Flooring, like most home repair and renovation services, has traditionally been marketed through channels such as tv, radio, and print ads (newspaper, magazines, etc.). Times have changed, and many flooring stores have not adapted well. This failure has lead to a “stalemate” or even a decline in sales, and most importantly a decline in profitability due to the increasing costs of traditional advertising. However, the companies who have hacked this new marketing “code” are seeing much greater results in their lead flow, sales, and because of the increased efficiency and decreased cost of digital advertising, an increase in profits. This article will show you the do’s and don’ts when marketing your flooring store.
TV & Radio Ads for Flooring Stores:
In a world of ever evolving technology, media sources such as radio and cable tv are slowly being replaced with new sources like “streaming” tv and music services (Hulu, Pandora, and Netflix). Further, when you choose to market through these outdated channels, and consumers are exposed to your ads, will they even be paying attention?
A study by Sharethrough, one of the top global advertising research firms, found the following:
“In December of 2021, we surveyed 1,000 North Americans over the age of 16 and asked them a series of questions related to their TV viewing habits, preferences and experiences. According to the results, 66% of respondents said they don’t actively watch TV ads. When asked the main reason they do not watch ads, 64% said they grab their phone during commercial breaks, 21% switch to another channel and 15% leave the room or do something else. However, out of the 34% that usually do watch TV ads, 28% typically watch it on mute, which implies 76% of people are not actively watching TV ads instead of the 66% self-declared.”
Why pay top dollar to feature your ad when less than a quarter of viewers pay attention?
In addition to low consumer interaction and attention, TV and radio ads can’t target your preferred customer base.
Here is an analogy to explain: If you are going fishing in a lake, and you want to catch the biggest largemouth bass you can find, do you drive your boat to the middle of a lake and cast your line wherever the wind may take it? Unless you are looking for someone’s boot at the bottom of the lake, this is an ill advised tactic. The better option would be to determine where the fish are, but further determine where the fish YOU want are and fish there.
Likewise, why would you settle for advertising that can’t promise your target customer is seeing it? When using radio and tv ads, you have very low control over who consumes your ads which leads to excruciatingly low conversion rates.
Now, tv and radio can still be used on a much smaller scale to get leads and create brand recognition, but there is a better way to do it.
Google, Facebook & Instagram:
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a place where consumers can search for the specific good or services they are in need of, and suppliers can market their goods or services to those customers? It’s called Google, and many flooring stores aren’t using it enough. When using Google and Google ads to market your product, you are able to reach out to consumers actually in the market for your good or service. Through targeted keywords and locations, you can reach out to potential customers in ways radio, tv, and print ads could never.
Additionally, social media sites like Facebook and Instagram offer a wide variety of users and user targeting that enable you to interact with your target customers. For example, Facebook allows you to get very specific with who sees your ads due to their mass amounts of collected user data. If you want to target Brett & Sarah, who have a large family, pets, and are in the top 10% income bracket in your postal code, Facebook can do that. As scary as it sounds, it can be incredibly useful for your company when determining who you will market to and also who you won’t waste your budget on.
Although ad sources like Google and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) can be super beneficial for your company, they are also easy to screw up. Google and Meta are very meticulous with how they allow businesses to create and market their ads. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that whoever runs your ads, website, and marketing knows what they are doing.
Unfortunately, many large marketing agencies use generalized “all-in-one marketing formulas” to market your goods or services, which leads to insufficient lead flow. So, we created a solution:
Introducing GO DGTAL:
GoDGTAL was founded by a team who owns and works in a multigenerational, family run flooring business, and has done so for many, many years.
When using GoDGTAL tactics and strategies, we cut our stores advertising budget by 50%, increased our average sale by 25%, and decreased our "unclosed" proposals by close to 40%.
Important to note that we aren't a marketing agency trying to get into the flooring business; nor are we a venture capital funded, "all-in-one", mass market solution for small flooring retailers.
We work with owners directly to identify your ideal customers via our "marketing framework" methodology and then reach these customers via:
- Social Media, Through Posting and Ad Management (Facebook and Instagram)
- Content That We Write
- Your Website Through Design, Search Engine Optimization and Google Ads
- E-mail and Text
Bottom Line: We use digital media to directly drive high value prospects into your store. We've done it for our company, and now we'd like to do it for you!
Click to schedule an appointment with our team to discuss your marketing needs.