What is POS in Marketing? Maximise Point of Sale Advertising

So many business owners purchase their point of sale (POS) system believing that they are only buying a tool they’ll use to process transactions and communicate with credit card machines. The simple truth is that a properly used POS will save everybody time–customers, staff, and managers–in every aspect of day-to-day working life.

Marketing is a key part of this. Point of sale marketing can be as simple as storing customer data in real-time as customers make purchases. The rest can be automated. 

Marketing your business is quicker and easier if you take advantage of the technological tricks that POS places at your fingertips. So what does POS mean in marketing?

The value of the POS acronym in marketing

All good POS systems will have customer data storage abilities, and when used well, this can lead to an enormous amount of data being collected which can be used for marketing purposes.

Many businesses are migrating to email receipts which means that email collection is becoming more common in transaction processes. Cashiers and servers are naturally asking if an email receipt is desired, and it takes very little time to confirm whether those customers would like to receive marketing communications.

Over time, a business following this process will accumulate large numbers of emails ready to receive marketing materials. This is such a valuable resource when wanting to spread the news of new products, promotions, and services available and to maintain contact with those customers.

Managing promotions in itself is a much easier process with POS at your disposal. Promotions are stored and can be switched on and off, automatically applying to relevant products which can be easily added and removed.

A great example of this would be Christmas promotions, which can be set to switch on from a certain date each year, leaving only minor adjustments such as new seasonal products to be added. This saves time during a particularly busy part of the year.

POS marketing tools

Beyond the management, promotional, and data advantages that a POS solution provides are the benefits of integrations. Epos Now, for instance, has hundreds of apps partnering systems with specialty programs that provide particular services a business may need. This means there are additional marketing tools ready for businesses to use. 

Mailchimp 

One of these is Mailchimp. Mailchimp provides marketing management software to businesses to help make promotional work easier. 

The service encourages an omnichannel marketing strategy and provides design assistance with emails and postcards, social media, digital ads, automated messages, sign-up forms, and landing pages. Helping businesses market in so many ways has made Mailchimp an influential tool in a business's arsenal.

Integrating with Mailchimp allows for the synchronisation of POS and Mailchimp databases. This means when customer information is added to your POS during checkout, they will automatically appear on Mailchimp to be quickly added to your marketing campaign.

NearSt

When it comes to getting the word out on what you’re selling, there are few opportunities quite as exciting as the local inventory advertising provided by NearSt. NearSt connects to your Google Business account to help manage and grow your online adverts and drive the nearby shoppers to your store.

NearSt helps businesses corner their market and optimise their customer base by getting them maximum exposure in their communities and beyond. The integration automates the process of inventory advertising and ensures local web searches for products available in-store are displayed in online adverts.

The integration can allow businesses to automatically advertise top-selling products by using the POS data to determine the best adverts to push, making marketing decisions with technology instead of your time.

Loyalzoo

Loyalzoo provides a digital loyalty solution that removes plastic loyalty cards from the equation. Loyalzoo automates the process of marketing your business to existing customers with loyalty management schemes for VIP, new customers, and customers who haven’t visited for a while.

The app integration links your customer database on your EPOS system to your Loyalzoo app, so you can spend less time on marketing, and more time on day-to-day trading.

With integrations like these, marketing for small businesses and growing traders does not mean hours spent poring over design and content creation. The advantage of POS is often automation, which means less work for more results.

POP and POS in marketing

Point of purchase (POP) refers to the products businesses (usually but not necessarily retailers) sell in the checkout area. They tend to be more eye-catching products that draw attention and gain those extra impulse purchases for the business.

The POP display is one of the most valuable display areas in the business where you can promote the products and services you provide. It is no coincidence, for instance, that many retailers place their most sugary snacks nearest the cash registers as they provide that extra temptation that leads to a further sale. 

Once again, one of the best ways to weaponise your POS is to use it to make the most intelligent decisions possible through the reports your system generates. When switching the products around the point of sale display, your POS reports can inform you of changes in your sales trends so you can uncover which products receive the biggest boost.

Learning how to analyse your POS data is a useful trick as it can inform your marketing strategies. POS data is a key part of your business as it helps you know your business and this means knowing what customers find special about what you offer. Those specialties are the things to focus on in your marketing.

The Epos Now marketing offer

For businesses wishing to get the word out on their exciting products and services, there are few better decisions than switching to an Epos Now solution! For retail or hospitality industries, CRM has never been easier:

• Manage and add to your customer database with extraordinary ease
• Email, text or mail your customers with in-house or external marketing tools
• Integrate with the best marketing software for the latest online advertising techniques 
• Market from Majorca, Melbourne, Minneapolis or Manchester with Epos Now’s cloud-based POS

Find out more online or get in touch with our expert team by submitting your details below to see what Epos Now could do for your business.