Your POS system doesn’t have to only be a point of monetary exchange. Modern POS systems come with so many extra tools, you can literally turn them into business-enhancing powerhouses.
One important part of running a business is marketing, and you’d be amazed at just how important having a good POS system is for creating better marketing campaigns. Here are five ways to leverage your POS system to make smart marketing decisions.
Create Customer Profiles
Modern POS systems usually come standard with a customer profile database. Here you can store information gathered from your customers including names, addresses, phone numbers, and emails. This is a great starting point from which to send promotional materials directly to your customers.
When you create a customer profile, you’re essentially making the customer a part of the business. All of their information will be stored securely in your database for future use, and you can always use it to check on recent purchases or check the validity of any non-receipted returns.
Customer profiles are vital to getting to know your customers. The more you interact with the customer and their profile, the better you’ll be able to serve them. Knowing a customer on a first name basis creates a level of trust they may not be getting at other businesses, putting you ahead of the game.
Track Customer Purchases
The best way to market effectively is to know who you’re marketing to. What better way to learn what your customers like than to track their purchases? With a POS system, every transaction will be saved for later review, or to act as a sort of digital receipt should your customer need to return an item.
From your POS system, you can see exactly which products certain customers purchase the most of, so the next time you send out coupons, you’ll be able to create customized coupons for those products. This increases the chance that the email or letter won’t get trashed. If you’re sending customers coupons for their favorite items, they’re more likely to make a trip to purchase them.
You can also track sales as a whole, rather than on a customer-specific level. This allows you to track the highest-selling items, so you can gain a better understanding of what your customers want as a group. Once you understand how your customers shop, you can launch much more effective marketing campaigns.
Store Analytics
Many POS systems even come with analytics tools, which can help you track purchases, foot traffic, and much more. Analytics are a vital part of running a business, but they can also be used to create more specific marketing campaigns.
Using analytics tools, you can learn when your store is the busiest, whether it be by day, week, month, or year. From there, you can center your promotional periods around those busy times, sending out flyers or emails just before to entice even more customers into your store.
Pay close attention to your analytics tools, watching for any gradual or sudden changes in sales or other metrics. This information can help you navigate and plan for slow seasons or other downtimes, as well as assist you in planning out your staffing needs. Remember, the best tool you have at your disposal is information.
Improve Store Efficiency
You’re probably thinking “what does store efficiency have to do with marketing?”. Well, for starters, marketing costs money. How do you free up money? You need to cut costs, or in other words, increase your store’s efficiency. With a POS system, you can do just that. Not only does a POS system have marketing and customer profile tools, but also inventory tools that can help you cut down on costly inventory mistakes.
Not to mention, with a more efficient store, you’ll be able to spend more money on making the shopping experience top notch for your customers, which becomes something that is marketable. Never underestimate the power of setting yourself apart from the competition with even the smallest changes.
Customers will appreciate a more efficient store, as will the business’s budget. The more efficient you are, the more money you have to spend, the happier your customers will be, and the better your business will perform overall.
Detailed Receipts
How can a receipt become a marketing tool? Receipts are often saved by customers, and, believe it or not, a lot of customers actually read their receipts. This means they spend time looking over that receipt, and what better place to include marketing materials?
You can include coupons, promotions, ads, pretty much anything you want on a receipt. You can even include customer experience surveys to gain further insight into the wants and needs of your customer base. With a provided link, and perhaps even an incentive such as entry into a drawing, you can make taking the survey more attractive to your customers.
Your social media and contact info can also be included on your receipt, giving the customer an all-in-one tool for getting ahold of your business and learning about future promotions. A receipt is so much more than just a piece of paper with purchase information on it!
Conclusion
One of the most powerful marketing tools at your disposal is your POS system. You can collect customer information, track sales, print detailed receipts, and so much more. Be sure to use your POS system to its fullest potential!