When it comes to small business marketing, it can be difficult to pick a strategy, especially when you are just starting out. Social media, print, billboards, television—the options seem endless, so where should you invest?
Which of the following marketing channels does your company use?
We’ve got a tough new competitor coming to town who serves builders and remodelers. They do a great job with their marketing—which is an area where we really need to step up our game. We’d love to learn from other LBM suppliers about what marketing strategies deliver a good bang for the buck. Other than an inactive Facebook page, we don’t do any social media. Is that something we should be doing as well? Appreciate any suggestions.
Responses from lumberyards, full-line building material dealers, and specialty dealers/distributors:
“We have found more specific marketing works in this case, we went after a small group of builders with a very unique approach. We felt it would make the biggest impact on a smaller group to start with.”
“Best bang for the buck is in-house social media. Talk to your employees and see if anyone has experience/interest in updating your pages. You probably have someone that you’ve caught on their phone during the workday—this could be your go-to social media expert. Everyone has a camera in their pocket, so gathering content is easy. Update your personal and company LinkedIn page. Focus your Facebook page to business-related content only (no fish-faces or sharing unrelated memes) and join your target community pages.
My town has a Facebook page where businesses can advertise on every Saturday, so I would post specials, sales, and blowout deals for my former company. Encourage employees to “like and share” company posts to spread the message. Your trucks can be your best marketing tool. They are on the local highways daily and in your target consumers faces making you money while advertising. Nobody notices a white truck with a sticker on the door. Body wraps are relatively inexpensive and attract attention. Bright colors and line art draw attention that people remember. Just make sure your drivers remember that the truck and how they drive will draw attention. Another plus is your drivers will respect driving a cool looking truck.”
“Use Instagram. Step 1: Create a bunch of posts highlighting different product categories on various project types (single-family, multifamily, etc.) Tag the manufacturers, subcontractors you work with, architects, and your customers. Step 2: Follow every builder, subcontractor, and architect in your area. They will probably follow you back. Step 3: Engage with the followers and accounts you follow. Step 4: Set post alerts for developers you want to work with and when they post about an upcoming project or something you have experience with, reach out. Ask to bid. They will look at your page and see that you have some credibility. Then, you get your shot.”
“Partner with vendors to highlight your strengths.”
“Social media alone isn’t the answer. You need to have an entire integrated marketing strategy encompassing your social media, website, and advertising efforts. Ultimately, the goal with it all is to capture and follow-up with leads. Simply posting on social won’t do more than just create an artificial sense of ‘we’re doing great!’ It has to move the revenue needle for the business. Marketing should drive qualified leads for the business. Ensure you have a solid foundation with a well built-out website for your customers that you can draw them into. Then you can build a cohesive content strategy that stokes the fire.”
“Yes to social media! Don’t use it as a selling tool, use it as brand awareness. Be relevant in your market.”
“Give out swag: shirts, caps, can koozies. Talk with your customers. Use every form of social media to stay visible.”
“Actually have never seen a ‘great job’ done to builders and remodelers, only to retail markets. Our current customer base for the pro is not active on social media at this time but is coming as new leaders take over. We are wrestling with the pro side right now as we know the need is coming.”
“Step 1: Identify your market and demographics. You can develop a strategy based on that information. Find out where your customers are and meet
them there.
Step 2: Once you identify that, determine your budget. If you’ve never been active in marketing, get ready for a shocker. It’s not cheap.
Step 3: Determine if you have the sophistication to do it in-house. Real talk: If you haven’t been active, you probably don’t. Look into local agencies that you align with. If you don’t have any local ones, there are great national ones like Venveo. Be very real considering your budget, if you underspend, your dollars are just being wasted; if you overspend, you’ll never recover the dollars. Strongly suggest guidance from a professional.
Step 4: Execute and be real. If you’re looking for a silver bullet, you’re going to be disappointed. Without getting deep into things, the measurable tie back to marketing spend is one of the most challenging things to determine.
