How to market a running store: a 12-week plan

The common mistake is starting with ads before the basics work. This plan fixes the basics first, then makes you easier to find, then runs one campaign a brand will help pay for.

Why does a running store need a marketing plan at all?

Because many runners decide where to buy before they leave the house. They search a shoe name, check reviews, look at the map and ask an AI assistant where to get fitted. If your store doesn’t show up in those moments, the fit process you’re proud of never gets a chance.

A written run specialty marketing plan also keeps you from chasing every idea at once. Twelve weeks is long enough to finish real work and short enough to hold a busy staff to it.

Weeks	Phase	Goal	Done when
1 to 4	Get fitted	The basics work and you can measure	Every sale has a contact and tracking is tested
5 to 8	Get found	Google and runners can find your shoes	3 answer pages live, top 20 product pages rewritten, review ask in place
9 to 12	Race day	One brand launch, funded and measured	Campaign ran, recap sent to the rep

Weeks 1 to 4: how do I get the basics right?

Think of this as the fit process for your store. You don’t sell a shoe before you watch someone walk, and you don’t buy ads before you know what a runner sees.

1. Run the 1-minute site test. Search one of your shoes on Google, check whether your product pages show up on your own domain, and test your mobile speed. The 1-minute test for your website walks through each check.
2. Fix your Google Business Profile. Hours, categories, holiday hours, photos of the shoe wall and the fit area, and a link to your site. The Business Profile checklist covers every field.
3. Turn on pickup in store. In Shopify, go to Settings, then Shipping and delivery, then Pickup in store, and activate pickup for each location, with an expected pickup time and instructions. A runner who reserves a pair online still walks in, where you can fit them and add socks.
4. Set up tracking and test it. Shopify’s Google Analytics 4 setup prompts you to install the Google & YouTube sales channel, and certain ecommerce events are tracked automatically once the tags are set up. Place a test order and confirm it shows up before you trust any report.
5. Get a name and email on every sale. In Shopify POS, staff tap Add customer in the cart and search by name or email. On POS Pro, you can set customer details to Recommended or Required so staff are prompted at checkout.

The last step matters most. Without a contact on the sale, you can’t tell whether a campaign brought anyone new, you can’t follow up on a fit, and you can’t show a brand rep who bought.

How do I get staff to capture a contact every time?

Make it part of the fit, not the register. Fitters already ask about mileage, injuries and the last shoe. Asking for an email “so we have your size and shoe on file for next time” is a natural close.

Check the share of sales with a contact every week and post it in the back room. Staff fix what gets counted.

Weeks 5 to 8: how do runners find my store on Google?

Now that the store is fitted, make it easy to find. This block is writing, not spending.

Write 3 answer-first pages

Pick three questions runners ask your staff every week and answer each on its own page. Lead with the answer in the first two sentences, then explain. Good starting topics:

• What happens during a gait analysis or fit session here, and how long it takes.
• Which shoes you’d suggest for a first half marathon, and why fit matters more than the model.
• Where to run nearby: your group run routes, the local trail, the track hours.

Google says its ranking systems are designed to prioritize helpful, reliable information created to benefit people. Pages written from what your fitters actually say are hard for a big box or Amazon to copy. For more on how these pages help with search and AI answers, see local SEO for running stores.

Rewrite your top 20 product pages

Pull your 20 best sellers from Shopify and fix those pages before you write anything new. Many run stores use the brand’s stock copy, so their pages read the same as everyone else’s.

For each page:

1. Write a clear title: brand, model, version, gender, width.
2. Add two or three sentences only your store could write: who you fit in it, how it compares with the last version, what runners in your town use it for.
3. Make sure size and width options match what is on the wall.
4. Check that the photo, price and stock are right.

Ask every customer for a review

Ask at the end of every fitting. A printed QR code at the register works. Google lets you ask customers to leave a review through a link or QR code.

Two rules to train on. Google’s policy bars businesses from offering incentives such as discounts or free goods for reviews, and from selectively soliciting positive reviews. So no “10% off for a five-star review”, and ask everyone, not only the happy regulars. How to get more Google reviews has scripts your staff can use.

