I run a boutique in Wandegeya. Its growing fairly fast but lately, the number of customers has reduced. My friend advised me to try advertising on radios. Is advertising the solution? How much should I invest in it?
Julius Muganwa,
Greetings Julius. Glad to know that your business is growing or at least it has been. That’s a good sign that people love your products. That they are now reducing could be anything. You need to find out what has changed around you. Have the
customers grown old and prefer different type of clothes, have you grown old and what you sell doesn’t work for the young marketing in Wandegeya?
Are trends changing fast that you are not catching up quickly? Once you have answered all those questions, it will be easier to find the way to a solution. Back to Advertising, John Wanamaker who lived between 1938 to 1922 and was a successful merchant, politician and religious leader believed to be the father of marketing said “ Half of the money I spend of advertising is wasted, the trouble is I don’t know which half” You can imagine that was so many years ago. Advertising will be the solution if you do the right advertising using the right channels. Good enough, unlike then, advertising
can be measurable especially using the digital channels.
Depending on the target market (the people who you think should be buying your stock) choose the medium they consume most. If you want to talk to someone, you are safer, reaching them where they usually get their information. If its radio, which radio do they listen to? If TV, which program (note, with TV its mostly about the program and not the channel).
Produce the advert in the style that will draw attention of the target market (if it is boring or not attractive, you have lost already, arouse interest, create desire and eventually cause action which in this case is buying or referring your product.
Armed with a great ad, choose the medium, bargain for a good price. Most media have a special rate for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), take advantage of that. Offer swap deals to dress their On Air Presenters or give them goodies for their on air promos for extra airtime, this
will give you more that you could afford to pay for.
For a boutique, you should be on social media with catchy, attractive content. Have a camera on site and ask your attractive customers to allow you take their pictures in your attire or ask them to send you their pictures for use on your page. Nice pictures of nice people looking good on your page will attract people to your shop.
Abryans and Ondaba has used this massively. Make the page business friendly. Make sure you set a call to action message to either get the customer to call you or email you (and ensure the contacts work). Make it a point to answer the questions and respond to comments. You may promote the best content for bigger reach. If you have some money left, engage top fashionistas as influencers. These should always tag your page to help you grow your following. Keep a consistent quality and trend so that you be known for something. You will be on a smooth path to being a big brand.
As this runs, ensure there is a promo code or something that you can track in your communication to ensure you know which media delivers great value. For example on one radio, you can give them a code where customers can claim a discount, same can me in social media posts. That allows you to measure performance. Monitor the insights regularly to see what content does well.
Very soon, you will know what works and what doesn’t. Remember, at the end of the day, people are coming to buy unique, trendy clothes. Ensure they are lovely to keep them coming back.
