Highly Organised Retail Shopping Centre Marketing Builds the Tenant Mix
The marketing of a retail shopping centre is critical to improving the overall property performance and encouraging the tenant mix to thrive in terms of sales and customers.
Even in these changing retail times, any retail shopping centre, small or large, should have a marketing plan. The larger the retail property, the more complex the marketing plan. The marketing plan supports customer attraction, and that customer attraction provides sales that ultimately underpin tenant success and property occupancy.
The property manager, landlord, and tenants all have a vested interest in making the marketing of the property successful. A performing property will have stronger rentals and fewer vacancies. The tenants in the property will achieve more sales from a well-run marketing campaign.
Download retail property checklist here
Checklist for real estate agents in sales, leasing, or property management.
Get the fully detailed retail property and shopping centre checklist in PDF form for your ongoing reference and use in sales, leasing, or property management activity with investment properties.
More Customers Matter
The retail marketing effort aims to attract customers to the property. Other properties in the same area will be chasing your tenants and shoppers. For this reason, your marketing has to be well-planned and implemented. It must focus on your property and how it can serve customers locally. As part of that process, you need to track door counts at the shopping centre on different days of the week.
A retail property marketing plan covers a full year of operation and should accommodate all of the trading seasons and customer shopping patterns.
You want customers to come to your property, and you want them to come back frequently. A ‘happy customer’ will do that. Concerning property performance in retail strip malls and shopping centres, convenience means a lot.
Over time, a property’s tenant mix should serve your customers comprehensively and comfortably. A convenient shopping centre is usually a successful property. Our shoppers want a variety of offerings and convenience of access and parking.
Retail Shopping Centre Marketing Plan
Here are more ideas to incorporate into your retail shopping centre marketing plan. Shape your retail property marketing plan focusing on customer interest and activity. Monitor the results via sales tracking and customer numbers at the door counters.
1: Selected Brochures for customers
Brochures should be dropped quarterly into the letterboxes of all residences in the surrounding shopping area and demographic. Each brochure should be branded to the shopping centre and heavily geared to seasonal changes.
2: flyers and bag stuffers for all Sales
Bag stuffers are brochures and leaflets given to shoppers when they purchase goods. All tenants should work together to make the bag stuffers process productive.
3: Get the Community Involved
Community groups can be involved in your property and its marketing efforts. Give the local community groups some time throughout the year to have booths in the mall’s common areas or the property. The booths should be run and manned by the community groups at peak shopping times for the local shoppers, usually on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
4: Selection of Prizes and Giveaways
Giveaways are always a valuable part of retailing, and travel competitions can attract more people to the property. The giveaways and competitions can be funded from the property’s marketing levy. You should get a reduced price on an attractive prize for your competition in exchange for some special ‘free’ promotion at the shopping centre.
5: Tenant Involvement and Feedback
The tenants in the property will know what the customers are looking for when it comes to retail goods and services. Ask the tenants frequently about what they see in customer needs and shopping patterns. Adjust property promotions around the tenant mix and the ideal shopper coming to the property today.
6: Local Festivities
Seasonal festivals and holidays can be incorporated into promoting the property. The local area will have patterns of seasonal festivities. Get the community groups involved in the shopping centre promotional activity.
7: Schools and Holidays
Schools should be involved in your property. The local schools and colleges could be invited to run a music concert or art display in the mall on Saturday mornings. The marketing fund could donate money to the school as part of that involvement. The local school can promote their concert in your Shopping Centre in their Newsletter.
8: Selected Charities
Charities and similar organizations that benefit the community will want space in your property from time to time. You can also have them cross-promoted in your Shopping Centre Newsletter.
9: Decorate and Refresh
Purchase large decorations for the seasonal sales and promotions at the property. The alternative to purchasing your own marketing material is to hire it. Both methods have advantages, and it depends on your budget and ability to store marketing materials in the ‘off-season’.
10: Levies for tenants Regarding Marketing
Marketing levies should be applied to all tenants as a basic way of funding the marketing effort throughout the year. The tenants’ leases should be adjusted to allow for this process.
11: Centre Manager Involvement
A good shopping centre manager is also a good marketer of a retail property. They know how to attract more shoppers to the property, encourage sales results, and increase tenant involvement.
