With the thinning of the herd (customers) taking place in all business categories, it’s essential that you take your customer service and marketing “up a notch” to set yourself apart.  In Part 1, I told you about giving a Welcome Pack and a good formula for yours.

One reason “traditional” advertising fails floor dealers so miserably is because it’s “me too” marketing at its worst.  Here’s the ad formula that everyone in the flooring business (and most other businesses for that matter) use:

  • Business name in the headline
  • Bullet points of products, perhaps with teaser prices
  • Phone number and address of the store at the bottom

Name, rank and serial number ads.  Yecch!

Dealers try to set themselves apart by re-arranging those elements a bit; using slicker, glossier print; and maybe they throw in a worthless slogan like, “Serving the Mid-Valley for Over 478 Years!”  (Blech!  I have to suppress my gag reflex just to write this kind of advertising drivel!!!)

One giant problem with these kinds of ads (There are actually about ten enormous problems, but I’m only going to talk about one of them here.) is that they all LOOK the same!

All of the marketing you get as part of the Flooring Success System Inner Circle Club looks very, very, very (very x 10) different than typical advertisements.  Here are just a few of the elements that are different:

  • Non-slick, non-glossy
  • White paper with black print
  • A letter format is often used
  • Headline features are a major benefit (not the store name)
  • Photos are NON-professional.  They look like snapshots taken at a kid’s birthday.  Very informal.
  • Personal copy.  It doesn’t use “advertise-ese.”  (i.e., “We at Mediocre Floors take pride in insuring our customer’s total satisfaction.”   Bleeech!  I’m gagging again.)
  • Double readership path
  • Mucked up with CopyDoodles
  • Uses tried-and-true direct response formulas (Problem, Agitate Solve.  Attention, Interest, Desired Action)
  • A strong call to action
  • And, P.S.

 

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!