A decline and, in some cases, a significant decline, in showroom traffic is keeping a number of kitchen and bath showroom owners up at night. For nearly three years, kitchen and bath showrooms had a steady stream of customers who were willing to wait for six months or longer for their projects to begin. Showrooms had the luxury of record-setting revenue streams and backlogs.
That certainly was the case for Danny McGeady, owner of JEM Designs, a kitchen and bath showroom serving Dayton, Cincinnati and Columbus, OH. JEM Designs’ business volume doubled from 2021 to 2022, but since the start of 2023, estimates are tailing off and showroom traffic has slowed. These trends are particularly troubling for JEM because it is moving to a larger location in the next several months. McGeady understands that the status quo no longer works. In response, he has started to invest in digital marketing, improve his website and change keywords to improve organic search.
McGeady is not alone. Bryan Sirak, a sales manager for Locallogy, a digital marketing agency that manages 45 kitchen and bath showroom websites and digital marketing efforts, has seen a significant increase in showrooms’ desire to rebrand and the realization that they need to start to market again.
Locallogy helps showrooms optimize their webpages for Google searches. Optimization involves several strategies that include identifying the right keywords and including them on the webpage’s content, metadata and URLs, offering compelling content through blogs, project histories, smart buying guides and other materials that are valuable to website visitors. Sirak notes that kitchen and bath showroom websites need to have at least one page with a 400- to-500-word description. Optimization also requires images and galleries that include title tags and meta tags.
Remarketing is another strategy that Sirak is advising showroom clients to pursue. Remarketing is a form of online advertising that allows showrooms to show targeted ads to people who have already visited their website or interacted with the brand in some way. It helps showrooms reach potential customers who have shown interest in renovating their kitchens, baths or other rooms in their homes and will increase brand awareness and conversions. Another reason showrooms should consider remarketing is that it is cost effective. Remarketing campaigns have a lower cost per click than regular display advertising. A Locallogy showroom client that invested in remarketing generated 1,700 visits that turned into five new customers.
Thomas Michael Kitchens in East Wareham, MA responded to the slowdown in showroom traffic by investing in virtual showroom technologies. Mike Ferreira, a company principal, notes that the virtual showroom enhances the customer experience and allows his showroom to be accessible 24-7. Ferreira believes that virtual showrooms eventually will become the norm. He plans to stay ahead of the curve by making his virtual showroom more interactive, enabling website visitors to experience specific product categories that include cabinets, countertops, accessories, flooring and others and provide virtual selection opportunities for windows, doors and cabinets.
THE GROWING IMPORTANCE OF VIDEO
Video is another new frontier that is being utilized to create brand awareness for kitchen and bath showrooms. Video marketing is used by 92% of businesses, reports HubSpot, which has created an expectation among consumers that they will be able to see and learn about products and services by watching video content. The explosion of video for marketing is partially the result of almost every major social media platform accepting video. If you need evidence of the power of video, just look at TikTok.
The reason why showroom customers are attracted to video promotions is that video enables a showroom to show how their services and products perform in real time. You can show before and after videos of kitchens that you have designed. Would not a video of the entire kitchen before and after be more powerful and serve as a better testimonial for your design prowess?
You don’t need to be a Hollywood producer to make effective videos. HubSpot’s consumer trend tracker survey found that 69% of U.S. consumers say it is more important for a video to be authentic and relatable than to be polished with high-quality resolution, production and audio. That does not mean ignore production value altogether, however. There are user friendly tools such as Vidyard, Bonjoro and TwentyThree that make it easy to create and send videos without a big spend.
Additional reasons why showroom customers watch marketing videos are to relax and to be entertained. Kitchen and bath showrooms can make videos with humor, describing surprises found behind walls, reasons that caused delays, and similar stories. Every project has a story and there almost always is an element of humor, especially after the fact.
