Budgeting for Your Pop-Up Shop: 3 Major Growth Hacks to Consider
by Derek Nickerson
To all the businesses that have never had a brick-and-mortar space or physically sold their products, this ones for you! Congratulations, you have decided venturing a pop-up shop taking your brand to new levels. This is the perfect route to go for testing your product in the market place, building brand awareness and giving your customers an experience they will not forget.
You have mapped out the area, knowing the perfect neighborhood that will attract your target demographic, and even have a design in mind of how you want your store to look. But what about budgeting? This is one of the most important factors in deciding to have a pop-up shop.The opportunity is huge for a burst of exposure from foot traffic but time is always against us and if we are going to maximize our investment there are some key biz hacks to jump into.
#1 Money Talks
Figuring out the rental budget will direct your selection for a Pop-Up. There are different space types to consider:
Storefront Spaces — which tends to be the largest investment as you rent an entire space for your disposal. Average Avg. Rental Time: 3 days — 3 months $$$-$$$$
Shared Spaces— Get the same great exposure of a storefront without the hefty price tag. Rent a space with other like-minded brands. This is an excellent way to easily pop-up and gain valuable face time from your loyal customers. Clare Tattersall, of Prim and Wilde (@primandwilde) is using salons to host trunk shows. Rental Time: 1 Day — 30 Days Cost: $-$$
Event Spaces — Have a flashy product? Consider renting an entire event space. An excellent opportunity to not only display your products over a weekend but its a smart way to pop-up if you allow vendors to rent tables in your space, giving you a big bang for your buck. Avg. Rental Time: 4 Hours-7 Days Cost: $$-$$$
Specialty/Mobile Spaces — Ready to give it a go at Experiential Marketing? Create an outdoor art installation for your subscription-based brand or have a try at renting a custom van or bus and bring your show on the road! Avg. Rental Time: 14 days — 6 Months: $$-$$$$
If this is your first pop-up rodeo, we highly recommend teaming up with other brands and doing a weekend pop-up together. Once you have a group committed, give yourself about 6–8 weeks of advance for planning and promotion.
#2 Staging
Now that you have booked your space, what will draw your customers in? Eye-catching storefronts are key for a Pop-up’s success as they are known for their, unique designs. Depending on the budget, you can hire an interior designer and voice your vision or route to D-I-Y. At early stages, it will make sense to get a little crafty, invite some friends and team members create the ambiance needed in telling your story.
Start with some research to find where you can get discounted furniture or gently used furniture (ideally to rent, but craigslist has some cash steals). Collaborating with other artists is also an excellent suggestion that adds amazing color to your space and doubles to help artists looking to advertise their work. Use social outlets such as Poppir’s Artist Connect, a Facebook group. As long as there is an directive focal point that articulates what you are displaying, working with complimentary business is an excellent source.
#3 Promote! Promote! Promote!
Great! You have figured out what format you want your pop-up shop to be in. Time to promote! It is VITAL to create buzz before the shop even opens. There are some amazing options for online promotion that will drive traffic to your company website and event page. Established companies will already have a definitive budget for marketing; for the newbies (which is most of us), we are still treading water on the best options and price model.
Beginner Hack: Use Buffer to create scheduled tweets/posts about your Pop. It has a great scheduling tool allowing you to Power Schedule the same post multiple times across Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, and Linkedin and it will re-post at time intervals you select. Currently default time intervals are Now, 8 Hours, 1 day, and 7 days. (10 Minutes)
Intermediate Hack: If you are a social media regular and enjoy content curation, try this mobile biz hack. Use a content curation tool like Apple News, Scoop.it, Juice, or Hootsuite Suggestions to pull content based on keywords that compliment your business. Once you find a piece of content to share, grab the link and head over to Snip.ly to add an amazing re-targeting feature. Snip.ly allows you to brand a Call To Action at the bottom left corner of any piece of content you share. Display your logo, and a message like “Find More Interesting Pop-Up Stories Here” with a CTA to subscribe OR Mention your upcoming Pop-Up with a CTA that links them to your event page. (35 Minutes)
Advanced Hack: If the first two tips are child’s play for you, lets consider this awesome hack. Pop-Ups are all about spontaneity. Consumers love pop-ups because its like an unexpected surprise. So why not treat your marketing that way! If you chose a Flash Pop, Spot Pop, or Share Pop, and already have a small following, play the smart card and continuously market a page on your site that will show locals your next popup masterpiece 24 to 48 hours before it opens. Create a sense of urgency by letting your customers know its a flash sale or to HURRY, this popup location is ONLY available for the next 12 hours! This excites people, its like Black Friday every time your company hosts a Pop. Granted this is the most risky and why I’ve selected this as an advanced tactic, but doing so will create a viral effect with people as they all question, what and when will be the next one?
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