Our Mastermind was a bit light this time around, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have an amazing conversation. Smaller Mastermind calls have the benefit of diving deep into your struggles and finding tangible solutions that you can implement immediately. For example, one of our Hardware Innovators was struggling with B2B marketing and couldn’t seem to get engagement on social posts, ads, or email marketing. We dove deep into this topic and we can’t wait for you to hear some of the ideas that came out of it!
Key Takeaways
During this month’s Mastermind call, we dove into the ins and outs of a marketing campaign, tips to be more efficient in your marketing effots, utilizing email marketing as a relationship-building tool, and so much more. Let’s dive in!
Marketing Mastermind Takeaways:
We started the Marketing Mastermind by diving into a campaign and how to utilize one piece of content across the board. For example, you can create a blog post, then create several social media posts that highlight it, preview the blog post in a newsletter, and even direct social ads to the blog post (depending on your goals).
When thinking about writing content for your social media goals, here are some tips:
- Work with the Owner, GM, or Department Leads to identify key departments, products, or services to focus on each month. These can be your Pillars for the month and the basis for creating topics. The topics can be used for creating blogs, building newsletters, and social posts.
- The key: What are your customers thinking about right now? What products do they need? What problems are we helping them solve this month?
- Plan out these topics for the entire year.
When looking to create content, we recommend that you start a month in advance and take a peek at a calendar. For example, spring cleaning is going to be a hit in March! Highlight your store’s most popular cleaning supplies. In July, BBQs are where it’s at because your customers are already thinking about their 4th of July parties!
We also discussed some social posts that have received great engagement. Try them out and see how it goes!
- Throwback Photos – Pull out the baby albums or photos from your early days! Your audience will love these!
- Giveaways – You can never go wrong with a social giveaway! It’s a great way to bring in new followers (especially if you include tagging friends for additional entries).
- Highlight Your Culture – For example, one of our Innovator’s stores is known as the “friendliest place in town,” and they often post photos of their employees smiling and dog photos!
When it comes to engaging your B2B audience – our Innovators had some suggestions. Not many customers understand what “B2B” means or that it’s a program.
- Many B2B folks don’t love the name “B2B.” Consider rebranding your program or using the language “small business owners” instead.
- Looking for a starting point to recruit B2B customers in-store? Train your employees to engage with people who are wearing shirts with construction logos and ask a few questions like:
– Do you have an account with us? As a small business owner you can save X% off of every purchase.
– Have you heard of our small business program? - Remember that B2B can also include other industries like cleaning, maintenance, pool cleaners, etc.
- Create emails that target only your B2B audience and build a relationship with them. B2B folks are used to being “sold” to at every turn. Mix it up and try adding these elements to the newsletter:
– Using humor and adding a meme that they look forward to laughing at
– Add an inspirational quote
– Highlight whatever national day it is. I.e. “national corn dog day” or “root beer float day”
– Build a relationship by providing exclusive discounts that only they are aware of, like “snowblower for 30% off because it’s April” or “opening up a sale to B2B first before the public hears about it”. - Know that steady growth is key — don’t focus on the day-to-day metrics when you’re just getting started!
Helpful Resources:
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- Check out this referral card example for your B2B folks!
- We recommend staying away from AI-created content! It can negatively impact your SEO results and show your content less. If you need a tool to check your content for AI, we recommend Originality.ai (aim for 75+% human-written content!)
- Annual Plan Document – Be sure to take a look at all the tabs!
General Managers Mastermind Takeaways:
Our General Managers’ Mastermind was a no-show this week, but we wanted to highlight that for our next Mastermind, we’ll dive into CallRail and the benefits of tracking where people are clicking on your number to call!
CallRail allows you to have separate numbers for your social media, website, Google My Business, and much more! This information is invaluable so you can track and allocate your advertising budget to the most effective platform.
Be sure to block out your calendar for next Month’s Hardware Innovator’s Mastermind on June 19th!
Does the idea of a monthly meet-up with other retail hardware stores sound valuable to you? Are you interested in sharing resources, asking questions, and participating with your peers on-demand through an exclusive Slack channel?
Email us at hello@hardwareinnovators.com to get access to the Slack Channel! The best part? It’s 100% free and puts you in touch with hardware store general managers and marketers to ask questions and get immediate feedback from what worked at other hardware stores!
Join Us on June 19th for our Next Mastermind
For May, we’ll have two groups that meet: marketing and GMS.
Need help signing up? Send us an email: hello@hardwareinnovators.com
Are You On Board?
Does the idea of a monthly meet-up with other hardware stores sound valuable to you? Are you interested in sharing resources, asking questions, and participating with your peers on-demand with an exclusive slack channel?