So I used to be a pretty heavy smoker, stress does that to you but I also enjoyed it. I quit a few different times and always went back to smoking until I started vaping. If you’re someone that has switched to vaping, you probably spend a little bit of time at your local vape shop, checking out new equipment, trying different juice flavors, and just hanging out.
Well I started talking to the owner of the vape shop pretty regularly and became close. We talked politics, world events, economics, and eventually marketing.
He made an offer I couldn’t refuse…
The 3 Things That DOUBLED The Sales of a Vape Store
The reason I’m sharing this, isn’t to brag or pat myself on the back. I can do that enough, without blogging about it. I’m sharing this because often times people in this industry (marketing not vaping) underestimate the impact we can have on a business.
People tend to under price their services, or they just think that what they’re doing isn’t making a big difference.
Business owners aren’t stupid, but sometimes they just don’t have the technical “know-how” to implement certain strategies.
There are a few lessons you can learn from this post:
- Identifying opportunities with an existing customer base.
- The importance of aggressive retention.
- Bringing in new customers through online visibility.
- Analyzing the competition and diluting their reach.
So let’s get started.
#1 – Implementing a Customer Retention Program
This business has been collecting emails and phone numbers from the very beginning. They had about 400 cell phone numbers they’ve collected since opening.
They had a good idea, collect their information and do a monthly drawing for a bottle of ejuice, and sometimes batteries and other items.
When someone would win, they would tag them on facebook which gave them some additional social exposure.
This was stuff they did on their own. All I did was improve their current system.
They had a nice collection of phone numbers so I implemented an SMS texting system for them to enter the numbers and send out weekly specials, and perks of giving them your number. We implemented “buy one get one free” offers, along with spend X amount and get X% off.
Something so basic and easy to set up has dramatically improved their business. Existing customers came back more often, they spent more money even though they were taking advantage of sales, and this also increases word of mouth marketing which is a very big deal among “vapers”.
This was a quick win, with long term lasting power.
A small time investment, very minimal financial investment, without even trying to reach a new audience or acquire NEW customers, resulted in about a 65% increase in sales.
(EDIT: I should also mention that a rewards system was implemented with a business card/hole punching thing where if you buy a bottle of juice, you get a hole punched, once you get 5 holes you get a free bottle of juice, Wednesdays are special days where you get 2 holes punches for 1 bottle)
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#2 – Being Visible Online, and in Search
The next problem area, is an area I saw another opportunity for some quick wins.
They didn’t have a website, and I wasn’t going to build one because I didn’t think the competition was high enough to do that and I wanted to keep expenses low.
They didn’t have a Google My Business listing, no citations, no directory listings, all they had was a facebook page.
First thing I did was create their GMB listing, do everything I could to optimize the listing. I also setup a Youtube Channel for their business and created a slideshow video made with Animoto. It was pretty simple but they loved it, and the purpose was to get a high powered citation, and rank it for the city + vape shop.
I also registered a domain for them, their business name was available so I registered it and setup a redirect to the facebook page.
Created about 80 citations, got them listed on Yahoo and Bing along with niche specific directories and forums. The forums were posts about “Recommended Vape Shops in city name or location.” This brought a little bit of relevance to the business but also more exposure because these forum threads were ranking for some decent terms.
After a couple weeks went by they noticed an increase in calls and drive by traffic, people traveling through the city that weren’t from around there. They found them through Google.
They popped up in the local rankings at #2, then another week went by and they hit #1.
This obviously brought in a new customer base, but also gave them additional opportunity by collecting more opt ins for SMS campaigns. Every new customer has an average value, and that average value increases by about 50-60% average on a monthly basis if they opt into the SMS list, by filling out their information for a monthly drawing.
So the funnel exists, attract, convert, then customer retention and customer value optimization.
Very basic stuff right? Just the online work that was performed results in an additional 25% increase in sales.
#3 – Implementing A Rewards App To Piggyback off Competitors
I knew the first two things would work. I didn’t expect it to be as huge as it was but I knew it would work and help their business regardless.
The 3rd thing implemented, I must admit, it was a shot in the dark. An educated guess that may or may not work.
There is one MAJOR competitor. There’s a few others around but there’s only one other real competitor that probably has the majority of the market share in the area.
