Discover How Your Mall Marketing Strategy can Encourage Customer Loyalty
Between the popularity of online shopping and the increased expectation for a shopping mall to provide a full ‘day out’ experience, it’s no wonder that
Today’s retail destinations are facing more competition than ever before when it comes to driving customer footfall in 2024. Due to factors such as online shopping, expanding customer expectations, and increased competition, it has become necessary for shopping destinations to differentiate themselves to drive customer loyalty.
Implementing a solid shopping mall marketing strategy can help you do just that. By providing unique experiences, well-thought-out journeys, and exciting incentives, it is possible to stand out from the crowd and build a loyal customer base.
An effective shopping mall marketing strategy can help you achieve:
- Brand awareness and notoriety
- Uplift in customer acquisition
- Better customer engagement and retention
- Increased visitor traffic
- Elevated shopping experiences
- Emotional affiliation
Building Your Shopping Mall Marketing Strategy
Your shopping mall marketing strategy is your blueprint for how to approach best and promote your brand, as well as your tenants and the facilities you offer. A properly executed, omnichannel marketing strategy will drive footfall, increase revenue, and nurture customer loyalty.
To make this cohesive plan, we recommend that you start by assessing your shopping mall and asking the following questions:
- What currently sets you apart from your competitors? This could be anything from the tenants that you have, to the experiences you offer. List every differentiator and see which point you could market as “the reason” for customers to visit you.
- How do people find you? Do you have an active social media presence? Have you considered local advertising opportunities? Do customers have to drive to your location or are there public transport links? This can impact how you market your retail destinations and how shoppers engage with you.
- What do customers respond to? Look at your data and measure which types of events, experiences, or marketing communications have driven the best response rates.
- Have you done any successful marketing campaigns previously? Think about which marketing channels you’ve used up to now. Measure your email open rates, track loyalty program engagement or use social media to understand which tactics work with your audience.
- Do you have a loyalty program you can leverage? Running an effective loyalty program provides your mall with a wealth of data and customer information that can be harnessed to understand what customers connect with.
Shopping Mall Marketing Categories
There are hundreds of marketing opportunities within every shopping mall. When building your strategy, remember that doing a small number of things well is more likely to drive results than trying to do too many things at once.
Content Marketing and Communications
- Be selective about the type of content you share with your audience. Ensure you present relevant and concise content that speaks to your shoppers at every touch point. Think quality over quantity. For example:
- Promote individual tenants, including any special offers they have running
- Plan launch campaigns for new tenants, products, facilities, and services
- Share information about upcoming events
- Think about seasonal messages and the activities you could create for each holiday
- Incentivize behaviors via promotions and discounts
- Look at the communication channels you have available to you. Consider the types of content you can promote through each channel and how often you should communicate with your shoppers – it’s best to think about where your customers will most likely interact with you. For example:
- Your website
- social media account
- email database
- digital adverts
- A loyalty app
Leveraging digital marketing opportunities and publishing relevant content consistently through these channels can help you build customer engagement and motivate shoppers to visit your location more frequently.
Host Mall Events and Collaborate with Retail Tenants, Press, and Local Organizations
Hosting events in your mall offers lucrative opportunities to boost foot traffic and spending. Whether you organize events in-house, partner with external businesses, or allocate space for tenant initiatives, ensuring the events are engaging and interactive is paramount.
Here are some event ideas to consider:
- Product demonstrations
- Brand ambassadors from Facebook and Samsung went on-site at three Brookfield Properties centers to showcase new virtual reality capabilities. Samsung Virtual Reality Goggles were also available for live demonstrations with shoppers. These events drove traffic by utilizing advertising collateral throughout Brookfield’s property.
- Create seasonal experiences like Easter egg hunts or Holiday grottos
- Think about how pop-up events can offer a unique experience that caters to a wide audience.
- Offer workshops such as cooking classes or beauty makeovers
- Interactive activities can be a huge draw to those who wish to learn a new skill or simply want to get involved!
- Promotional incentives within your food and beverage (F&B) section
- Encourage shoppers to stop by and try a new product flavor, taste a sample or offer them a freebie to take home.
External partnerships can not only enhance commercial appeal but also strengthen your mall’s community ties, attracting a larger audience. Working with these partners can also double your marketing efforts!
Potential collaborations include:
- Working with local or national sports teams to do meet and greets, promote upcoming games, or interview players
- Create space for local youth clubs, support local organizations, or offer to help grow community initiatives
- Invite celebrities to open new stores and meet fans
- Invite brands to launch pop-up stores in your shopping mall.
- Work with local radio stations to host music events
Leverage Your Shopping Mall Loyalty Program
The nature of a loyalty program provides many marketing opportunities that are proven to drive additional revenue and dwell time. Here are some ideas for how to acquire and engage members throughout the year.
- Run specialist campaigns that entice lapsed members to re-engage or new customers to enroll. ‘VIP Event Weeks’ work well, as seen by our clients at Premier Outlet Budapest.
- Allow members to double their points, access discounts, or earn free rewards for certain behaviors or spending patterns.
- Give members exclusive access to VIP events and use these to encourage new membership sign-ups.
- Loyalty programs can build a strong customer base from day one. Not only can it improve your marketing communications, but loyal customers make purchases 90% more frequently than non-loyal customers.
- If you have multiple shopping malls in your portfolio, utilizing your engagement platform can help you create consistency across branches and build brand authority with your shoppers.
Utilize Your Mall’s Physical Assets
The physical environment you present plays a big part in building an emotional connection with your shoppers. Consider how you can make your shopping mall inclusive to all customer segments. For example, families, young people, and the elderly each have their own unique set of requirements and expectations when they visit your shopping mall.
Think about how your mall flows, and perhaps create walking maps to encourage healthy living and socialization. (Mall of America’s Live Well campaign offers customers different walking routes across their property and is very popular with many different age groups!) Creating multi-purpose spaces that promote fun and socialization while offering places for rest and leisure will help you create an inclusive environment.
Don’t forget to consider the potential of your outdoor space too. Here are some ways in which you could utilize your exterior:
- Host outdoor events with external pop-up businesses (For example food trucks or smoothie bars)
- Consider outdoor sustainability initiatives For example, community gardens or gardening groups can be a great way to connect with the local community and promote sustainable practices.
- Install promotional signage near your property– billboards offer an opportunity for you to promote your retail tenants, entertainment facilities, or your loyalty program to people in the surrounding area.
- Utilize branding opportunities in your parking lot so that your customers’ journey starts as soon as they pull off the road – sell advert space on your shopping carts or print offers on the back of your parking tickets to encourage customer engagement.
- Digital-forward spaces that encourage engagement such as digital maps, notice boards, virtual tours, or check-in tools will create seamless customer journeys.
The Takeaway
In an increasingly competitive market, establishing customer loyalty from the outset is crucial for the prosperity of shopping malls. By creating a robust shopping mall marketing strategy that prioritizes customer engagement, malls can enhance the shopping experience of their guests and maintain consistent visitor traffic.
Collaborating with retail tenants, local organizations, and media outlets further enhances your shopping mall’s appeal, strengthening community bonds and extending its influence. Consistency and adaptability play pivotal roles in executing a comprehensive marketing strategy. Leveraging data-driven insights and proactive feedback means that shopping malls can continually refine their approach to surpass customer expectations.
Ultimately, by embracing a dynamic and customer-centric approach, shopping malls position themselves as vibrant hubs of commerce, entertainment, and community, ensuring long-term success in an ever-evolving retail landscape while establishing customer loyalty from the outset.
