Hardware Store Marketing : is yours keeping up with the times?

Hardware Store Marketing has come a long way since we were kids.  I can remember the local neighborhood hardware where the owners knew my name…and that was right in New York City, not a small town.  The store is long gone, and there’s a nail salon in its place.

In those days the store sold all the basics: high quality tools, and supplies that seemed to cover everything we needed.

Today, life is different…and much more challenging for New York hardware store owners: stores have grown to be huge warehouses, filled with housewares, plumbing supplies, and even appliances and furnishings.  And to support that inventory, marketing has to bring in a steady stream of customers.

Hardware Store Marketing now includes…

…lots of advertising and promotional tools that didn’t exist just a few years ago: Loyalty Programs, YouTube Channels where you demonstrate tips, Social Media posts to “DIY” customers, and a website armed with SEO/SEM/Retargeting and more.  Where retailers could thrive by offering quality, service and value, they now have to try window displays, hold “hands on” events, and involve the community, just to try to keep up with Big Box Home Stores and the impersonal (but cheap) internet.

Make every experience better: improve your Hardware Store Marketing

Here are a few tips that may help improve your marketing plan:

• Make your store a destination: give workshops for both kids and adults.
• Talk with your customers and get to know them, and why them come in. Try to recognize specialty items they need, that aren’t found on the internet
• Make it personal: anything you can sell, they can find on the Internet. So do what websites can’t: introduce yourself to customers, and if they’re receptive, talk about what they’re buying and why.
• Staff your store with knowledgeable employees who also “get” how to provide great service.
• Be attractive both outside your store (to attract business) and inside (it’s a key to increasing retail sales in any store)
• Does your location have foot traffic passing by? Tempt them to come in with Window Displays
• What happens when your phone rings? It probably does right when you’re helping a customer at the counter…so the caller has to wait on “hold.”
  Hold on to the caller, and make the experience a good one with custom marketing messages on hold.  Click here to learn more about them.

Hardware Store Marketing has to be good.

The days of assuming that your neighbors will shop at your store are gone.  They’re just as likely to drive to the local Warehouse Depot Store, or order from Amazon.  Marketing is your key to survival.  Make the most of every experience.

For a list of great articles on Retail and Hardware Marketing click here.  They work in New York State, and wherever your store is.

Or find out how advertising on hold can make your telephone system a more efficient marketing tool, click here.  Or call us and we’ll tell you more: In NYC call 212-355-6980. Nationwide, call 800-862-8896.

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Timing Is Everything: are you reaching prospects at the right time?

Timing is everything.
In love, in sports, and in business.

Timing is Everything in Business

Let’s leave the first two ideas for someone else to cover: we don’t have enough space here.  But when it comes to business every salesman (who’s paying attention) can tell you right away if this is the right time to talk with a prospect.  Prospects are only receptive when they’re receptive.  Trying to talk someone into something that’s not on their “to do” list.  Or on their radar.  They’re not interested.  Especially in New York.

That’s because the only timing that’s important is their timing.

Think about it: think about all those great websites you’ve visited in the past.  All the “send me information” buttons that you’ve clicked on.  And all those emails you now get every few days.  They were interesting when you were looking for information. But now?

Every morning we open our “in” boxes and do the same thing
Delete.
Delete.
Delete.

So does your prospective customer.  Your prospects get just as many emails as you do.  Most people average over 100 every day.  Many (like me) get more than double that.

Timing isn’t just important.  Timing is everything!

Most of those email blasts you send out never get a second glance.  They’re just deleted.  According to Constant Contact, the average “open” rate is just 10-15%.

How to Profit from knowing that “Timing is Everything”

Why not talk to your prospects when they’re interested in your help?  When they want to learn more.  How can you do that?

Every time your phone rings, it’s “a call for help.”  Customers and prospects trying to find out if you can solve their problems.  So you’ve got to make the most of every call.

You can, with Informer Marketing Messages on hold.  These on hold ads give your caller more of the information they want, right when they want it.  With a custom written on hold script, this onhold tool offers a voice message that delivers your message.  Your telephone message and hold music to give phone callers information about your products and services and how you’re different from your competition.

What would you like your prospects to know about if you had the chance?  Get the chance:  learn how in a Free On Hold Opportunity Analysis, by calling 212-355-6980 in New York City.  In Stamford Connecticut call 203-655-3920.  Nationwide call 800-862-8896.  Now’s the time to call.

Because Timing Is Everything.