I have friends that are really into vaping and they go store to store, and this competitor is one of the places that gets most of their business.
I did some research and tried finding out why, along with asking people and they said it was because of the belly app. Belly is an app where you get points for spending money at a store and you can get rewards. They like to collect their points, and they’ve had the app before even knowing about the competitor.
If you have the belly app, you see suggested retailers for different things and can get points by spending money there.
Their main competitor has been using this, and has been pretty successful with it.
After thinking about this, I came to the conclusion you don’t really have to be implementing other forms of marketing to compete, the owner of that store chases people off and it’s only a matter of time until my vape shop(not mine but you know what I mean) takes more market share. So the thought was why not get “Belly” so we show up to their entire customer base whenever they open their belly app at the competitor?
This may seem a little weird and maybe ineffective since there already is an “offline” reward system, but why not also implement an app based reward system while also diluting the main competitor’s efforts, and piggy back on their own marketing?
They already have a proven list of buyers… signing up for this app that people already have been using there, and instantly getting exposure to their customers seemed like a good idea.
Did I know if it would really work? No, I had no clue… just an educated guess based on analyzing the competition and trying to piggyback on their own efforts.
The result? 20% increase in sales.
The three things implemented, brought over a 100% increase in sales. More than doubled the business.
What You Can Takeaway From This?
I said you were going to learn 4 major points.
- Identifying opportunities with an existing customer base.
- The importance of aggressive retention.
- Bringing in new customers through online visibility.
- Analyzing the competition and diluting their reach.
Identifying opportunities with an existing customer base, that was easy with a rewards system along with SMS campaigns for retention and optimizing the average customer value. This was also an example of aggressive retention… the “lead magnet” was the monthly drawing for a free bottle of juice, this gave them the phone number and emails and names of the customers to remarket them.
Obviously the online marketing also worked, and it worked without a website.
The last thing talked about was the “Belly App” and using it not to be innovative in marketing but to piggy back on the competitors marketing and get exposure to their customer base. Often times you can analyze your competition, dilute their reach by implementing the same techniques, getting to be in the same places. It’s almost like 3rd party validation with the chance of being better than what their customers are used to. It was a risk, but a small risk with big reward.
The Bottom Line
If you’re a consultant or trying to get started in marketing, web design or SEO you have to realize and be confident of your ability to make a difference to a business. It’s often times the work you do that can allow a business to hire an additional employee(s), increase their profit, market share, and really make a difference in their life.
You also need to be willing to look for easy opportunities. Why is it that marketers like to pitch the possibility of more, new business instead of implementing programs for customer retention which is probably the most important thing for an existing company?
You also have to be creative… I knew local search was a great way to get more visibility, and I was able to accomplish that without even having a website! How many opportunities are you missing in low competition areas because you don’t want to do local SEO for someone that doesn’t have a website?
Amazing value here. Which SMS provider did you use?
Group texting is the company we used, they have good rates, its super user friendly for the owner to run campaigns and it’s vape shop friendly. Not all providers allow vape shops.
Thanks for the value in the article I learned a TON!!!.
Thanks Derrell, good to hear! I appreciate the comment.
Great article.
What’s your thoughts on the Biz having their own personal App that has an App based loyalty program and customers can buy via the App?
Great for customer retention. What’s your thoughts?
Great comment and question. The problem with businesses having their own app is that if they aren’t big enough, it’s just a waste of time and money. The reason we went the Belly App route was to pick up on some “built in” customers from other businesses as well as the main competitor. We wouldn’t have been able to do that with a personal app.
So really, I think having your own app is good as long as you have the customer base. If not, then it doesn’t really do much for you in terms of sales and profit.
Awesome content Nathan. I really loved the step by step strategy that you implemented to increase the sales of this company.
I totally agree that sometimes a website isn’t necessary while many marketers out there just focus 90% on it.
Sometimes I find much more value in providing a good social media marketing strategy instead of creating the whole website and ranking it (In example I acquired a customer that had a Bar here and we didn’t even develop the website for him. We have gone through other kind of marketing strategies such as Facebook page strategies where we promoted their events and proposed particular offers and news about new kind of food they create each week).