Weeks 9 to 12: how do I run a local campaign a brand will fund?

This is race day. Everything before it makes this block measurable.

Pick one brand launch

Choose one launch in the next two to three months from a brand you sell well and stock deep: a new version of a trainer your regulars already love. A deep size run matters more than a hot shoe, because ads that send a runner in for a size you don’t have hurt you twice.

Send your rep a one-page pitch

Reps get many requests. Make yours easy to say yes to. One page:

Section	What to write
The shoe	Model, launch date, units on order, size run depth
The plan	Four weeks of local ads around your store, plus in-store launch event
The ask	Co-op amount, demo pairs, any launch-night support
How you’ll measure	Brand sales during the campaign against the weeks before and the same weeks last year
The recap	What you’ll send and when (within 30 days of the end)

Co-op terms vary by brand, so ask your rep what applies to your account. How brand co-op works explains the usual paperwork.

Run a 4-week local campaign

Run the campaign for four weeks around the launch date. Google Shopping and local inventory ads show the exact shoe, the price and that it’s in stock nearby, which suits a launch. Pair it with your Business Profile, a launch night and your run club.

Our Fill the Store service connects local inventory ads, and Segments HQ builds a Google Shopping campaign for the brand’s in-stock products around each store, paced so it never spends past the brand’s total.

Send the recap within 30 days

Compare the brand’s sales during the four weeks with the weeks before and with last year. Add new customer names captured during the campaign, which you can count because of weeks 1 to 4. A clean recap makes the next co-op ask easier.

What should a running store’s seasonal marketing calendar look like?

Plan around the running calendar. The dates shift with your town, your race schedule and your weather, so treat this as a starting point and fill in your own races.

Season	Who’s coming in	What to promote	Prepare by
New Year (January)	Resolution runners, returning runners, gift card holders	Beginner fit sessions, beginner 5K group, walking group	Mid December: staff schedule, beginner shoe and apparel stock
Spring marathon season (late winter to spring)	Runners training for spring races	Training groups, long run support, nutrition, second pair to rotate	Early winter: training group sign up, race partnerships
Summer trail (summer)	Trail runners, hikers, runners escaping heat	Trail shoes, hydration, trail group runs and days out	Spring: trail size runs, trail day dates
Fall marathon season (late summer to fall)	Runners in peak training, then race week	Training groups, race week shakeout runs, expo booth, recovery shoes	Early summer: race sponsorships, expo booth, rep support
Holiday gift season (November to December)	Gift buyers who aren’t runners	Gift cards, socks, accessories, a simple gift guide, extended hours	October: Business Profile holiday hours, gift card stock, gift displays

College towns add a back to school bump when students and cross country teams return. Mark it if it applies.

For race season, race sponsorships and expos covers what to ask a race for. For the slow weeks between seasons, in-store events and run clubs fill the store without a discount.

What marketing ideas actually work for a running store?

The ones that use what a big box can’t copy: the fit, the people and the local running scene.

• Your run club. It brings the same runners in every week. Start it, or start a second one at a different pace.
• Brand demo nights. Reps bring demo shoes, runners try them on a group run, and you sell the shoe they liked.
• Race partnerships. Packet pickup in your store puts every registered runner through your door.
• Pickup in store. It turns online browsing into a visit.
• Honest reviews from fitted runners. They read better than any ad you could write.
• Local inventory ads. They show the exact shoe in stock nearby to someone searching for it.

Skip ideas that need a big budget to matter or can’t be measured. If you can’t tell whether it sold shoes, don’t repeat it next season.

How do I know if the plan is working?

Pick a few numbers and check them every week. Don’t add more until these are steady.

What to check	Where	What good looks like
Share of sales with a contact	Shopify orders and customers	Rising every week
New Google reviews	Business Profile	A steady trickle, not a burst
Calls, direction requests and website clicks	Business Profile performance	Up against the same weeks last year
Pickup in store orders	Shopify orders	Rising once pickup is on
Brand sales during the campaign	Shopify and register reports	Up against before and last year

If a number isn’t moving after a month, go back a block. A campaign can’t fix a Business Profile with the wrong hours.