Book lovers or “Bookworms” this is for you. Once you are reading a great book, you’re never forlorn. Therefore, with fair scripted words and our creative impulses, our top pick books have not, as it was, kept us company but have taken us to mysterious and intriguing places without having to travel. With this in mind, lets us look into how Digital Marketing Strategy benefits small book stores.
Equally important, any place quiet and peaceful enough can influence how the mind transforms imaginary thoughts to conquering the world one paragraph at a time from the comfort of your couch. This blog has written a brief digital marketing strategy for Books 4 Less, an Indie Bookstore in Linden Johannesburg, South Africa.
Publishing Perspectives, they cite, “Oren Teicher, CEO of the American Bookseller Association, wasn’t surprised that the stories about independent bookstores declining or ‘dying’ were overstated. ‘While we are still here because stores play a real role in their community, no one talks about the tens of times a day these stores are putting the right book into someone’s hand” and the joy it brings.
Digital Marketing Strategy, The Hidden Script, Success for an Indie bookstore.”
Chapter 1: Target Audience/Readers
Indeed, the community plays a huge part in keeping Independent “Indie” for short bookstores relevant today. With this in mind, Indie bookstores need to discover a way to tap into their communities, get the residents’ consideration, and make their businesses and services irreplaceable.
Undoubtedly, finding we should seek out where your target readers spend their time in their everyday lives and how they use social media. With this in mind, we can target that particular social media outlet. Though Social media could be a fantastic way to reach your specific target reader, it is a cheap way to remain associated with your “reader community.”
Even though people use social media in different ways, posting insights from your favorite books is a great way to spread the joy of reading and to connecting with your target audience!” Another way is to get in touch with nearby schools and get involved in after-school/education programs.
Indeed, hosting book fairs and having special offers or discounts for teachers and lecturers is a good marketing initiative. The more inventive a store gets and the more it utilizes social media, the more advantageous it is for the store and the community. Below you will see the stores’s current demographics.
Chapter 2: Digital Marketing Strategy, SWOT Analysis
Indeed, before any business can think of moving forward. A company should take the time and analyze itself. Doing this lets, you see where the business currently is, where the business comes from, and where it’s headed. To improve Books4Less, we have garn with a SWOT analysis.
SWOT consists of the following point.
- Strength.
- Weakness.
- Opportunities.
- Threats.
Strength:
- Offer a variety of products & services.
- Leather shoes
- Keeping low prices.
- Location.
- The store is next to a busy road and at a robot.
- Next to a Barbershop &Sneaker store.
- Fifteen schools, Four colleges in the surrounding area.
Weakness:
- Inefficient website.
- No social media presence.
- Lack of awareness of e-business.
- Limited (traditional) marketing strategy.
- Low conversion.
Opportunities:
- New shop in this area.
- Increasing awareness.
- Increasing potentials in the market.
- Website and e-commerce store are being developed.
- Product mix.
- Weekend markets.
Threats:
- Economic instability.
- Tough competition with other established online businesses.
- Limited staff.
- Store size.
Right! Now we know where the business is standing. It’s time to compare ourselves to our competition.
Chapter 3: Digital Marketing Strategy, Competitive Analysis
In ensuring we are staying in line with our competitors or moving ahead, our business will do a series of things, and conducting a competitive analysis is one of them.
Firstly, to gain and maintain competitive advantage, businesses will:
- Paying attention to our primary competitors:
- Look at products and services that are being offered.
- What social media platforms they use:
- Types of content.
- Keywords & hashtags.
- What times do they post?
- Who they associate with:
- Audience.
- Influencers.
- Businesses.
- Secondly, understanding the geographical area and the customers who express interest and desire to purchase books.
- Finally, paying attention to customers buying patterns and queries.
Market Segmentation
Though we understand the importance of market segmentation as a business, sometimes enough emphasis is not placed on its significance. Therefore, one of the things Books 4 less will do is to try to understand the needs of the customers we serve.
