Competition in the flooring industry can be tough, no matter your market sector. When the competition is fierce, how do you win more jobs? You win by making your digital presence impossible to ignore, with an informative website and powerful social signals. Now more than ever it’s critical to connect with your prospects online. Without a digital presence, people are less likely to be able to make well informed purchasing decisions. Marketing your flooring business online is key to finding new customers, and controlling the information that they see about your business.
How is Flooring Industry Marketing Different?
A flooring business can vary widely depending on your market sector. You may serve commercial to residential, or installation to full-fledged project management, or you may have a mix of clientele. Because of this not every flooring business is going to be marketed in exactly the same way, but you can use the same principles to market your business online.
Every flooring business needs to consider:
Your Ideal Client
The first thing you need to do is focus in on your client. Are they an average homeowner for your area? Or an interior designer? A construction company? Each of these customers are reached in different ways, and will need a different approach to marketing. For example, homeowners and interior designers are more drawn to great images that evoke a feeling. This allows you to show how your flooring can improve the customers day-to-day lives, or make their home have a particular look. On the other hand, a construction company may be more interested in the specs first. How can you deliver to them all of the information they need for their job in an efficient way?
Your Existing Clients
Think of your existing clients. Are they the same as your ideal clients? If not, what has changed in your business to make your ideal client and your actual clients to be so different? When your existing clients and your ideal clients are one in the same, think about how you can bring those older clients back in. If they’ve recently purchased wood flooring, could they use an area rug?
Communication Styles
When you know your ideal and existing customers, think about how you may be able to reach them. Do they spend lots of time online? Are they on their email all day every day or do they tend to avoid their inbox? Make sure you understand who your customers are, and how they prefer to communicate.
Your Website
A great flooring website needs to be easy to find, and have all of the detailed information about your flooring that customers need to make a decision. This includes not only all of the specs, but high quality photos of the flooring. You also need to make it easy for a customer to reach out to you through your website! A customer should be able to find your contact information or fill out a short form within two to three clicks. We recommend having an accessible contact page in your website header that is available on every page of your website.
Social Media
It just isn’t possible to get by with just a website anymore. People expect to be able to find out more about your business on other websites. Flooring businesses in particular need to focus on review sites like Yelp, Houzz, Google My Business, and Angi. These social media sites give your prospects one powerful piece of information: social signals. Having lots of good reviews on different review sites tells prospective clients that your business is trustworthy. But this works both ways: many negative reviews can tell prospects to find another business with which to shop.
How To Market Your Flooring Business Step By Step
Step One: Start With Social
The quickest action item: make sure you have social media accounts on all of the major websites, and start building up your positive reviews! Your website will come next, but because great websites can take more time to create, your first step should be social. Focus on the social media sites your clients are most likely to use. For example, interior designers are more likely to spend time on Instagram, or Houzz. Most consumers look up reviews on Google My Business as a first step in finding businesses to shop with. Reading positive reviews is one of the best ways for new customers to gain trust in your business. But, getting a consistent stream of positive reviews can be difficult for many businesses! RM5Star helps you build your online reputation by generating review prompts for your business at specific times in your sales process.
Step Two: Build An Excellent Website
Building a flooring dealer website takes a bit more time but its value can not be ignored. Your business may not be open 24/7 but your website is always “on”. We dove into everything you need to know about making a website for your flooring business in this post. In a nutshell, your business needs to be deeply organized first with a solid core software that allows you to build out your website more easily. Plus, having your core software up-to-date makes keeping your website up-to-date even easier.
Step Three: Engage Your Clients
Fueling both your website and social media presence with positive reviews is key in giving potential clients the social signals they need to trust your business. But, we all know that getting those reviews isn’t exactly easy. We created RM5Star to help flooring businesses get those powerful reviews! RM5Star allows you to connect your business with top review sites like Google My Business, Yelp, Facebook, Angi and more. Plus it allows you to pool your reviews together in one easy to manage location. Our easy to use software allows you to share your best reviews on your website.
How Does A Flooring Business Grow From Digital Marketing
Did you know that it takes a new customer seeing your business seven times before they can establish trust? The fastest way you can accomplish this is digitally. Plus, in our digital age, people expect to be able to find out everything they need to know about a business online before they ever step foot on your sales floor. Making sure you control how your business is perceived online is key!
How To Bring Back Existing Customers With Marketing
One of the best ways to grow your sales is by retaining existing customers. Because an existing customer already trusts your business, they’re much more likely to buy from you again in the future. Digital marketing allows you to get creative! Think of your recent sales, could you send a client who recently purchased wood flooring a coupon for your rugs? If you installed carpeting six months ago, can you send your client a reminder for your carpet cleaning service? Utilizing your existing customer database is key for re-engaging past clients.
As many advancements in marketing as there have been in recent years, email marketing is still extremely powerful. With the Digital Marketing Hub, you gain access to pre-designed email campaigns that are branded for your business, and so much more!
RollMaster Flooring Software is dedicated to helping make our clients become successful flooring businesses. Want to learn more about how our software works for your business? Sign up today for a free demo!
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