Calhoun, Ga—Mohawk is the first U.S. manufacturer as well as the first company in the flooring industry to become a Google Partner—a certification of excellence in digital marketing.
Google Partners are considered trusted online experts who are qualified and certified to manage the online marketing of other businesses. As a digital leader in the flooring industry, Mohawk already provides a comprehensive and successful suite of digital marketing tools to its retailers. This certification enhances those services.
“Being a Google Partner assures our retailers that they are receiving best-in-class service when it comes to digital marketing, which we at Mohawk believe will transform the industry in the next five years,” said Mike Zoellner, vice president of marketing services for Mohawk. “Everything we do at Mohawk is designed to drive consumers to our retail partners for a fully integrated shopping experience. Over the past 24 months, we’ve made significant investments to help connect consumers to our retail partners through a variety of search, social and online platforms.”
The heart of Mohawk’s digital efforts is the Mohawk Lead Center, a CRM system that allows retailers to capture highly qualified leads, follow up and remarket. Essential components of the Mohawk Lead Generation Program, which drives consumers who are ready to make a purchase into Mohawk retailers’ stores across the country, include:
- A database of over a million homeowners receives ongoing communication campaigns that encourage repeat purchases by providing information on new product introductions, announcing annual sales promotions and delivering printable coupons.
- Mohawk’s industry best-in-class program, Lead Booster, which helps retailers analyze search traffic and purchase most-used search terms in a local market. Based on that information, digital promotional advertisements are directed to targeted consumers and serve up offers, connecting interested consumers to a retailer’s lead platform for follow-up and conversion.
- The ability for consumers to purchase select soft and hard surface samples online at MohawkFlooring.com. Contact information from those consumers flows directly into the Mohawk Lead Center so retailers can follow up.
- An ongoing collection of syndicated social media content to almost 2,000 retailers through the online marketing platform Promoboxx.
- Mohawk’s Friends and Family program which since its inception has seen thousands of coupons printed annually with a redemption rate of 90%. With a potential audience reach at more than 3 million homeowners, these targeted leads feed into the Mohawk Lead Center for tracking and future marketing campaigns.
Retailers like Manasota Flooring in Sarasota, Fla., which takes advantage of Mohawk’s digital services and tools, believe having a digital presence is the wave of the future. Manasota manager Chris Quattlebaum said the store uses Promoboxx and pays for leads that are target specific and local. Manasota’s three stores use Pinterest and Facebook to drive traffic to the company website where visitors can pick up a store coupon 24/7. “From January 1 to May 1, our store coupon promotion delivered 50 leads, which contributed $30,000 to $40,000 in sales,” he noted.
To become a Google Partner, Mohawk had to meet the specific, rigorous requirements, which included staff certification in Google AdWords and a proven competence implementing best practices in marketing campaigns for clients. Google reviews its partners’ marketing campaigns to make sure they continue to meet its standards. Google Partners stay up-to-date on the latest Google tools and products by passing Google-administered certification exams every 12 months.