Know the reach of our customers; for example, what area is our target and focus? Are we operating within the walls of our city, or would it be feasible to expand our service to a broader reach? In other words, we believe it is necessary to set boundaries, mainly because our small business has limited resources and wants to maintain control.
As illustrated, we will conduct market research to understand better the people who make up the population in our geographical location, what they do for a living, their age, which makes up the majority, and their spending patterns.
Types of Shoppers
There are three types of customers who shop for books, and we believe understanding their behavior will influence our strategic decisions.
- Casual shoppers
In this case, these shoppers are often indecisive and like to do window shopping. Even though they prefer to browse casually and are not visiting with any real intention of buying anything specific, these customers may make a small purchase or none. However, they may return if drawn to something they would like.
- Hard to find shoppers
Occasionally, we will find this customer who is trying to find something specific which may be scarce. Even though there is no guarantee that we may satisfy this customer’s needs, we automatically create a loyal customer if their need is met. They will not hesitate to check with us again when they need another book.
- Specific category shoppers
These customers are high spenders and usually buy more than one item of the same class. We strive to understand the needs of these customers fully, so we can expand our line of offering to bring more customer satisfaction.
Digital Marketing Strategy
Chapter 4: Goals
Now we know where we stand with our competitors. It’s time to look at the business’s goals.
Short-term goals
While our business is not fast going, we have recognized that our most significant customers are females ranging from age 30- 65. Therefore, the short-term goal we want to implement for the company is to have more men buying books. We will grow our line of excellent business books for men over the next six months to reach a target of R20,000.00 per month.
We want to expand:
- Fantasy and science fiction for teens.
- Early educational books for youngsters.
- We want to create a functional and aesthetically pleasing website with an online store.
- Relevant social media platforms.
Long-term goals
To give the store a new look and feel. Our long-term goal is to eventually expand the store by adding other products and services to attract more traffic and conversion.
This new look will include:
- Coffee shop and a sitting area.
- Children’s learning & reading centre with a playroom.
- Incorporate Children Phycology services.
- Hosting monthly book auctions in- store and/or online.
- Adding novelties like leather belts, Leather shoes, perfume, and snacks.
Chapter 4: Digital Marketing Strategy
- Our vision is to implement a Niche Differentiator strategy.
- We will use our niche strategy to build awareness of our improved and renovated bookstore.
- Increase accessibility by implementing an online store to create ease of access to our books.
- Implement a faster turnaround time for books by implementing book drive – through and swap initiatives.
- Use different strategies to retain customers in our bookstore,
- for example:
- Membership offers and promotions.
- The coffee shop.
- Weekly book club meetings at Bookstore.
- Monthly book auctions.
- Author signing sessions.
- Children’s learning and reading centre.
- Other novelties.
- for example:
In addition, implementing a social media campaign is another driving force behind our strategy for the improvement and success of our bookstore. We will use the internet to build our customer base, measure and track our results.
- We will create a website for BOOK 4 Less that has a solid call to action and can produce conversion.
- Use exciting blogs to build relations with potential and current customers.
- Automation tool will be used to ensure consistent communication of newsletter and for scheduling social media content.
- Implementing a book club is another way to interact and build a relationship with our customers.
- And finally, we will use google my business to allow our customers to find us easily.
Chapter 6: Product Mix
In addition, we want to add our unique touch and personalization by giving our customers the freedom and relaxation to have a coffee or snack while reading their favouite books from our book club program
Again, we aim to separate ourselves from our competitors by going beyond just books but, in addition, offering a place of comfort and relaxation.
Epilogue
In closing, social media plays a massive part in reporting what is happening at stores and exposing itself to as many social media users as possible. Nonetheless, the modern world is all about video and social media content. For this reason, it is obvious the communities still find and hang on to good bookstores.
The goal of each Indie bookstore ought to reflect the community it serves.
Written by
References:
Used Book Store Business Plan – Market Analysis Summary (bplans.com)