Thanks for the comment Andrea. A lot of people think that because a business doesn’t have a website, that you can’t do any marketing for them or improve their overall digital presence. This is just proof that you can pretty easily do that and make a significant impact!
It’s irritating for me when a high-profile vape store doesn’t have an online store. I’m a shut-in for the most part b/c I can’t drive due to blindness (tho I do still retain some light perception but I’m night-blind, color-blind to like colors, & I can only see within 1-3in from my eyes & that’s on a good day; this doesn’t begin to incl’ the fact I’ve got 4 autoimmune diseases & will likely be totally wheelchair bound in the near future, plus I live in the middle of Backwoods, USA where they roll up the sidewalks at 5pm & nothing’s open on Sat/Sun as well as living in the midst of the bible belt where it’s not a good thing to be a non-Christian & I’m a non-Christian).
There are only 3 vape shops in the area nearest to me. I’m referred to a 10-15 mile radius. One of the 3 carries primarily unknown brands of products & the e-juices are primarily out of China with a lot of them being DeKang, which I despise! The other shop out of the 3 carries only a few of the newer products along with a couple brand-new products, but are often lacking coils for the major tanks on the market that are used. Most of the e-juice is in a 40/60 to 50/50 mix. I’ve found that these thinned down mixes tend to run out of my tank’s airflow ports whereas the 30/70 to 20/80 run better & my tank can handle HIGH/MAX VG. The last of the 3 vape stores carries a lot of newer more popular branded e-juices; hwr, it’s not easy to separate with $20+ for 30mls of juice when you can go online to high-end, high-quality vendors and buy 120mls of vape juice for the same price & most often it’s pre-steeped, although some of the vendors with these prices allow another few days to a week before the richer flavors come out but if you catch yourself in a bind with no juice, the ones that require a bit more steeping is vapable straight out of the mailbox & b/c of the 120ml size and the need to open the bottle, it’s normally at perfect vaping experience within a few days. The other upside about this vape shop with the $20+ for 30mls juice is that they can walk you through step-by-step when learning to build coils. I think this is the major plus for this store; hwr, I haven’t been able to stop in for any real time since I landed myself in 2 air-casts & a wheelchair. The guy who is usually a the bar/register (not sure if he’s the owner or not; it’s not easy to tell these days b/c there are a lot of young people getting into the vape business & doing well) is a kind young man. Yes, he’s much younger than me & sounds as if he may be about my oldest daughter’s age; hwr, he doesn’t mind that I am blind or that I want to learn to build my own coils. I explained how I am in constant fear of running out of the pre-built coils since SSDI doesn’t go far after paying bills, esp w/a child in college. I was taken off all my anti-inflammatory medication b/c my liver function test came back wonky. My hands, feet, ankles, knees, & even my eyes stayed inflamed a lot but if I can get a day when it’s not as bad or I take enough ibuprofen to equal a prescription dose from the OTC bottle, I could probably spend an hour with him learning to twist the coils for my tank by bringing my tank with me. I am of the mind that if I can teach myself to grind, tamp, & pull some amazing espresso shots then froth/steam/heat milk to make milk (lactose-free/non-dairy but milk all the same) -based espresso w/o sight, then I can learn to build coils too! Considering the fact I was able to teach myself to pull espresso shots & make frothed, steamed, & heated milk for the milk-based espresso drinks, the young man has a lot of faith in the fact that I will most likely pick up building my own coils in no time. The only thing missing is trying to find out if SFB (Svcs for The Blind) can find me a talking Ohm reading for tanks. It’s all I’m missing to do this without the assistance of someone being at home with me since after my daughter moves back into the dorms, my day is pretty much spent alone & this semester & following semester ‘year’ I will be alone, more so than before b/c I lost my guide dog in February to age. He was 15-1/2yrs old, which is a rarity for large breed dogs in general but even more so for service dogs as they normally don’t live beyond 12-13yrs on the outside. My heart simply isn’t open to having another one right now; also, if I do have to go into a wheelchair after the new sets of scans are taken, I will need a cross-trained guide dog and there’s currently a 3-year waiting list. So I’ll be on my own & going out like that scares the hell out of me b/c I can’t ‘see’ where I’m going.
