Here at Promoboxx we LOVE our retailers, and keeping them engaged in our platform is very important to us. The Client Services team constantly reaches out to retailers to help them get activated, to show them new features, and to answer any questions they may have. We also love getting their feedback. Meeting retailers’ needs is key to having engaged users, and we like to check in to see what retailers think of the Promoboxx platform. The Retailers Rule! interview series shares retailer insights across the industries and helps to better connect brands with their retailers.
For this Retailers Rule! Interview, we headed to Doyon’s Modern Home
in Bedford, MA to sit down with Mike Doyon, who uses Promoboxx to promote his GE and Electrolux product offerings. Mike loves how much time Promoboxx saves him when the content is already written and is one-click away from posting to his online channels for him. In order to get a better understanding of Mike’s marketing needs as a retailer, we asked him a few questions and got some great insights. Here are our 4 takeaways:
Mike first heard about Promoboxx from both his GE sales rep and Electrolux marketing rep, who let him know that Promoboxx was their digital marketing solution and that it was provided by the brands. As soon as Mike found out what Promoboxx could do for him, he readily created his account and started promoting out the latest campaigns for both GE and Electrolux. No matter how you slice it, clear communication with your Tier 2 representatives is crucial for successful retail marketing. They are the “foot soldiers” of your brand if you will – the ones who are out in the field shaking hands with your retailers. It’s important that brand communication is clearly and concisely funneled down through your reps and to everyone across your retail network.
Mike takes an active role in Doyon’s online presence and carefully considers every campaign on Promoboxx in conjunction with the content already on his online pages before activating and promoting. The scheduling feature comes in handy for Mike when he wants to plan out his promotions for a few weeks or the month, but doesn’t have time to log in to the platform every time he wants to share something new. When Mike uses the scheduling feature, it’s super helpful to him to see the brand recommended schedule, so that he can be in alignment with brand strategy and see when the best time to share each piece of content is. The ability to sync marketing calendars with that of your retailers can be a powerful tool for brands. It takes the heavy lifting off of the retailer so that they can focus on their in-store sales.
Doyon’s does about 90% of their advertising via traditional print mediums; however, Mike expressed his intent on moving more towards digital and loves the idea of digital local ads. Mike has tried to implement digital local ads for his business, but admits that he hasn’t mastered how to best go about it yet and could use more help. Far too often, retailers are seen as a pain to work with rather than a marketing asset. The truth is, more retailers than you think feel the same way as Mike does. The eagerness to have a solid online presence is there, but sometimes the resources and time just aren’t available. Brands can help their retailers implement digital local ads by utilizing Match, which takes away all of the barriers for your time-constrained retailers. Match is the first-of-its-kind retailer incentive program that rewards your retailers for promoting you online with digital local ads. Not only does this new program lift retailer engagement in campaigns by 8x and consumer in-store traffic by 2x, but it also empowers your retailers to deploy brand approved digital local ads with a click of a button and be able to see how well their ads faired.
Doyon’s Modern Home
In the two hours we spent there, Mike frequently came back to the mantra that he wants to make long lasting and personal relationships with his customers (including service, education, delivery, etc…) all for a fair price. Unfortunately, Mike cited losing some customers over $25 or $50 to big box stores, but those customers usually come back to him after having a bad experience at one of the bigger guys. It’s the kind of customer service that independents like Mike provide that a big box store simply cannot replicate that wins loyal customers. We learned that most appliance companies often make special models that you could only get at an independent store instead of Lowe’s or Home Depot. They add more features to a base model and offset the cost of those added features via a mail-in rebate. This is a great example of brands supporting their local independent retailers. Brands can go one step further by creating special campaigns for these types of deals in Promoboxx and only invite participating retailers to promote the content. Independent retailers will feel supported by their brands who create specialized campaigns for them, and brands will be happy that their retailers are promoting their deals.
A big thanks to Mike from Doyon’s Modern Home for welcoming us into his store and taking the time to chat! Check out their website and Facebook page!
