Tom Cockerill explains how digital marketing can help any business out there.
I have been in the flooring industry for nearly 20 years and successfully built up a company with a strong reputation through a combination of hard work, trial and error, making lots of mistakes and good old tenacity!
A lot of our success has been down to leveraging the power of a digital presence on social media like Instagram or LinkedIn. I also have seen the power of email marketing and the results it can bring.
Over the years I have been really frustrated with being unable to find a digital agency partner that could offer a bespoke service to the flooring industry. Every time I tried to engage the services of a digital agency, they never really understood my needs and I was always disappointed with the results.
In the end, I acted and decided to set up Truth Digital with my business partner John Borthwick. John has brought to the table another 20 years of expertise but in the digital marketing industry – with this combination of expertise we are a force to be reckoned with!
Let me share with you some of our top tips for improving your digital presence.
Website design – your shop front!
The starting point would be to have one – you may be surprised how many clients we take onboard that don’t. Websites are critical for all flooring businesses however big or small. It doesn’t have to be too fancy, but here are some pointers:
Have clear calls to action across the entire site – ask yourself what do you want the client to do when they visit your site?
Is your website mobile friendly? Can it be viewed on a mobile phone and does it look good?
Set up Google My Business correctly and thoroughly – this could immediately increase traffic to your website, up to 50% in some instances.
Have you got high quality images and videos (preferably examples of your previous work and without toolboxes and extension leads in them)?
Have you blinded your audience with too much text? People just don’t read all that information! It needs the bare minimum to communicate what you do and what you offer.
Your website has one job – bring in the enquires. No expensive white elephants here. If it’s not bringing in the leads, it’s not doing its job.
Social media
It’s important to have a presence on social media. But like a website, your LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram page needs to look presentable.
You must have good quality, high resolution images, preferably from jobs you have done. Poor quality stock images just smacks of amateur.
The market is very quickly moving over to video and to massively increase how many eyes see your posts use videos and reels as much as possible.
Our team recently posted a video on Instagram, with the right music and content and with zero ad spend it reached over one million people and generated thousands of likes. This is a fine art but anyone can do it!
Email marketing
I personally think this is such an undervalued tool. Done right, email marketing can bring in great results. You really need to be giving both value and a call to action in your emails. Do one without the other and your email marketing will not produce results.
Regularly emailing your database is a great way to connect with existing and potential customers. I am not saying you need to spam your list. But regular good quality emails are key.
It’s also important to keep building your email database up. Have you got a mechanism for collecting email addresses? If the answer is no, then you need to get one. A simple excel spreadsheet is a good starting point.
Do you like podcasts?
I personally love podcasts and listen regularly myself. In fact, I set my own up (The Wood Floor Podcast – check us out on Apple or Amazon Podcasts). I think it’s important you stay surrounded by others in your field and get a take on what is happening or likely to happen in the industry. Take a listen and be sure to subscribe.
www.truthdigital.co.uk
01325 952548
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