numbers indicate, how to set a reasonable goal for your ROI and how to achieve that number. Further, Curtis will review a number of other measures that will help determine the “health” of your marketing plan and your overall retail operation.
These classes are provided to ensure that as a retailer, you are provided the best tools possible to succeed in an increasingly competitive and crowded marketplace, to maximize your marketing dollar and that your marketing plan is meeting your expectations.
Patrick Shay is Director of Retailer Development for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.