February 27/March 6, 2017: Volume 31, Issue 19
By Lindsay Baillie
Quick-Step, known for its laminate, hardwood and luxury vinyl flooring, is also making strides in helping retailers on the digital marketing front. Three of its most recent programs—Blogger Influencer Outreach, Quick-Step Toolbox and Style My Floor—all provide retailers with materials to help digitally inform and inspire consumers, close sales and bring customers from the retailers’ websites into their stores.
The Blogger Influencer Outreach program includes the company’s RoomUP Blogger challenge, which, according to Janelle Manuel, digital marketing coordinator, leverages the authenticity, credibility and trust network of popular bloggers. The program utilizes four diverse, well-known bloggers who are involved in style and design, and highlights their home remodeling projects. “We give [the bloggers] Quick-Step product to install in their homes, saying, ‘Hey, use this as a real flooring purchase from start to finish, talk about the selection process, then go through the installation process, then the care and maintenance.’”
Beyond inspiring the consumer, Quick-Step is making retailers’ involvement in social media easier with the Quick-Step Toolbox—a social content automation tool that is free and available to any retailer selling Quick-Step products. The Toolbox includes articles for social media beginners on how to get started. It contains industry best practices and provides a platform to share content.
The third piece of this digital marketing puzzle is Style My Floor, which puts Quick-Step’s entire flooring product samples into the consumer’s hands using technology and then lets the shopper see exactly what the new floor would look like installed in any specific room of her home.
“It is a consumer’s dream tool when it comes to confidently selecting a flooring product for her home,” said Paij Thorn-Brooks, vice president of brand marketing, Mohawk Flooring North America.