subject: Granite Fabricators, Take out the middle man [print this page] Granite Fabricators, Take out the middle man
I hear it all the time, people complaining about business being slow. The world is changing. The way people shop is changing. the way customers research products is changing, the economy is changing...
You can either change with it or go out of business. We at fireUps focus on specific nich industries but the customer is the same. You have to get out in front of the customer with your best price first. then attack them with value and a website that clearly focuses on what the consumer is looking for. You need to understand what the values of the customer is and where that customer is in the buying cycle.
In the Granite Countertop Marketing space the online customer has a quote in hand.. They dont like the price they in hand and are looking for options. Thats where I attack. Can you beat the price? Can you beat the install time line. can you put together a better service? All are potiential competitive advantages.
If you can take that person that has a quote in hand and get them on the phone you have the power to get your shop humming again.
You need to track where your business is coming from so that you can justify the advertising spend to get in front of the customer.
Just the other day I was talking to one of my clients and it had been 3 months since he had a customer respond to the newspaper ad that had been running for 2 years prior and that person said that it took 6 months of seeing the ad for them to finally make the call. This is not the case with the internet customer becaus ethey are searching you out. You just have to be their and have the right tools in place to capitalize.
How To Advertise Local Online The right way...
Set A Budget: Set the amount of money you will invest in advertising over a 3 month period
Set A Goal: For this Budget, What is your expected return on your investment or how many sales?
Team Up with a vendor that can provide you with:
Local online Marketing/Advertisng service: They will setup campaigns on website that people commonly visit, build creative that people will respond to, and monitor performance of the campaign to ensure that you will be positioned for success
Call Tracking: they will provide you with call tracking, to track all of the calls from your website as well as from all other advertising sources - let's learn where your business is really comming from.
Lead Tracking: You will be provided with an interface to see all your leads in real-time to see activity and progress. You will also use this data to monitor your ROI. If you are getting leads but no sales then something is not right. The true measure of success is the amount of new business on the books, not fancy reports and spread sheets.
CRM: (Customer Relationship Management) most small businesses are on a paper based system and thats OK but when you have access to a system that can tell you everything at a moments notice from anywhere you have internet access... now you are in control of your business.
Once the system is in place you are in control of your business with your advertising budget. You can grow and manage your company as you see fit. This is a very powerful position to be in and can put you in the drivers seat again and get you back to doing what you love. Building a superior product at a good price with comfortable margins.
