Greetings Floor Dealers!
During one of my coaching webinars for floor dealers, I was discussing strategies to increase the effectiveness of their websites. To hammer home what not to do, I Googled “Flooring Los Angeles” and opened up the top three sites in the organic search. I showed the group that each of the sites used the following formula: business name at the top, tabs listing products they sell, and contact information. I call these name, rank and serial number sites. Yes, there were superficial differences in color, graphics and layout, but the formula for each was identical. Even though I hadn’t looked at these sites before the webinar, I knew what I would find because 99% of floor dealer sites use the name, rank and serial number formula.
There are two major problems with this. First, it doesn’t answer the unspoken question on every prospect’s mind: why should I do business with you vs. your competition? Because they create no differentiation, these sites put dealers in a position of competing on price, which dealers enjoy almost as much as explaining to a high-strung customer that their installer just backed his van over her Yorkie. Second, there is no mechanism in place to capture the contact information of visitors so dealers can do follow-up marketing. You can have hundreds of visitors to your site each week, but without a way to capture their information the vast majority leave and you never hear from them again. Sometimes dealers cry a little bit at this news.
What if there was a single strategy that solved both of these problems? There is, and it’s called lead capture, which means “capturing” the contact information from website visitors.
Here’s how it works:
Your prospects are reluctant to give their information to companies they don’t know, so in order to get past this natural reluctance, you have to entice them with a compelling bait piece. Savvy marketers use anything from free reports and white papers, to CD’s and DVD’s, to instant videos as their bait pieces. Regardless of what you use, your bait piece must do three things in order to compel visitors to give you their information:
1. It must offer valuable information the prospect truly wants.
2. It must offer information the prospect cannot find on other flooring websites.
3. It must arouse your prospect’s curiosity.
I’ve developed a free report for dealers in Flooring Success Systems which educates consumers on how to find an honest, ethical floor dealer and how to avoid low-ball, bait-and-switch scammers, and as a bait piece, it accomplishes these three things nicely. Consider using an educational report as a bait piece. (IMPORTANT: Don’t be boring!)
Next, you need ad copy explaining how they will benefit by getting a hold of your information. Include a compelling headline that will capture visitor’s attention immediately. (Note: while promises of “free beer” will capture your visitor’s attention and compel them to visit your store, it may attract less-than-ideal clientele. Just a thought.)
Finally, you need an opt-in form where they fill out their name, email address and phone number in order to download your information. Post the form on your home page, or provide a link below the ad copy taking them to an opt-in form on another page. A lot of floor dealer sites have opt-in forms, but they give no compelling reason for visitors to provide their info. “Contact us” and “Have a question?” are the reasons typically provided. (Sound compelling to you? Enough to give your email to a company you don’t know? Most of your prospects don’t think so either. Sorry.)
By using this strategy, not only will you create total differentiation from all the other sites, but you will capture visitor’s contact information for follow-up marketing.
In the next installment, I’ll reveal strategies for your follow up marketing.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!