How to increase local leads by 1900% when you have nothing to sell?

Too often businesses only want to talk to customers when they have something to tell them, or should I say have something to sell them. For many local retailers that’s the whole point of marketing – it’s purely selling. So, what happens when you don’t have anything to sell? Well sadly for many that means they stop marketing.

“I can’t do any marketing.” is a response we’ve been hearing quite a lot recently.

Let me explain. Some of you may have heard about the global semi-conductor shortage in the media. No semi-conductors mean no microchips, no microchips mean no cars rolling off the production lines and no production lines means no sparkling new motors in the showrooms. It’s meant that the UK has just seen its worst September for new car sales since the twice-yearly plate changes began in 1999.

But step back and reframe things and it’s not all doom and gloom. And it’s certainly not the time to freeze all your marketing efforts! In fact, there’s never been a better time to reach out to customers and build that sales pipeline for the next 3, 6 and 12 months.

Robert Forrester CEO of Vertu Motors one of the UK’s largest Retailer Groups said:

‘This has been the best thing that’s happened to the motor retail sector for 50 years.

This is not a problem,’ he retorts. ‘We have been in a position of massive oversupply. The profitability you’re seeing now is because supply and demand are nicely in balance. People are willing to wait for a car and they’re willing to pay good prices for the cars, because if they don’t, they won’t get one.’

So, with supply and demand nicely in balance, now really is the time for retailers to seize the moment and look at getting their local marketing plans equally in balance.

Those of you familiar with We Are Acuity’s See Think Do Care balanced marketing plan (click here for a FREE download) will know marketing is all about identifying, predicting, and meeting customer needs not just selling to them on your terms when you want to. It’s right message, right channel, at the right time. It relies on really understanding the customer and the customer journey. You need to take a holistic view.

With this exact challenge in mind Citroën asked us for help. How could they drive sales at a time when retailers were complaining of having no stock and wanting to stop their marketing! In our usual way we rolled our sleeves up and got stuck in. This case study will show you how we did it, just click here to read more.

Our campaign started in September and exceeded all expectations. With an amazing uplift of 1,900% it is unsurprising that the campaign activity was extended in to Q4.

If you'd like a chat about how we can make your brand's local marketing more balanced, just call me today or book a FREE 30 minute marketing review here.
 
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