It’s all about creating a buzz before, during and after. Other brands have made it look effortless but, like the swan serenely gliding across the water, the legs need to be furiously paddling beneath the surface to create the buzz that a brand needs to make a pop up shop a success.
The pop-up shop is a temporary selling unit or space that with the right advertising and marketing before, during and after the event, can be the vehicle that creates the buzz you need around your product and brand.
With so many brands opening pop-up shops and events, you could too but, you need a promotional and marketing strategy; without one, throwing open your doors is no guarantee people will come.
Traditional, offline marketing IS effective
Creating a promotion strategy prior to opening your pop up shop or staging your pop up event is important; without it, your pop up extravaganza will fail to attract the mass crowd of shoppers that you though it would.
However, at this point, many retailers fall instantly into the trap that digital promotion – the use of social media and so on – is the only way forward. This is not the case.
Traditional, offline marketing and promotional media is not dead. It pays to have a mix of both online and offline marketing activities and promotions.
How to promote your pop up event before it happens
The very nature of a pop up event or shop, lends itself well to all kinds of promotional work. Clearly, if you are only in an area for a certain length of time, this makes a great hook for promotional material.
- If you have rented your shop, get some roller banners and outdoors banners printed up ready with all the information the passing populace need.
- Have a simple website and your social media platforms ready, include links on posters and quick response (QR) codes too with deals and discounts for when you pop up shop opens.
- Approach the local papers to see if in exchange for paid advertising space they will include a feature article on your pop up shop and brand.
- The press release is not dead either! Get some great copy and get that sent to all papers and so on in the area.
Start this at least six weeks before you fling open your doors
Promotions during the event
If you are in one spot for a certain length of time, you need to keep riding the crest of a wave and pulling people in throughout the weeks and months you are there.
Have a program of deals running throughout the time you are there and make sure that you tell people that the deals are coming up, how to access them and so on.
You may think this is like teaching grandma to suck eggs, as the old saying goes, but sometimes the most basic of promotional work is forgotten and hence, the success of a pop up shops can be limited.
- Have posters and banners printed ready to use every week or with every deal that you put on during your event.
- Use social media too but don’t forget that it is two way traffic between printed material and online promotion. In other words, have deals on line that pull people to your pop up event and vice versa.
- Collate email addresses from people during the weeks you are open – entice them with a competition with a decent prize! – ready for a post-event email deal-a-thon.
Try something different…
Guerrilla marketing is employing the use of something different and quirky to draw attention to your event. Giving out leaflets, for example, is one way of drawing attention but does it really spark interest? Unlikely, in fact you may notice that people will deliberately cross the road to avoid you.
However, having people dressed as characters that could be linked to your brand, and worn by staff (or hire a drama group or promotional agency) that are able to converse and engage people is a form of guerrilla marketing that is not fun, but also works.
Promotion after the pop up event
Many people assume that once the shop doors are closed, there is no need to promote the event any more.
But, this is a wrong step that will impact on your business, especially if the pop up event is the one physical aspect to your business and the rest of it is online.
This is where social media comes in to play but again, this is not at the expense of printed, offline media. For example;
- Leave posters up and around the area advertising where you pop up shop will be next or why not encourage them to order online?
- Remain in contact with customers and fans by also having an email newsletter and online deal-a-thon.
Promotion for pop up shops and events needs to be busy and vibrant, without being confused and jumbled. The only real way to do this is to have a detailed plan of how you intend promoting your event before, during and after. These three distinct areas also need to dovetail, with each promotions activity feeding in to another.
Colour Graphics is an online based printing company, offering affordable printing solutions across a wide range of media, from the smallest business card to the biggest poster. Written by James Trotter, Marketing Assistant, the power behind printed promotional material for business is something that Colour Graphics has long realised. Join us on Twitter @colourgraphics.
