What Is POP Marketing and Its Effective Internet Strategies

Whether it’s your brick and mortar or online store, the checkout point and other places have high potential to convert and create quick sales. Businesses create special marketing displays and strategies to leverage such points of purchase, which they call as POP marketing. Here is a brief introduction to point-of-purchase marketing and its effective online strategies. ~ Ed.

Has this ever happened to you?

You’re standing in a queue at the checkout area in a retail store, and suddenly a product display catches your attention. You make a quick decision and purchase that product.

What you experienced was point-of-purchase marketing – and it worked!

Businesses and stores, both online and offline use such marketing methods and strategies to influence the customers to make a last minute impulsive purchase.

Point-of-purchase marketing is also called POP marketing. Here’s more about POP marketing and how you can create effective strategies for Internet or online point of purchase marketing.

What is POP Marketing

Point of purchase marketing commonly referred to as POP marketing is a method of marketing in which messages are delivered to a brand’s target customers at the point of purchase either online or in a retail store.

There are several digital and traditional techniques used to capture customer’s attention with the hopes of “closing the deal”.

Successful POP marketing campaigns should effectively draw the customer’s attention and persuade them to make a purchase. In-store and retail POP marketing has most to do with quick purchases. Whereas, digital POP is more focused on clicks and awareness.

Online and digital advertising is home to many POP campaigns and the dreaded “pop-up ads” that we all rush to close as quickly as possible. Nowadays many websites have ads waiting to be triggered by a click of the web visitor rather than coming into sight immediately when the web page is loaded.

POP marketing online can often be a bit experimental. That’s because flashing ads, videos, and banners may cover the web page that online browsers load. So how can you make one product or brand stand out among the normal web page which is quite busy already?

Below, is a bit more about POP marketing and how it can effectively be used to improve your brand.

What’s the Objective of Point-Of-Purchase Marketing

The main objective of in-person POP marketing is to get the customer to make a purchase on impulse.

Retailers often look for the best opportunities to showcase merchandise that may be a necessity or a complimentary item for something you’ve already purchased.

For instance, if you were the owner of a small restaurant or deli, you might consider a retailer cooler like those made by impulse merchandisers to fully display some of the best drinks you have in the store. This is an example of the point of purchase advertising.

It could convince the customer to buy a beverage as well as their meal. Displaying a cool drink to someone waiting in line at your take out counter or the grocery store checkout line can entice low-cost purchases over and over.

Likewise, a grab and go restaurant can set up display cases by the cashier with desserts to entice an eater’s sweet tooth when they are grabbing their takeout.

No doubt the point of purchase displays effectiveness and is a favorite among marketers.

Types of POP Marketing Approaches

Depending on whether you own a brick and mortar shop or an eCommerce store, POP marketing approaches can be different. A few of the most commonly used ideas used to get the customer’s attention at the last minute are:

• Aisle displays
• Counter displays
• Coupon holders
• Posters
• Digital displays
• Pop-up Ads
• Digital coupons

Each of these approaches can quickly inform customers of deals, promotions, and products they may not have otherwise known about or purchased. Seeing a coupon for a discount on a product they were thinking of buying would persuade them to purchase it now while there’s a deal.

Likewise, seeing a display at the checkout counter as you wait can draw a customer’s attention to merchandise they didn’t know existed. These point-of-purchase advertising strategies also work for online stores.

Internet Marketing Strategies to Improve POP Efforts

With other common methods of marketing, the main objective is to inform your target audience about your brand and how it can be beneficial to them.

POP marketing’s objective is to get the customer to purchase on impulse. These may be items they may not have been aware of, couldn’t afford, or didn’t realize they could benefit from. The two, as such, work hand in hand.

To effectively use one to drive the results of the other, you might do the following:

Update Your E-commerce Site

With the help of an internet marketing agency, you can optimize your website to drive conversions by implementing a Call-To-Action button on each landing page. Another effective tactic might be to deploy a pop-up on your home-page or add a “Call Us Today” button above the fold.

When you update your website with better design, display, and functionality, it cannot only encourage visitors to stay on the site longer but also explore more products or services that you are selling.

Often, company websites are lazily put together which ends up scaring visitors off. Sometimes, users looking for your businesses contact information or testimonials on your website are hit with 404 pages or other website errors. In such cases, they probably will not stay on the site for very long or visiting it again.

Re-Targeting

Using Google ads or social media advertising to retarget visitors of your website or online store is one of the best ways to entire re-clicks back to your website or even better, purchases!

Using ad campaigns to offer coupons, deals, or new products to web surfers who have already visited your site is usually a smart way to get repeat customers as well. From an e-commerce perspective, not much is worse than someone adding products to their online shopping cart only to leave your site and not make the purchase.

Retargeting and cooking can help you store their potential purchase and serve them ads for those very products they were only a few clicks away from buying. Furthermore, you can get aggressive with your targeting. You can do this by adding coupons to those ads in hopes of closing more deals for a slightly lower margin.

Use Social Media to Your Advantage

Social media is the prime platform used for marketing efforts today. Improving your brand’s credibility through social media can help cultivate new relationships with potential customers.

Businesses who regularly post relevant content, request consumer opinion, create shareable content, and encourage customer input often have a better time with driving home sales from customers.

Conclusion

Point of purchase marketing, when done effectively, can generate an influx of sales for businesses.

In order to create a successful campaign, however, it is important to first identify your audience. And then build a connection with them through various marketing avenues.

Through building an authentic audience essentially, businesses create an environment in which customers are more likely to want to make purchases based on last-minute recommendations or promotions.

Over to you

What are your thoughts and ideas about POP marketing? Share your tips for most effective point of purchase advertising in the comments.