This isn’t how your father’s furniture store used to advertise

While TV, radio and print are still great ways to bring in customers to a furniture store, they’re no longer enough.

To maximize exposure with today’s consumer, retailers should still use some of these tried-and-true channels, but they should also use more modern approaches such as paid social media, paid search, over-the-top and streaming TV.

Another piece of this ever-changing puzzle is figuring out proper proportions for a store’s ad spend. To be clear, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer.

“I think most clients know the world has changed. They ask what the percentages should be, but there’s not a set rule. … There’s no tried-and-true number today,” said Brad Lebow, president of HHL Advertising. “As we look at these tactics, it’s important that we cover them sufficiently where we choose. We want to cover TV at levels that make sense, paid search at levels where it makes sense and as budgets increase, we expand from there. Everyone is a little different, and the costs of the markets are different.”

The strategy

What should factor into the way retailers advertise today? Many believe maximizing a store’s Google visibility is job one.

“I’m a real big believer in paid search as a foundational tactic. No matter what we do, we layer paid search in first,” said Sarah Devine, HHL’s senior digital media strategist. “The TV ads, the client storefront, that drives paid search activity. Everything starts with paid search.

“Over time, we’ve evolved that play with video and paid social. We’ve created some clever ads for paid social that were meant for paid social. We use techniques like native advertising, pre-roll video, geofenced advertising.”

Having the mix of traditional media with newer channels gives retailers the chance to get in front of more consumers in a stickier way.

“TV viewership is down, but if they see the spot on TV and on their computer, they’re more likely to remember the ad and the message behind it,” said Devine. “We try to extend the reach of our TV program through digital channels.”

Lebow noted that even with advances in digital, going old school remains a way to guarantee solid sales.

“Direct mail remains one of the most important means we use. As much as we’re pushing people to more modern, digital advertising, we work with 36 or 38 retailers across the country, and 90% say direct mail leads to the best weekends,” he said. “But direct mail is expensive.

“Direct mail is the most important customer retention tool. We can go one-to-one with people who had a good experience.”

Changing technology

Direct mail plays into a retailer’s first-party data set. That’s becoming more valuable, not only in direct mail but digitally. Gabe Greenberg, CEO of Octillion Media, said the online data a consumer shares with a retailer should be treated like gold.

“Every retailer should be thinking of a first-party data strategy. How are they using their first party customer files to build more lifetime value from those customers? The best customers are those customers who have shopped from you before,” Greenberg said. “Through buying groups and people like us, you can create a solution that future-proofs your business. That’s going to be important regardless of who you use.”

As cookies are being phased out online and the consumer has more control in how she’s being served ads. Greenberg said using first-party data helps create a profile that’s more likely to buy.

“We’re building a retail media network with the buying groups we partner with, nearly all of them at this point. We’re working with the retailers to have them collaborate and use their first-party customer files and anonymizing them,” he said. “It’s using it so you have active customers and you have the ability to model them.”

Greenberg said Octillion’s data set updates frequently to ensure that retailers using the service get the freshest information possible and can make the best possible choices.

He said the pandemic period might not have changed the way retailers reach their audience, but it certainly accelerated the move toward newer media and technology.

“Digital is only going to grow. COVID accelerated the use of more digital devices, whether people working from home and listening to radio now on smart speakers (Spotify vs terrestrial radio),” said Greenberg. “It’s changed the way people watch TV. More people have cut the cord and for the first time, streaming viewers are more than linear or cable viewers.

“That’s only going to accelerate. With digital, things are more measurable and you have less waste,” he continued. “Today you can do a brand play and target everyone or you can move from the shotgun approach to a sniper approach and have your dollars work smarter.”

How retailers are changing

Top 100 retailer Steinhafels takes a three-pronged approach to its advertising. The first involves leveraging technology and data to scale.

“We want to follow the customers but do it at the scale we need,” said Chad Dern, the Waukesha, Wis.-based retailer’s vice president of marketing.

Second is the more traditional channels including mass media and outdoor (billboards). Dern noted that Steinhafels cut its traditional Sunday circulars from its strategy prior to COVID. The third approach is promoting deals to past customers, deepening that existing relationship.

Dern said while the methods are different, the spend hasn’t decreased at all, but it has become more measurable.

“There was the traditional approach: The sales ended on Saturday because the new circular put the new sale on Sunday,” he said. “The reach of some of things have gone away.

“Technology allows us to become more efficient. We’ve been able to integrate technology to make those tools more effective. We’re not necessarily spending less; we’re spending on a more efficient basis.”

And as more consumers cut the cord, those streaming services present ripe, new opportunities.

“We’ll follow eyeballs more than anything. Streamers can’t live on subscription fees alone; they need advertising,” Dern noted. “They’re bringing more opportunities to us. We’ll follow where that goes. We all watch media differently.

“We’re still watching a ton of traditional media, too; that’s where the eyeballs are,” he added. “We’ll continue with both. It’s about choosing where consumers are going and how we can reach them efficiently but at scale. We have large stores and big geography we need to cover. It’s leveraging technology and scale. Those are the opportunities we look for.”

Roanoke, Va.-based Top 100 retailer Grand Home Furnishings also evolved its advertising strategy prior to the pandemic. It got out of shared mail and went toward direct mailers, beefed up its digital strategy and added text-based outreach, plus paid and organic social.

“We’re always looking at new and interesting things for our customers. We’re in B and C markets between suburban and rural,” said Mike Virok, vice president of marketing. “It’s a bit of a balancing act to provide good content for our customers across all the channels and the spectrums of different customers.”

Having to differentiate between suburban and rural markets dictates how much Grand Home spends on traditional vs. newer media.

“Some of those more rural markets get more traction from radio, so we’ll lean into that a little more. We’re on linear TV as well as cable TV and OTT,” Virok said. “There are some markets that do better with cable than they do linear, so we’ll pull cable and linear back and forth.

“For every effort we do, I’ll go back and look at how much money we spent, how much we got in sales, and I’ve got a formula to see how we did.”

While paid social has created traction, so too has organic social. Grand Home has had great success promoting its Yellowstone line of products, based on the hit TV show. Most recently, Advertising Director Paula Randolph got on a horse to help promote the store’s Yellowstone pieces.

“We’re always very active in SEO, but we’ve also upgraded our photography,” said Virok. “That is the front door to our store, and our stores use the website as a selling tool as much as anybody.”

Randolph added that it’s important to mix in fun messaging and testimonials so consumers aren’t inundated with sales pitches when they’re on their preferred social media platform.

“We’re trying to keep it interesting. It gets boring to see the sales promotions, so we try to do more for engagement and branding,” she said. “We post different testimonials we receive through customer comments we get through Podium. We try to show new arrivals, new Reels and we highlight selections. We share our blog content on there.

“We don’t spend as much on our organic budget as we do our paid budget, but our organic is important for engagement.”