As for the building business ideas, I think they are great. But if there’s a vape shop worth it’s salt that can compete with online stores, the only store is the way to go, IMHO. I don’t buy much locally or even statewide from where I live. Most of my e-juices and accessories come from vape shops w/brick & mortar stores but they also have their online shop that allows me to browse the options and then make my purchases. Normally they arrive within a few days & for those with tracking numbers, I get a text when the package goes from one area to the next as well as receiving a notification when the delivered package is literally IN MY MAILBOX! this eliminates the need to keep checking the mailbox to find out if the mail carrier has made it. I don’t have a ramp yet so it’s tough to get in & out of my house let alone to and from the mailbox but that will be taken care of in time, along with redesigning a bathroom that will be fully handicapped & wheelchair accessible.
I wouldn’t count out online customers, esp when a shop is great b/c I find certain shops I like & I support them by being a repeat customer, sharing my experiences on Twitter & their Facebook page as well as leaving reviews on products I’ve purchased.
I’m simply throwing this out there as ‘food for thought.’ I’d also like to add that because I’m on 4 support groups (technically 5 but the 5th is pretty much a group where we can rant about our day & have others there who know what it’s like and can relate.); the membership of these 4 (5) groups run from 10,000+ to 200,000+ subscribers. I share my reviews and I have some who write to me personally asking me to recommend a flavor of e-juice and where the best place is to buy it as well as the best brand to try; I get mod & tank requests as well. The stores and the e-juices I recommend are ones that I have used myself b/c it’s the only way i can give an accurate account as to what my personal feelings toward a company are from personal experience. In addition, i share my username on FB in case anyone wants to ask me questions regarding working around issues where physical disabilities can cause problems, esp with regards to arthritic hands & blindness.
Eh bud, what happen to your posts. Been coming by every now and then for an update. Looking forward to some updated thoughts on local seo. Thanks Nate!
Been pretty busy, I explained in the new income report but I’m back now.
Awesome post dude. Definitely hella creative good sir. Perfect way to analyze what they already have and implement a proactive plan that actually proves powerful results right up front and solving their problem efficiently. That’s a huge trust builder.
Thanks for the comment Mrblo0m!
What do you mean by creating citations?
Citations are basically just instances on 3rd party sites that contain the business name, address and phone number. Here’s 2 posts you can check out:
Top 50 Citations for Local SEO and Citation Building Guide
Thank you!
The stuff you did for this shop, what would you usually charge them to do so?
Thanks for the question Zach, unfortunately I have to respond with an unhelpful “it depends”. LOL. Vape shops don’t really have a lot of money, most of their money gets reinvested into inventory since this industry is still young and growing. This isn’t a big money niche for marketers, like roofing, dentists and other medical field or blue collar service industries.
I totally hear you, I was just wondering a rough estimate or range. I say this because those SMS systems and reward systems are obviously costly, so what would you charge in order to help them out with those and also for the hours you put in for providing your services.
Nathan,
This post opened my eyes to see the potential of implementing these strategies in other niches. Thanks…
Quick question: If you were to monetise this, how much would you have charged him to do all of this, and how do you figure out the pricing of it.
I was going to say that, “you sir are a beast” in bringing such great content to us. I didn’t know if that would be okay or not.
Cheers,
Cary
wow awesome tips I will be trying these over the next week or so
Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions.
Awesome content Nathan. I really loved the step by step strategy that you implemented to increase the sales of this company.
I totally agree that sometimes a website isn’t necessary while many marketers out there just focus 90% on it.
I am happy to have found this information on this article, Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this subject.
Hello guys!
I have just opened my own vape company and we are basically making our own e-juice and reselling other juices to vape shops.
I thought that the best way to promote my vape company and get new clients would be through the vape company e-mail list from The Eliquid Boutique UK. I heard from many vape company owners that the vape company email list has helped them to take their business to the next level.
I wanted to ask you whether you have personally used that vape company email list and whether you would recommend it?
I just need some confirmation before I get it.
Thanks for your time!
I’d advise against it. It’s not hard to build your own list. Buying from someone else just means the list is getting bombarded by the same people you’re already competing with. There’s easier ways.
Hey, I contacted you a couple weeks ago about your rankings in Google, as well as offers to promote and web development services. Did you receive the email? Dominick Host
I did not.