You work hard to make your shop worth visiting. We help more people understand why they should.
Whether you sell specialist products, offer knowledgeable personal service or have something customers cannot easily find elsewhere, thebestof Eastbourne helps you turn those strengths into greater local visibility, a stronger reputation and more reasons for people to choose your business.
Having a great independent shop doesn't automatically mean enough people know about it.
We help you build on what makes your business special, using customer recommendations, local search visibility, useful content and promotion through our established Eastbourne audiences.
That means more opportunities for potential customers to come across your business, understand what makes it different and consider visiting.
And if you want more than a platform to promote your shop, our marketing support packages give us the scope to take a more active role in strengthening your visibility over time.
People don't always choose a shop because it is the closest or cheapest. Sometimes they're looking for something they cannot find elsewhere, knowledgeable advice or a more personal shopping experience.
Little Chelsea Health Store is a good example.
The business offers more than shelves of health products and supplements. Customers can speak to a knowledgeable team, ask questions about the products available and benefit from experience that is difficult to communicate through a photograph of a shopfront.
That personal service is part of the reason someone might choose to visit.
Our job is to help independent retailers identify those strengths and make them easier for potential customers to recognise.
Your existing customers can be some of your most persuasive advocates.
Their recommendations help other people understand what to expect, why they might trust you and what makes your shop worth visiting.
thebestof Eastbourne gives you tools to collect and showcase genuine customer reviews, making your reputation more visible to people who have not yet tried your business.
Reviews can also tell us something important about your strengths.
If customers repeatedly praise your product knowledge, friendly service or unusual range, those are messages worth bringing forward in your marketing.
Rather than simply telling people how good your business is, we can help them see what your customers already appreciate.
Posting on your own social media pages is useful, but much of your audience may already know you.
thebestof Eastbourne gives your business opportunities to appear in front of people who are interested in Eastbourne, local businesses, shopping, events and community life, not just people who already follow your shop.
Through our Shopping, Gift Ideas and Occasions guides, customers can find independent businesses they might not otherwise have considered.
Our Buy Local campaign also helps promote the reasons people should choose local businesses, rather than simply asking them to shop locally.
When you have something worth talking about, such as a specialist product, useful advice, an event or a timely offer, we have established channels through which to help give it greater visibility.
You don't need to become a full-time content creator or attend networking events every week to benefit.
Not every independent retailer needs the same level of marketing support.
Some simply want a stronger local presence, somewhere to showcase their reputation and opportunities to promote their business when they have something worth sharing.
Others would value someone taking a more active interest in their marketing.
That's where our different support packages come in.
With our more active marketing support, we can look at how your business is being positioned, monitor available visibility and performance information, identify opportunities and help decide where our attention is best directed.
A retailer trying to become known for a specialist product range may need a different approach from one wanting to increase awareness across Eastbourne.
We don't believe in creating marketing activity simply to fill a monthly checklist.
We want to make better use of what already makes your business worth choosing, then build on the opportunities that make commercial sense.
Being an independent business is something to be proud of, but it isn't the only reason somebody should shop with you.
Perhaps you offer exceptional service, a carefully chosen product range, specialist knowledge or something customers genuinely cannot get elsewhere.
You don't need to be an expert at marketing.
You do need to care about what makes your business different and be willing to help us understand it.
The stronger that reason to choose you, the more we have to work with.
If you'd like more people to know what makes your shop worth visiting, let's start with a conversation.
Tell me what you would most like your business to become better known for, who you want to attract and what you're already doing to promote yourself.
We can look at how thebestof Eastbourne might complement your existing marketing and which level of support would be appropriate.
Send me a WhatsApp or email to get the conversation started.
You can also find our updated Marketing Support Packages and Marketing Toolbox in the Downloads section if you'd prefer to explore the options first.
