While traditional marketing strategies—print ads, radio, etc.—remain relevant today, the digital realm has become a hotbed of opportunity. In addition to strategies like web development/SEO, social media marketing and even geo-targeting, one major component of digital marketing is lead generation. Lead gen allows small businesses to approach their target market with enough relevant information to draw them in—either to an online purchase or a step into that business’s brick-and-mortar location.
While lead gen used to be wholly reliant on word of mouth, it is now firmly in the hands of digital marketing experts, many of which focus solely on the flooring industry.
In a world as competitive as ever, it’s important for the retail community to invest time and resources into only the most efficient ways of attracting leads. As such, FCNews reached out to the industry’s leading technology companies for their top lead gen resources and tips on attracting traffic.
Utilize your web assets
After successfully attracting more web traffic, the work doesn’t end. Now it’s time to use that web traffic to convert visitors into buyers.
- “We offer web-based flooring calculators to our retail partners to help them collect leads. These can be integrated into retail websites, which allows leads to draw rooms and estimate the needed amount of material. These calculators can be made to email the lead’s estimate and contact information to the retailer, generate estimated prices based on a material and much more.” — Allen Wang, integration support, Measure Square
- “The company has invested in AI-powered email marketing to further empower retailers to generate fresh opportunities and re-engage existing leads. This technology, with its integrated marketing calendar and AI optimization, is propelling flooring businesses to achieve lead-generation performance exceeding industry standards by over threefold.” — Todd Saunders, CEO, Broadlume
- “We create highly targeted ad campaigns and implement robust SEO strategies to help our clients rank high on search engine results for relevant keywords. We also focus on managing online reviews to ensure our clients have a positive reputation. This includes soliciting reviews from satisfied customers and prompt responses to any feedback. We also revamp the websites of our clients to be more user-friendly, mobile-responsive and visually appealing. This helps to encourage lead conversions.” — Richard Martin, vice president of marketing, Ring Ring Marketing
Capitalizing on visualization
The ability to inspire a consumer in-store is paramount to a sale. That’s why room visualization can be such a powerful tool in not only persuading a consumer to imagine your product in their home but in driving them in-store to make the final purchase.
- “Lead generation is a key benefit of our room visualization platform—customers are more likely to order a sample, request an estimate or even book a consultation in-store when they can visualize products in their homes. Room visualization gives customers the confidence to purchase. Our platform also gives retailers a unique and engaging way to follow up on leads by allowing RSAs to save the link to a customer’s visualized room and revisit the space.” — Reid Waxman, senior manager, Roomvo
- “Our retail partners are empowered by our Edge Omnify Websites, Omnify and Omnify+. These websites capture consumers at the most critical stage of the shopping experience. It also features a visualizer tool, which helps consumers in their shopping process move from the inspiration phase to the purchase phase. Using a visualizer is said to create five times more leads compared to a site without one.” — Todd Skidmore, senior director of e-commerce, Mohawk
A full circle approach
Digital marketing encompasses a variety of strategies all aimed at one goal: making sales. So even when it comes to lead gen, sometimes it’s all about a one-stop shopping experience.
- “We’ve developed a one-stop-shop platform called ShawNOW that includes our leads management platform, product ordering and marketing resources. Retailers are alerted through text and email of new lead inquiries with the option to make notes and mark the lead as closed/lost/won. Our current focuses are on lead scoring to ensure high conversion rates of the leads.” — Tim Otis, director of digital strategy and optimization, Shaw, Inc.
- “Our platform seamlessly connects manufacturers, consumers and retailers, enabling consumers to easily explore products, visualize them and order samples—all from the comfort of their homes, at any time of day. This innovative approach is known as “Digital Retailing.” The leads produced through Digital Retailing are exceptional, significantly streamlining the sales process.” — Saunders, Broadlume
Know your audience
Lead generation is only as effective as its targeting. So, when retailers are trying to attract potential customers, it’s crucial to home in on the exact target audience businesses are trying to reach.
- “With expertly designed campaigns and precise audience targeting, Edge Local Advertising works with our partners to build an advertising strategy that identifies consumers in the immediate area who are actively seeking flooring solutions. Through this, our partners gain immediate insights through their dashboards to measure their campaigns’ effectiveness.” — Skidmore, Mohawk
- “We match new customers with a retailer’s brand and business approach. For example, some retailers focus on residential replacement, while others have a larger focus on commercial flooring. No matter the target or demographic, we create a strategy to reach those customers across all appropriate channels.” — Dave Geipel, vice president of sales and marketing, Mobile Marketing (a Cyncly company)
