28 marketing ideas for your shop

1. Photograph the window and the rails45 min

Add ten daylight photos to your Google Business Profile: the window from the pavement, the rails, three pieces styled, the fitting room, the front door. People decide whether a shop is 'for them' almost entirely from photos.

2. Ask at the counter, mark the sheet0 min extra

Ask every customer how they found you and tally it by the till. A fortnight tells you whether Saturdays come from the street, Instagram or Google — and which one you're pouring time into for nothing.

3. Post the piece styled, with the sizes20 min

Photograph one item properly in daylight, on a person if you can, and always say which sizes you have and what it costs. Shops lose more sales to an unanswered 'have you got a 14?' than to price.

4. Reply like a shopkeeper, not a brand30 min

Answer every Google review from the last three months in your own words. An independent shop lives on feeling welcoming, and nothing signals that faster than a real reply to a real person.

5. Start the new-in list20 min

Card at the till: 'we'll message you when new stock lands.' A list of locals who want first look is the cheapest way to sell a delivery in a week instead of over a whole season.

6. Sell the delivery the day it lands15 min

Post new stock the day it arrives, not when you finally get round to styling it. First look is the whole appeal, and anything that sells in week one is stock you never have to discount later.

7. Read the tally and the sell-through15 min

Look at where customers came from and which rail actually sold. Buy more of what went in week one, and stop reordering the thing that always ends up on the sale rail in February.

8. Find the empty hours on the till15 min

Pull last month's sales by day and hour. Independent shops are usually dead on weekday mornings. Name the exact window and point the whole week at it rather than at 'more footfall'.

9. Make the quiet hour a service, not a sale25 min

Discounting a quiet morning just trains people to wait for the discount. Sell what only works when it's empty instead: a booked styling hour, a proper fitting appointment, a bring-your-wardrobe session, coffee and no pressure.

10. Invite the list first25 min

The people on your new-in list already like you. Offer them the styling hour first, by name, before anyone else hears about it. A booked appointment beats a hoped-for browse.

11. Co-host the weekday morning30 min

Ask a nearby non-competing business to share the quiet hour: the café next door doing the coffee, a jeweller bringing a tray, a local maker running a trunk show. Two customer lists, one morning, no spend.

12. Post the shop looking lovely and empty20 min

Shoot the shop tidy and sunlit the evening before, with 'tomorrow morning, no queue, come and try things on properly'. Calm is a real selling point against a Saturday scrum.

13. Open up and ask0 min extra

On the morning, ask every customer what got them through the door. You're testing whether it's the appointment, the calm or the coffee — and that decides what you offer next week.

14. Judge it on baskets, not bodies10 min

Compare that window's takings and average basket with last week. A styling hour that brings three people who each buy properly beats twenty browsers. Keep the format, change the offer, hold the hours.

15. Write the drop in one line20 min

Finish this: 'it's [what], for [who], and it's worth it because [the one specific thing].' 'New in' is not a launch. 'The wool coat we sold out of last year, back in three colours' is.

16. Tease one detail and a date15 min

Post a close-up — the fabric, the button, the print — with a day and no name. A drop with a date turns idle browsing into a diary entry.

17. Let the list shop first25 min

Give your list and your best customers 24 hours' early access, in person or by message with a hold-and-collect. Being an insider is most of the reason anyone joins a small shop's list at all.

18. Reveal it styled, priced and sized30 min

Launch post: your best daylight photo styled on a person, the one-liner, the price, the sizes in stock, and exactly how to buy — in the shop, by message, or click and collect.

19. Show it being worn15 min

Post real customers wearing it, with permission, and the rail emptying. Nothing sells a small shop like seeing somebody local in the thing you're holding up.

20. Message everyone who asked about a size20 min

Go back through the DMs where someone asked 'have you got this in a 12?' and tell them personally that it's in. That is the highest-converting message a shop can send and almost nobody sends it.

21. Count the sell-through in week one15 min

How many of each size and colour went in seven days? That number tells you what to reorder now, at full price, while the season is still in front of you.

22. Be the same shop on every listing45 min

Same name, photo, hours and phone on Google, Apple Maps, Instagram and Facebook. Then check the Sunday and bank-holiday hours — wrong hours on the one day someone plans a trip into town is expensive.

23. Pick what you want to be known for15 min

Choose one thing — the brand nobody else stocks, the sizes you actually carry, the gift wrap, the honest styling advice — and put it in most of what you post. A shop known for one thing gets recommended by name.

24. Show the buying trips25 min

Post how you choose: the trade show, the maker you visit, the thing you nearly bought and turned down. Curation is the one thing an independent sells that the internet can't, so show it happening.

25. Be a good neighbour online20 min

In your town's community feeds, recommend other shops, answer questions, congratulate people — and never advertise. The independent who lifts the high street is the one people name when someone asks where to shop local.

26. Dress someone the town knows30 min

Style a local face for a real occasion — the fundraiser host, a local band, the café owner's wedding — and post it with their name. Local proof beats reach every single time.

27. Make the bag and the window worth a photo25 min

Spend an hour on the two things people actually photograph: the window and what they carry out. A bag with your name on it is a walking advert down the length of the high street.

28. Post to a rhythm you can keep20 min

Three posts a week — one piece styled, one behind the scenes, one human — plus ten minutes a day replying to comments and tags. Six weeks of that makes you the shop people think of first.