Lots of great industry specific marketers like Venveo out there. At a minimum, follow Beth PopNikolov on LinkedIn and read through everything she posts. Good luck and may the Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) ever be in your favor.”
“The first thing I would look at is your website—it is your company’s face. It’s your cheapest and most effective advertising. It works 24/7/365. Is it up to date? Does it attract the types of customers you’re after? Is it interactive (with offers?) Other than a ‘Contact Us,’ does it have other CTA’s (calls to action) that people can fill out forms and give you their information? Examples would be a ‘Free Quote’ form, ‘Free Download’, ‘Free Samples.’ Do you have a blog that features some of your customer’s projects? These are a few of the strategies we use to get 15,000 visitors and 150 new contacts
a month.”
“We are ACE, so they do their thing with our name on it. Social media is what we use for our name brand.”
“If I could allot the time, I think Facebook and a website would be worth it. We have a website but don’t have anyone to maintain it. I have good intentions, but that’s as far as it gets.”
“Yes, social media is definitely necessary. It shouldn’t be overbearing at the same time.”
“You’ll want to match your marketing efforts and the platforms you advertise through with what your target audience is on. Do you advertise for retail or just wholesale? B2B or B2C, or both? For B2B, you will want to focus on trade industry knowledge, build a subscriber list and email your customers/others in the trade. Reactivate that Facebook page and start sharing what your employees are doing. What makes your company better than your competitors, it’s all about relatable, authentic video content right now.”
“You should be looking at your business. What do you excel at? Try and make that better. Also you should meet with your best customers face-to-face. Make it a lunch or take them to dinner whatever time works for them. Ask them point blank what they think your business needs to improve on and take notes. Do this with at least three customers. If there is any overlap of information you now have identified you have areas to improve.”
“Yes to Facebook! We have been using an agency to build our advertising program. I think it is important to keep name awareness, who we are and what services/materials we offer, top of mind.”
“Social media and digital marketing are a MUST in this day and age. The customer base is only getting younger and social media has been proven to be the best way to reach millennials, Gen Z, etc.”
“No matter what platform you settle on, shift your social media strategy away from direct sales pitches for your brands and services. Instead, adopt a holistic approach by incorporating storytelling and culture to create a more engaging brand presence. This fosters stronger connections with your audience, building trust and brand loyalty and, consequently, boosting sales.”
“I think that more and more people are spending time scrolling. I would consider Instagram as well as Facebook and reach out to your suppliers for some help. We recently did a postcard program (three mailings to the same ZIP codes). I have not been happy with the results from that expenditure.”
“As marketing director of a small niche millwork distributor, I highly recommend embracing social media to its fullest potential! Remember, content is key in captivating your audience. Aim to post consistently, around 2-3 times per week. Craft a well-thought-out social media strategy that assigns specific themes to each day of the week. For example, designate ‘Testimonial Tuesday,’ ‘Professional or Employee Spotlights,’ and ‘Tips and Tricks for Installation’ days. Don’t forget to incorporate engaging video reels and stories into your content mix.
It’s crucial to emphasize your unique selling points and what sets your company apart from the competition. Dive deep into the reasons behind your brand’s existence and communicate these effectively. Engage with your current customers and leverage their testimonials and advocacy to strengthen your brand’s credibility. Consider implementing an employee advocate program to encourage your team members to share company content and help grow your online audience. Doing so can amplify your reach and establish a stronger presence in the industry.”
“For targeting consumers who are interested in remodels, specifically, find your local NPR station. Public radio listeners tend to skew older, have more expendable income, and are very loyal to the companies that support their local station. Public radio doesn’t allow for advertising, but you can underwrite their programming. What’s great is that because it’s a nonprofit organization, you can write off the amount as a donation at year-end, while still getting your message to an active/loyal audience.
