Understand Your Target Market

The first step to creating an effective marketing strategy is to define your audience. Your target market will be determined by factors like the types of tobacco products you sell and where your business is located. For example, if you primarily sell fine cigars and accessories, and your business is located in an upscale mall, you may want to design your marketing strategy with older, affluent customers in mind. 

Market research is essential for understanding your target audience and their preferences. Market research involves learning about who your current customers are and what they want when they visit your shop. Your POS system is the most valuable tool you have for conducting market research. 

With your POS system, you can look for trends in your sales, see which of your products sell the most and the least, and learn more about your most frequent shoppers through your customer loyalty program. These insights are crucial as you plan promotions and craft marketing messages. 

To go a step further with your market research, you might also ask your loyal customers to participate in a survey or focus group to help you narrow down your target audience and solicit feedback on your marketing strategy. To encourage participation, consider offering a gift card or discount in exchange for their helpful input. 

Craft a Compelling Message

A successful marketing campaign will clearly communicate to potential customers why they should shop at your small business instead of a competitor’s. To get this message across, you first need to spend some time thinking about what sets your business apart. Do you stock a wider selection of cigars, cigarettes, and vape products than other stores in your area? Do you offer expert guidance to help your customers find the perfect cigar? Do you take pride in your shop’s low prices?

In the marketing world, defining what your business has to offer and why it’s unique is called developing a value proposition. Crafting a strong value proposition sets the foundation for a successful marketing strategy that will bring the right customers through your door. 

Along with addressing the right audience with the right message, you’ll also want to make sure your marketing messages are engaging, informative, and in line with your shop’s value proposition. To craft messaging that sticks, put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What questions do they want answered? What expertise do you have that they would be interested in? What would make you feel compelled to visit your shop if you were a customer?

However you plan to market your smoke shop, answering these questions and defining your value proposition will help you put together marketing messages that will resonate with your potential customers. 

Choose the Right Marketing Channels

Marketing in the right place is almost as important as marketing to the right audience. When choosing which marketing channels to use to connect with your audience, remember to keep your market research findings and value proposition in mind. Where are you most likely to reach your target audience? Which channels will communicate your unique value proposition most effectively? 

Leverage Digital Platforms

Social media can be a great tool to stay connected with your current customers and reach a new audience. For social media success, make sure to post regularly and share content that shows what your smoke shop has to offer. 

For example, when a new brand of cigar arrives in your store, you might make a post encouraging your customers to stop by. A fun way to expand your social media reach is to plan a giveaway. Allow customers to enter to win a bundle of products in exchange for engaging with your brand on social media, tagging a friend, or sharing one of your posts. 

While curating your shop’s social media presence can be a helpful way to grow your brand, it’s also important to know each platform’s rules regarding tobacco advertising. For example, Facebook and Instagram prohibit paid advertising that promotes the use of tobacco or nicotine products. (Luckily, if you get creative, there’s a lot you can do organically!)

Email is another essential way to stay in touch with your customers. Hopefully, you’re collecting contact information for your loyalty program! With email marketing, you can send regular newsletters to your customers showcasing new products that have arrived, sharing fun facts and expert tobacco tips, and advertising your current deals and promotions. While you have fewer characters to work with, SMS marketing is another fun way to stay in touch. 

To build the best possible digital presence, you might also consider creating a website for your smoke shop. Having an online store not only allows you to cater to customers who prefer to shop virtually, but it also makes it easier for potential customers to find you. Plus, being able to offer curbside pickup, in-store pickup, and local delivery is a major plus.

To take advantage of the benefits of digital marketing, lean on your smoke shop POS system. Your POS solution should support email marketing, SMS marketing, and e-commerce integrations, making it simple to build your online presence and stay connected to your customers digitally. 

Use Traditional Marketing Techniques

If you’re hoping to reach a broad audience with your marketing, more traditional channels like print, radio, and television might be solid options. These also may be good alternatives if your smoke shop is geared toward an older demographic that may not be as active on channels like social media. 

When crafting messaging for these platforms, emphasize what your smoke shop has to offer, what sets it apart from the competition, and why they should stop by. For television and radio marketing, it’s also critical to include information about where your potential customers can find you — whether you’re directing them to your website or explaining where your shop is located. 

Plan Creative Promotions

One of the most important parts of effectively marketing your smoke shop is to give new and returning customers a reason to shop with you. That means planning enticing promotions that they won’t be able to pass up. 

Here are a few unique smoke shop promotions that are easy to set up through your point of sale system: 

• Mix and Match Pricing: With mix and match pricing, you can offer special pricing to customers who purchase a specific combination of products. For example, you can promote two of your products by offering a buy one, get one 50 percent off special, and your POS software will automatically apply the discount at checkout. 
• Kit Building: Offering kits is a great way to engage with your customers, boost sales, and share your tobacco expertise. Your POS system should make it simple to group certain items together into a kit for a special price. For example, you might offer a beginner’s cigar kit or even gift set for cigar lovers. You can market these kits as opportunities for your customers to try something new or to stock up on their favorites for less. 

To make the most of these promotions, remember to include them in your marketing strategy. Whether you’re connecting with customers through social media, email, SMS, or other more traditional channels, running exciting sales like these is an effective way to generate buzz for your shop. 

A customer loyalty program is another must-have promotion for your smoke shop. Implementing a loyalty program is one of the most effective ways to boost sales and build your customer base. Through your POS system, you can offer special perks, exclusive discounts, and rewards points to your customers to encourage repeat business and increase the amount they’re willing to spend in your shop. 

Whether you’re planning to run a mix and match promotion, build a kit, or promote your customer loyalty program, make sure your smoke shop’s point of sale system is up to the task. Your POS system should make it a breeze to set up discounts that automatically apply at checkout, and it should also have a customer loyalty program built in to track membership, accumulate rewards points, and provide insights on your most loyal customers’ shopping habits. 

Monitor and Optimize Your Marketing Strategy

Creating and implementing your smoke shop’s marketing plan isn’t a one-and-done process. To make the most of your marketing efforts, you need to keep an eye on how your marketing campaigns are performing. 

The performance metric that matters most is your sales. To see how each marketing strategy impacts your profits, record when you began your marketing efforts, then check in 30, 60, and 90 days later with your POS system’s sales data. Has the number of customers visiting your shop increased? Are customers spending more on average?

It’s also important to note that launching one campaign at a time will yield the most accurate results. If you begin sharing social media posts, sending email newsletters, and promoting your customer loyalty program all at once, it can be difficult to see which of these channels is actually driving higher sales. 

Once you’ve identified which marketing channels and messages have the greatest impact on your smoke shop’s sales, you’ll be able to optimize your strategy. For example, if a print advertisement for your smoke shop had minimal impact on your sales, you can save money and time by focusing that effort instead on your shop’s social media presence.