“Until you recognize that change is going to happen, and get over the frustration that comes with it, you won’t be able to effectively manage your business.”
– Forbes
You Can Flourish from change
We’ve heard the adage a million times that change is inevitable. It’s true in our personal lives and it’s true for our business. However, that doesn’t mean that accepting change is easy. Sometimes we as business owners fail to embrace change because we are resistant to learning new skills. Sometimes we get so caught up in short-term success that we fail to see how change will be necessary to maintain growth.
The furniture retail industry is especially guilty of resisting change as it relates to marketing. Due to the long buying cycle of furniture, retailers often feel insulated from the rapid pace of change that other industries face. However, at R&A Marketing we are always pushing our clients to utilize new digital advertising tools, and we’ve seen how small changes can lead to great success for our clients.
“By switching from static display ads and to Rich Media, we are able to take a static ad and make it into something that is animated and appealing to the eyes. By utilizing animation motion ads, it has led us to show the customers different messages at one time and increased our click-through rates.” – Ashley Bever, Marketing Director at R&A Marketing
How to Implement Change
Start implementing change by setting small goals, like updating social media profiles and digital accounts. Keeping your Facebook page, Yelp account, Google for Business profile, and website contact page updated will ensure that your business is easy for customers to find. This step may seem like a no-brainer, but it is often at the bottom of a business owner’s to-do list. So if you’re too busy to keep these pages updated on your own (and trust us, we get it!), find someone who can help. There are many candidates who are already proficient in these aspects of digital marketing and will need little-to-no training to get started. And once your business’s profiles are all up-to-date, this person (or advertising team) can help publish content regularly so that beautiful images of your store and products are continually being fed into the news streams of your customers!
The next step towards success is to implement low-cost digital advertising into your marketing strategy. Pay-per-click display ads and re-targeting tools help retailers like you focus on highly qualified consumers. This means that you can create a profile of your ideal customer and focus your ad dollars on people just like her. With a blend of traditional medias and digital advertising vehicles, business owners can capture the attention of their marketplace from every angle and stay ahead of their competition!
Once you have a strong core audience on your Facebook page and email list, be sure to offer them exclusive incentives. This could be as simple as creating a post and an email about special price drops on your floor or hosting special giveaways for people who interact with your digital accounts. Several of R&A’s clients who have hosted mini-giveaways on a weekly basis through their Facebook page have seen dramatic growth in page likes as well as engagement on organic posts. This makes it more affordable to reach customers in the long-run!
Even with these changes, how do independent retailers compete with large e-commerce websites?
Sometimes furniture store owners try to compete with e-commerce focused sites like Amazon and Wayfair by trying to beat them at their own game. But the truth is, you can’t. If you own a brick-and-mortar store, it’s highly unlikely that you even want to make online shopping a core focus of your business. And the good news? You don’t have to! After all, you don’t just sell furniture, you sell service.
Although it’s easy to click and make a purchase on Amazon and Wayfair has an enormous selection of products, neither can offer the level of personal attention or customer service that your business can. So embrace your strengths and use digital advertising tools to spread the word about your five-star delivery service and customer satisfaction guarantee. By utilizing digital tools like OTT video ads and website conversion pages to create brand awareness, you can think locally while enjoying the low cost of digital medias. Furthermore, by utilizing geo-fencing to target customers in your area with digital ads, you can focus your ad dollars more effectively.
“Geo-fencing with mobile display ads has been a game changer. We now have the power to seek out competitors, target their customers while they are in their store, then follow them throughout their online journey for 30 days. We have the ability to keep track of how many of our competitor’s customers have left to come to our store. Geo-Fencing has led us to convert an average of 10% of a client’s traffic from their competitors.” – Ashley Bever, Marketing Director at R&A Marketing
Reevaluate and Analyze
The last step to make sure that your business grows is to take time to reevaluate your marketing strategy and analyze the results. If you haven’t taken a hard look at your audience in the past few years, now is the time. As new customers enter your marketplace and the media options to reach your customer changes, it’s vital to your growth to keep up with the data.
Furthermore, there are many tools available to measure the success of your marketing campaigns. Whether you are tracking how many impressions your social media posts get or how successful your emails are at encouraging click-throughs, you should have access to data for every digital aspect of a campaign. And by monitoring the success or failure of your messaging and delivery, you can adjust future campaigns accordingly. After all, change does not happen successfully overnight. There will always be trial and error when it comes to marketing. It’s every business owner’s responsibility to adapt to the results.
At R&A Marketing, we know how important change is to a business plan because we implement strategy and media changes for our clients every day. Additionally, we implement changes within our own strategy and teams. If R&A didn’t adapt to changes in the marketing landscape, we would not have the knowledge and tools in place to do the same for our clients. That’s why we know how hard it is to stay up-to-date on the latest tools and marketing trends. If you don’t have time to research the latest advertising tricks and digital marketing platforms, then it’s time to find someone who can.