Our organization has a unique opportunity, in being a 130-year old company, to tell our story. We have a local program that would like to feature the story of our business, and it’s history in developing the area in which we live. Not everyone will have quite as big an opportunity, but everyone DOES have a story to tell. It’s just a matter of finding the right avenue to tell it, and the right audience to hear it.”
“The biggest bang for the buck is always excellence in customer service. You have to do this anyway, so truly excel at it and folks will know.”
“Advertise in home builders associations and get connected with the local chamber of commerce. Instagram seems to be where we connect with our contractors more. Facebook is more of the retail side.”
“It should be to an extent; however, our role as sales people to give best service were trained for.”
“Paid search.”
“A social media page is free. Get the employees involved. Have them take pictures of loads they built for delivery. Have drivers take pictures of interesting deliveries. Sales can provide stories of what they have provided in the community. Even posting ‘tag sale’ items gets attention. Make it local to the area—something that a new company cant.”
“Social media and digital marketing is where it’s at.”
“We do lots of collaboration with our general contractors on installing our products and posting on Instagram. Find a couple willing GCs and do some in-the-field videos.”
“The basics always deliver best. Focus on having good information available on the web with phone numbers, product info, things pros want to know and they can find easily on their own.”
“Our marketing department is in its infancy here—being run by one person, me, who has very little experience—so I’m not sure we are the most qualified to be giving advice, but I definitely think that just about every company should have the key social media pages (Facebook and Instagram for sure.) To me it feels like an essential component to placing your company within the eyes of the community and those you service. We have also had some degree of success getting people in our doors for in-store sales using paid advertising on Facebook. We did not have a super good way of measuring this besides just asking where they heard about the sale at the counter.”
“We don’t do any advertising; the majority of our business comes from regular contractors who have been buying from us for years. To be honest, most of the new business that we acquire comes from word of mouth. We have so many people come in that say, ‘so-and-so down the street said that they only ever come here,’ and so for us, our biggest marketing tool is our customer service and the high quality materials that we both stock and are able to acquire. We have recently undergone a resurgence of our Facebook page and have also started up on Instagram. I think it will take some time for both of those to gain traction enough to see how beneficial they both are.”
“Social yes, but it can be tricky. Not really for ‘selling’ obviously but good for branding and engaging. You should really consider Digital/Behavioral advertising. Our provider calls it ‘Custom Audience Targeting’ or CAT. This enables you to serve and advertise only to people who are actively researching online the product you are promoting, whatever that may be. It’s 100% targeted. You should also be doing SEM (Search Engine Marketing) covering the areas you operate in.
Other digital efforts could include blogging, which can first be promoted on social media and then posted on your website. The goal is to direct people to your website to fill out a contact form which should be monitored by someone who would be able to respond promptly. The entire digital effort has been very successful for us!”
“Every single person who has a phone is on social media. Get that Facebook up and active. But be careful with paying for boosting. We have not seen a good enough return for what we’re paying to believe in ‘boosting.’ Make sure all of your employees are ‘liking’ and ‘sharing’ your posts. The more people who share it will cause Facebook’s algorithms to show it to more people. When you pay to boost your add, you lose the ability to have others share it. And it comes across as an ad which will cause most people to scroll on by. When they see people they know sharing something they’re more apt to look at it.
Anything you can do to touch people’s emotions, whether it’s happy, sad, angry, or best yet funny, will get a reaction. Reactions keep it moving and keep it relevant even long after you’ve moved on to the next. You don’t have to spend a bunch of money but you need to be active.”
“Social media is the best way to get in front of people. It is cheap, if not free, and you can change the message 10 times a day if you want and target who you are after.”
“Post regularly on Facebook and Instagram.”
“We have a lot of success with using our Facebook page. We use it for advertising, promotions, giveaway promotions at Christmas time, and employee profiles. We also, with their permission, us it to take jobsite photos and feature our contractors on our Facebook page. It does take time to maintain but we think it is worth it.
