Is digital marketing the future?
By Mike Crewdson
Most companies in the UK home improvement sector have not had to worry too much about retail lead generation in the last two years as the pandemic led to an unprecedented surge in home improvement enquiries.
Most window companies I know had record order books and record enquiry levels. The mistake some made, and the industry has history with this, is believing this would last forever. But nothing does, unfortunately.
Yet this golden period for enquiries did have its challenges. Materials shortages, labour shortages, fabricators lead times stretched to never before seen levels, and a price increase every other day made life very difficult indeed.
Now that the industry is settling down to pre-pandemic levels, home improvement marketeers are having to reassess their marketing mix as incoming enquiries get slower and sales leads get harder to generate. In short, companies need to generate their own sales leads again.
Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult to generate leads using time honoured marketing techniques. The ratios are never going to be as good as they used to be, whether in building brand awareness or in direct lead generation. Consumers are changing their habits rapidly.
There is no doubt that the digital age is here to stay. Homeowners are increasingly internet savvy and the pandemic drove our target age demographic to search for goods and services and purchase them online.
The trend to prefer to use local businesses continues apace and consumers rely more and more on online reviews. I found it interesting that on Indeed, the leading recruitment website, that the role ‘Digital Marketing Specialist’ is the largest search term for all marketeer jobs.
But what is digital marketing? In simple terms it uses the internet and online technology, such as desktops, mobile phones and tablets, to promote your products. I actually like Dave Chafney’s definition in his latest book ‘Achieving marketing objectives through applying digital technology and media.’
Successful digital marketing agencies do this very well indeed. Most people will have heard of SEO and PPC, probably even tried it with varying degrees of success, but the levels of creativity now employed, and continually developed, make this a real winner in generating quality enquiries.
The sophisticated targeting by age group or geographical location is dynamic. Keeping up to date with exciting developments in these fields is almost a full-time job.
You can keep your current website, but add the latest techniques to increase your web traffic, capture more consumer data and generate more sales leads. You can get free advice on whether you should add quote engines, videos, virtual tours, case studies, downloads, real time reporting and an inbuilt CRM. A great CRM opens the door to really effective email marketing.
What buttons should you add on every page to encourage more people to respond. How you can track your website visitors browsing history and internet behaviour. Whether you should add a chat service, both in real time and to capture out of hours enquiries.
Many homeowners these days search for products and services in the evenings and weekends, so to capture their data out of hours is vital. All in all, you will achieve more sales leads, better engagement with your website visitors, greater visibility for your company and enhanced customer retention, and so much more than traditional marketing will ever give you.
You also need to get your social media working better for you with paid social adverts on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. A good digital marketing agency will do this very cost effectively.
Put yourself back in control of your own marketing destiny. If you want or need more retail sales leads, then digital marketing will provide the solution.
Following a 36-year career at director level in the UK and international window industry, Mike Crewdson now chairs several companies, including a 50-year-old windows group, a leading digital marketing agency, a roofing company, a landlord services business, and he is a consultant to a 40-year-old window and conservatory company.