April 27/May 4, 2015; Volume 29/Number 2
By Paul Friederichsen and Brian Gracon
During an educational session at The International Surface Event (TISE) East 2015, we posed typical flooring challenges to floor covering business owners and, since experience is the best teacher, we asked how they solved their issues.
The World Floor Covering Association (WFCA) helped us define the most significant challenges retailers face today. The first has to do with marketing effectiveness.
Your marketing isn’t as effective as it used to be. Maybe it’s the clutter or the media you’re using. Maybe the customer base is changing. You’re just not sure what to say and where to say it. And your marketing budget is shrinking. What should you do?
Here are some of the digital solutions that worked for session participants, plus a few of our own:
- Get data on where your customers look for information and for what kind of content they search. If they are on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, you should be, too. Provide the type of content they want. Experian.com is a good data source.
- Don’t be afraid to try new media platforms like Pinterest and Houzz. Be an early adopter for competitive advantage.
- Increase your use of videos and images to increase your appeal to younger customers and the time people spend on your website (which helps your Google rating). To control cost, learn how to make and edit your own videos using programs like Apple iMovie or Adobe Premiere.
- Develop an integrated social media strategy that includes several platforms. Support it regularly while recognizing that you can’t do everything the first day.
- Deliver photos of completed jobs to customers as a thank you. Ask them to post the pictures on their social media sites and ask them for referrals.
- Advertise online and use email blasts and newsletters. Remember to include past customers.
- Use online sites like Angie’s List and Yelp. Learn from any unhappy customers you find there (and fix their problems). If you get praised, remember to show potential buyers how happy your customers are.
- Learn about and use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to maximize the impact of your digital budgets. Hire experts if needed.
- Maintain a blog, leveraging what you’ve learned about the content your customers want.
- Evaluate marketing from the perspective of technologically savvy customers. Ask younger family members or friends for feedback, then revise as necessary.
- Audit the in-store customer experience; make sure it’s consistent with customer expectations created by marketing.
- Include technology (tablets, websites, texting) in the customer experience.
- Consult experts in the field and attend education sessions like those at TISE.
There’s so much more to using today’s technology than just having a Facebook page to get your message out there. Marketing your store online using some of the digital tools available is a cost-effective way to reach your customer where she spends her time researching home improvement options.
The conversation isn’t about whether flooring businesses should have a digital strategy, but about which methods work best. Remember, for a while it wasn’t clear if we really needed cell phones, websites, email, texting or social media. Progress happens, whether we capitalize on it or not.