Make
Your Store Opening Grand
Colette A. Weil, MBA
You've committed to HME
retail. You've leased a location or built a new
store. Now, since cash sales are your top priority,
it's time to build visibility and patronage. Begin
with your real estate. Let the community know your
store is established and ready to serve its home
medical equipment needs.
The relationships you build during
your retail launch can last for years, so the time
it takes to plan and carry out a successful opening
event — and the PR that goes with it —
should be well worth the effort.
Here are some tips to make sure
your store's grand opening celebration (or a store
remodeling or a retail category expansion) is an
event that your potential customers will remember.
- Don't wait to start
your marketing plan until your store's
grand opening. Consider scheduling the grand opening
event a month after the store opens. Give yourself
time to train your staff, fine-tune displays and
selection, schedule vendor involvement and role-play
sales scenarios, such as a complete scooter, lift
chair or stair lift sales presentation. Put magnetic
signs on your delivery trucks announcing the grand
opening date and your address.
- Use your first month in business
to make personal calls on referral sources
and the professional community, and direct
mail your grand opening announcement to this audience.
Personally invite them to your scheduled events,
or host an opening breakfast. Hold another “get
to know us” coffee for all shopping center
or nearby businesses' employees. They are a great
source for word-of-mouth and can tell their friends
and relatives what home health care equipment
and supplies are!
- Use the grand opening event
as your kickoff point. If you are in a leased
space or building, check with your landlord
about putting up grand opening signs, balloons
or flags and using the parking lot for
special displays.
- Set a grand opening “week”
with several days of activities, but promote
for a longer period. This will give you
time to schedule the town mayor's “new business”
ribbon-cutting ceremony, invite other interested
participants and schedule vendor demonstrations.
Send a press release about the event to
local media, and offer a personal “tour”
of your facility to explain what it's all about.
Be sure to include a photo of your facility, your
contact information and business card to allow
for any follow-up.
- Plan on advertising
the festivities in the local paper and radio,
and place posters in assisted living facilities
and support group and community meeting centers.
Distribute your company's newsletter in senior
centers, retirement communities, sports centers,
golf clubs, churches, tennis clubs, parent and
caregiver support groups and other related support
organizations. Check to see whether your newsletter
could be distributed through your local Meals
on Wheels program or handicapped transit. And
look at advertising your new store within these
venues or with these organizations.
- Don't limit your grand opening;
continue advertising and promotion for as long
as you think it will bring you a payback. One
idea is to highlight a different product/service
area each month with a grand opening
promotion and demonstrations. This assures that
each major audience segment you want to attract
will be specifically contacted with a targeted
promotion.
- If you have a database of contacts,
be sure to direct mail a grand opening flyer.
Find out what demographic mailing lists
are available within your desired market area,
and target the specific audience segments you
want to attract. Participate in the “Welcome
Wagon” program that specifically targets
new home owners. Their brightly colored flyer
is a standout in any mailing.
- Work with vendors on
cooperative advertising funds, free literature,
newsletter content, sales rep and promotion support,
in-store planograms, Web links and plug-ins and
more.
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