Retailer support in marketing

Many larger but also regional companies now rely on a wide variety of sales channels and a large network of regional retailers. In this channel strategy, an attempt is made to find the ideal sales channel for every product and service to the target group. This often results in a mix of traditional direct sales, by the company or the brand itself, as well as strong dealer involvement. In order to make the company's communication with customers consistent and effective, it is important to offer appropriate dealer support and establish a joint marketing strategy. This is the only way to ideally involve external retailers in overall brand communication.

Provide marketing materials and campaigns

The most important and obvious area of retailer support is strengthening marketing and providing retailers with the appropriate marketing materials and information they need. Ideally, retailers should be offered the opportunity to design their own advertising materials as part of the planned campaigns and adapt them for the local target group or to order ready-made materials such as promotional gifts directly from a shop. In order to communicate consistently, despite individuality and local differences, templates along the corporate design provide the necessary freedom. It is particularly important to offer various materials and to enable retailers not only to advertise locally in their shop or through printed brochures and flyers, but also to integrate them digitally and through innovative advertising measures. In particular, the use of social media and the creation of websites and landing pages are an important part of this. The online presence of a product or company in particular should ideally be carried out consistently and stringently despite different retailers. To make this possible, it helps retailers to provide high-quality media, such as images, graphics or product information, and to develop campaign plans together with retailers.

Using communication to maintain relationships

In order to successfully implement these in turn, communication is the key to success. In particular, the exchange between retailers and brands, or headquarters, helps to strengthen this relationship. Through regular communication, the head office receives as up-to-date feedback as possible on previous dealer support and can intervene directly in the event of problems. Retailers can also directly express wishes and suggestions for future marketing and cooperation in order to provide the most individual support possible. In addition to contact with headquarters, it is also helpful to offer retailers a network or exchange platform among themselves. In this way, best practices can be shared and retailers can learn and benefit from each other or join forces to form advertising communities. In order to further strengthen cooperation, training and joint planning phases can strengthen know-how and cohesion. In general, it is worthwhile to invest in dealer support and relationships with individual partners, as these represent the direct interface to the customer.

Financial support

This investment can be carried out not only in terms of maintaining relationships, but also through financial support. Especially in the marketing sector, it is possible to support retailers with free advertising materials or advertising subsidies. Ideally, this financial aid is linked to sales or successes and serves not only as support, but also as motivation to generate a particularly large amount of turnover. Support is most successful when it is individually tailored to individual retailers and different incentives and bonuses can be awarded. Implementation and software support In order to make this collaboration as easy as possible, it helps retailers to offer a platform on which they can find all necessary information and templates and connect directly with the head office. On this platform, complete cooperation with retailers is organized and all content can be accessed without a long search. In general, retailer support — in terms of content or financial — always leads to better, more targeted channel marketing and to increase sales of their own products.