Another highly effective video opportunity for kitchen and bath showrooms is to provide guidance for budgeting, selecting specific products, working with a designer, preparing for a showroom visit, surviving a remodel and so on. Consumers will watch videos that teach them something to help them make the buying journey easier.
Murphy Bros. Design Build Remodeling in Minneapolis, MN is one showroom that did not stop marketing throughout the COVID-19 boom and amped up its efforts last September and October after seeing signs of a changing market. Company principal John Murphy explained, “We were tipped off that change was coming when we started to see multiple applications for every open job position. During COVID, attracting talent was a constant challenge. Today, we receive numerous applications for each position.”
Having been short-staffed for more than two years, Murphy saw the change in his ability to attract talent as a sign to grow the business. Murphy Bros. has not seen its volume decline even though traffic has started to wane. The reason, according to Murphy, is the right marketing message to the right demographic, and the demographic Murphy Bros. targets is women aged 45 to 65. “Our goal is to connect with women,” Murphy stated.
Video is a major medium that the company uses to make that connection. Murphy Bros.’ website features multiple videos that explain the company’s processes and culture and features client testimonials and before-and-after stories of successful projects.
Focusing marketing efforts on women is a smart strategy because women make the purchase or are the key influencers in about 80% of all consumer product sales in the U.S., and 91% of all home purchases are influenced by women, claims Bridget Brennan in her superb book, Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers.
Murphy Bros. takes a page from Brennan’s book to focus on design features and processes that are most important to women. These include an emphasis on storage and organizational tools; pantries, countertops, islands and cabinet and counter heights that are more suitable to a woman’s height; open floor plans that allow women to watch kids playing, studying, relaxing, etc. in other rooms; windows over sinks or cooktops that allow women to watch their children playing in the backyard, and desk areas and other multifunctional design features that cater to the needs of family members working from home.
The company is also using videos in its geofencing marketing efforts by targeting consumers who are patronizing high-end restaurants, lumber yards, paint stores, furniture retailers and other businesses that either are involved in remodeling efforts or are patronized by Murphy Bros.’ target demographic. Geofencing marketing sends a Murphy Bros. video link, typically a 15-second message, to consumers’ mobile devices who enter one of the targeted geofenced businesses.
MARKETING THROUGH A DOWNTURN
Eddie Casanave’s showroom, Distinctive Remodeling in Raleigh, NC, has not yet seen a downturn in demand for his whole home design-build business. He has also become proactive by building out a new showroom catering to the ever-increasing demand for outdoor living space. The company hired a marketing company to take advantage of the fact many competitors are spending less on marketing, which Casanave believes will enable his business to capture more market share. He is also using trade area analytics to target specific neighborhoods and demographics that pinpoint consumers more likely to take on whole home or larger-scale renovation projects that, in turn, will allow the company to increase revenue while simultaneously reducing the number of projects it performs.
Ken Downey of FD Kitchen & Bath in Morgantown, WV also has seen signs that the market is beginning to turn, with his clientele becoming increasingly value conscious. In response, FD Kitchens is focusing on Search Engine Optimization efforts that have continued to result in FD Kitchens appearing on the first page of Google searches. The company also experimented with a traditional television advertising campaign for the first time to complement digital marketing efforts that include Facebook and Instagram advertising.
Showrooms will be well served by closely monitoring consumer sentiment. The National Retail Federation predicts that retail sales growth will be between 3.3% and 3.5% annually through 2027. This is a significant decline from the 8.1% growth in 2022 and the 17.9% in 2021. The time that websites can be ignored, and marketing can be put on the back burner, has passed. Showrooms that promote their brand and invest in making the customer experience easier and more enjoyable will win. ▪
Tom Cohn serves as the exec. v.p. of the Bath & Kitchen Business Group, the nation’s largest shareholder-owned kitchen and bath group purchasing organization. Named a 2020 KBDN Innovator, Cohn also is president of Cohn Communications, a multidisciplinary association management and marketing firm headquartered in Washington, DC.