By Brandi Copeland
Hardwood flooring is unique to advertise since it is something you can talk about all day long, but in the end, the customer wants visuals. They want something to hold, touch, and take home, so they can piece it together with their room and décor. The customer may not have access to a physical piece of flooring to reference, so a great way to display these visuals is through your website or social media. With various free online platforms, you can show a potential customer your product, leading to the opportunity to send a sample and build a relationship.
There were a lot of challenges and changes in 2020, one of which includes how to market on social media. It’s not always easy to get your message out to the public. Algorithms exist on social media platforms that can prevent potential customers from seeing your posts. To make sure your company can stay on top in the online world., be sure to pay attention to the following.
Check Your Insights
Once you create a business profile on a social media platform (mainly Facebook and Instagram), there is a section called Insights. This area is critical for measuring success on social media platforms. It provides data that helps you assess if you are reaching your target audience. You can see what your audience likes, and what time your viewers are online.
Recent posts get pushed to the top of the feed, so you will want to post when the majority of your audience is online. The most-commonly liked posts tend to be authentic photos, so some great ways to apply this to your company’s platform is to include posting behind-the-scenes photos, virtual tours, or the completed jobsite.
Share
Influencers, or people who have a large audience on social media platforms, have recently become a major trend. Due to their large following, it is a great idea to network with influencers to post your product. This, in return, creates free advertisement. It is the new version of “word of mouth” with a larger scope.
When you post content, if you know others who are involved in the project, tag them. This can be anyone in the process including suppliers, photographers, builders, designers, etc. Tagging those involved in the process is a way of saying ‘thank you.’ It’s also a great way to build or cultivate a relationship. This also could lead to them sharing what you had posted, meaning more viewers and more reach.
Engage
Engaging with your audience can be liking, commenting, sharing, or saving other’s posts. The more you interact with your audience, the stronger relationship you build. When someone comments or sends you a direct message, it is key to respond, and send a genuine response, so they feel acknowledged. Each platform sees this engagement and will extend your reach when you post in the future.
Quality over quantity
Posting often is important, but if your posts are not performing well, it is best to review your insights and see what types of posts are performing the best. Another tactic is to reach out to your audience to see what they want more of. One way to do this is to post a poll in your Instagram story and then collect the data.
Post what is useful and informative to your audience. On a larger scale, our society is heavily into wellness culture. Audiences tend to look for things that are natural and authentic. Hardwood flooring is both, so use its attributes to your advantage.
Give your viewers a reason to follow you or to save your posts on Instagram. Showroom samples are hard to judge, so try to show examples of flooring within homes or business spaces if possible. Viewers tend to save more posts like this, and when they save your post, it is as though they are saving it to their own personal online vision board for building a new home or office. When you continue to get more saves, it is noticed behind the scenes in the algorithm. This also can enable your account to reach a larger audience.
Utilize new features
Today’s technology is ever-changing and we are now, more than ever, virtual. It is key to use this to our advantage. Using these technologies may seem intimidating due to their ever-changing nature, but there are many resources readily available to assist you. The more you use social media and its features, the more each platform’s algorithms will measure your use, work for you, and help you build a larger audience.
Brandi Copeland handles marketing for Peachey Hardwood Flooring in Reedsville, Pennsylvania. She can be reached at sales@peacheyfloor.com or 717.667.9373.