Social Media Marketing through Proximity & Experience in the Home Improvement Market
David Ralph Smith
The rapidly growing Internet of Things culture and smart home devices are infiltrating the home improvement sector, most notably supported within large home improvement retailers like Menards, Lowe’s, and The Home Depot. These devices are often more expensive than their counterparts and are unfamiliar to their consumers; thus, the dissemination and promotion of smart home product information through social media is critical. Retailers in the home improvement space need to have a social media marketing plan to reach their consumers.
Smart home sales in the home improvement market face the challenge of faulty consumer perception. Most Americans believe it costs $5,000 or more to transform their home into a smart home; however, the new smart home consumer typically starts with four smart devices and spends an average of $200. Social media conversations are possibly the best option for informing consumers of the true expense and value of smart home products.
Most home improvement representatives are viewed as both product experts and trusted voices by consumers. They are skilled in engaging customers, understanding large varieties of products, and helping customers find the best product combinations for their needs. Retail representatives are the key drivers of in-store sales, so why not teach them to utilize their social media skills? Recommendations on social media ease the apprehensions around price points when it comes from a trusted voice, and conversing with someone you can meet in-store adds another layer of accountability and trust. When the proximity of a rep and their social connections are within the same community as the store, advocacy is at its strongest.
Seventy-nine percent of consumers prefer shopping at brick-and-mortar stores, and consumers are consistently interested in the best shopping experience possible. Representatives on the sales floor create a unique emotional connection between a consumer, the store they enter, and their purchases. Representatives trained in social media product conversations can strengthen that connection by instilling trust and comfort before the consumer steps foot in the store, thus helping the consumer make the easy decision to choose their store over a competitor’s. Menards, Lowe’s, and The Home Depot are already well-established home improvement stores. Adding social media proficiency to a sales representative’s toolkit can strengthen their ability to drive further consumer loyalty, product sales, and a standout customer experience beyond the brick-and-mortar.
Because of their position in the retail industry and their current regular training schedule, home improvement representatives are in a perfect position to be trained and activated for empowering employee advocacy through social media. For example, representatives can be provided access to a cloud account of current, branded shareable resources that could be as simple as geotagged images or video clips of upcoming products. Vendors could even pay for access to additional resources like photos and videos, which would be available to reps alongside their training. The cloud access and participation could serve as an additional revenue stream for and from home improvement retailers by adding an additional marketing avenue to the launch of new, updated, and upcoming products.
Smart devices are on the rise, and introducing new technology to traditional homeowners is a must. Homeowners are looking for guidance on purchases and need confidence that paying more means greater value. Local representatives who their companies empower to advocate on social media can accomplish this not just during the holidays but throughout the entire year.
What does a social media-trained representative look like in the home improvement sector? They have easy access to shareable material generated by their own company—existing images, posts, and videos prepared and vetted in advance to ensure they are compliant with branding guidelines. The avenue through which they obtain this content could be a company-specific tool or a current social media platform. Regardless, it is easily accessible and approved content they can share with a large audience—without stepping foot in the store.
Encouraging and training representatives to use social media cannot only help the company but the representative as well. Employee recognition for sharing information could be tracked and rewarded. For example, a smart bulb company can sponsor and celebrate the sales representative of the month for a region. When the representative shares that recognition on their channels, it promotes the brand and the retailer simultaneously. As a result, we see a rise in employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and maybe even a movement toward business-appropriate and well-developed social media skills as part of the employment application process.
Author: With more than 20 years of experience, Retail Multimedia Training Manager David Smith is responsible for MarketSource’s video, photography, and animation related to Learning and Development. His primary focus is impacting quarterly revenue growth by developing training for reps across all retail channels.