The other marketing we focus on is our website. We updated that a few years ago and included the ability for people to request quotes and orders through the site. That has been a success and yielded many orders.”
“Yes. Social media is good as well as direct mail and email blasts.”
“We were in the same situation years ago when Lowes moved into town. We thought it was going to be hard to compete. Well, time will tell for you, but we grew instantly 30% over the next few years. They brought us more business when people wanted more service for their money. Yes, you need to be on social media showing off your business. Flooring after installed, kitchen cabinets, etc. You will succeed!”
“Social media campaigns are beneficial to get traffic in the door. The important part of maintaining market share would be to execute all processes and practices at optimum level. You might see a small dip at initial market share opening due to a new business being opened with promotions, however consistency goes a long way.”
“Social media now is probably the most effective and cost-efficient. If it is an issue for you, some marketing companies will even do it for you as part of a larger package, but that is up to your budget. Simply maintaining a Facebook/Instagram page is super easy, and most vendors you probably buy from has stock material ready for you to use (Marvin, Reeb, Wolf, etc).”
“Yes, get into it consistently, keep it light but professional. It is a great way to start conversations, in store and online, with your customers.”
“All social media. Post all the time. Share what separates you apart from your new competitor. Such as services you offer, storytelling, behind the scenes, etc.”
“Facebook is a great way to keep active and sustain the sense of community with the locals. How you post is just as important as when you post. Mix up your feed with sales items as well as company interaction. If the company participates in a local event then post about it. We like to join fundraisers and donation opportunities not only to aid in the local benefit but also keep our company in the eyes of the community. We also have a marketing team that we hired outside of our company that builds our website and keeps our logo pop-ups on google and other local search engines.”
“Get with the vendors and do some contractor/customer cookouts. Introduce who you are over a hamburger and a handshake.”
Responses from wholesale distributors, manufacturers, and service providers:
“Pair up with the best marketing company in your area. A good one is worth every penny.”
“If you are a lumber (commodity) dealer, you need all the advertising you can afford. You can move out of the commodity material market by adding value to the consumer or installer by offering the following services: design, take-offs, engineering, financing, installed sales. Community involvement is a great form of marketing that benefits your customers rather than tech giants or marketing agencies.”
“LinkedIn can be a great resource for LBM.”
“Expanding your social media to include additional platforms will expand exposure to a wider range of age groups. Instagram, TikTok, and others have high appeal. Consider including video. As far as other initiatives, what is the new competitor doing with their marketing that works? Watch it, learn from it and then improve on it!”
“Know your audience. If your area is full of young hungry builders, online advertising is key. If your area has a solid 50-something builders base, service and pricing matters most.”
“Adopt a loyalty program and capture your shopper data, then you can send them highly targeted communications and offers via email and direct mail.”
“Google Analytics FREE and Google Tag Manager FREE are great tools. Social media is also the future and for the younger generation.”
“It sounds like you build relationships, have a cookout with horse shoes. Match up drywaller with remodeler against builder and carpenter. Let them build the relationship you have fostered.”
“Hire a social media marketer and hit all the stops; Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Tik Tok, X, etc. Work on your website to drive SEO, which in turn will push you up the Google search rankings.”
“Regularly posting meaningful/interesting/helpful info and/or images to build your brand using social media takes discipline. Content creation is the biggest challenge. And it’s difficult to measure ‘results’ so only companies who stick with it (like your tough new competitor) understand the significant impact their marketing is having on their business. If you don’t have a creative marketing-savvy person on staff who can dedicate the time to do it properly then the best bang-for-the-buck is to hire someone.”
“We sell value constantly. If all the customer wants is a cheap price, we wish them well. We create relationships from the front line to the top.”
“LinkedIn has a great number of industry professionals. Boosting content there will help. There are other online platforms that cater towards marketing yourself and your lumber products online that can help you reach network and meet new customers.”