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Pediatric Messages on hold: the New York Pediatrician’s Newest Tool

Pediatric Messages on hold give your New York pediatric practice a new opportunity.  Every day, your phone rings: parents are calling with many of the same questions, about walk-in hours, well visits, shots, symptoms, hours…every day.  There are times of day when your front desk staff is overwhelmed with the telephone ringing while patients are checking in.  Then there are forms to fill out and Hipaa requirements to explain and remind parents about. There’s got to be a more efficient way!

Pediatric Messages on hold are the solution

Providing information on hold is the answer.  Simply replace your music on hold on your phones with on hold information, and your front office productivity can soar, and parent frustration can decrease.  Custom written holdmessages address the issues and questions that your practice faces, and tackle them for you.  A well written hold script is the new information source that you’ve been looking for.

Busy medical practices in New York use pediatric messages on hold

Pediatricians in New York all face the same challenges: they’re busier than anywhere in the country: you know that the right information is the best medicine, so why not use wasted on hold time to start the process?  Getting started with pediatric messages on hold is easy.

We start by learning about your practice, your providers, and your biggest challenges.  Do you have a new website with helpful features and guidelines?  Let’s tell your callers about it.  Are important forms available for download?  Everyone saves time when parents know.  You’ll find that parents are less frustrated when they’re not delayed unnecessarily.

What’s new at the practice? New providers?  Introduce them and provide interesting bio information.  New services?  New there ways you help your patients?  Are you active in the community?  Tell everyone.  Are there important dates such as flu clinics coming?  Remind them.

We’ll get to know about your callers.  Many of these parents have the same questions and concerns.  Why not start to help them in time they’re now wasting on hold?  Parents are busier than ever, and they’ll appreciate the help saving them time.

Then we’ll do everything for you: from developing a strategy to writing a first draft of your script, and continuing to revise it until it’s perfect.  We’ll record and send broadcast quality messages in the format that perfect for your system, traditional PBX, state of the art VoIP, or anything in between.

We’ll keep your pediatric messages on hold updated

Times change, your practice changes, your patients needs change…so your pediatric on hold messages change, on a schedule that works for you.  We’ll remind you, both by email and on the phone, and provide helpful ideas.  Our proactive reminders are unique in the industry, because we know that the more you get from your messages, the more you’ll value them.

With Informer Messages on hold there’s no long term commitment, and the results are guaranteed.  We have to earn your business every day.  Why would you settle for anything less?

Looking at pediatric messages on hold?

Look closer and you’ll see the difference.  For a free 15-minute consult to find out how they can work for you click here for information, or, in New York call 212-355-6980.  In Connecticut call 2-30655-3920.  Nationwide call 800-862-8896.

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Phone Messages should actually help you…and your caller.

So you have Phone Messages on hold.
That’s great.
But why do you have them?

Phone Messages were invented to…

Messages on hold were first invented to be a marketing tool.  Marketing’s job is to effectively communicate what you do, how you do it, and the best reasons to work with you to your potential customer.

But somewhere along the way, marketing stopped doing this.  Here’s how it happened:
A century or two ago, advertising was all local.  You worked with people who were close to you, because that was your only choice.  So advertising was “comparative.” It gave all the reasons to work with you.  It was mainly factual.  It helped consumers decide.

As products were invented or improved, it was easy for consumers to make the decision to buy from you.  Ford’s Model T or Bell’s Telephone were unique…and the only choice!

Then came the age of “Mad Men.” With the invention of television, and eventually the internet, things changed.  Advertising was now limited to a 60-second commercial…and then a 30-second spot.  And the message turned from factual to simplistic: filled with jingles and slogans.  Creativity replaced facts. You heard memorable ads like…

• Ring around the collar
• Plop plop, fizz fizz…
• We’re “the wings of man”
• You’re in good hands

Today’s advertising stinks.  So do today’s brochures, websites, and emails.  Take a look at any ad (like your own messages on hold) and ask why it’s filled with clichés like “over 120 years of combined experience,” “our friendly and knowledgeable staff,” or “our massive inventory.”

But your customer is left with a tough decision: why should they buy anything from you?  How can they make the right decision?

Your phone messages are just as bad

Here’s one way to evaluate your advertising on hold: does it get a response?  Do your callers ask about what they’ve heard?  Or does it just waste your callers’ time?

How to tell if you have the best Phone Messages

Writing the on scripts that actually succeed takes time and effort.  Most people don’t bother.  But when you ask your caller to “please hold” are your phone messages simply annoying your caller?

Don’t settle for clichés or empty phrases.  Expect more from your marketing messages. Find out just how much you can get from them in a free 15-minute Discovery Session.  Click here to schedule a time, or call for immediate service: In New York call 212-355-6980.  In Connecticut call 203-655-3920.  And nationwide call 800-862-8896.

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