In past writings, I’ve said that “the only constant is change.” Over the past few years in our industry, we have seen SO much change from the marketplace, manufacturers ability to supply goods, and consumer trends; it has many heads spinning on how to react to the ever changing landscape in which we need to sell. It has been challenging indeed, scrambling for product, dealing with the drought of things to sell by taking in more consignments and making more outright purchases and the proclivity of the consumers who do not understand value vs. price.
These are things we have been suffering through until the supply chain gets healthy again… and it will. The “price vs. value” educational responsibility, however, is here to stay. Since it will get better (the supply chain), leads are as important now as ever. We all have to admit that there is a longer gestation or “ripening” period from the time the buyer begins discovery to when they pull the trigger and actually make a purchase in most instances… and certainly for premium pianos. Just like the ebb and flow of the economy is approached by good financial advisors, the ebb and flow of product availability should be put into context. That said, it would be best to have a HUGE bank of leads, prospects with who you have a relationship of being the concierge, already in your back pocket for the return of the day when the demand can again be met at full force.
On top of this, the recent social and political “privacy push” has caused Apple to give their iPhone users every possible opportunity to opt out of being tracked, making tracking, and thus ad placement, a more expensive proposition for marketing folks and “do-it-yourselfers” globally.
Seems pretty bleak? Not really. It is an equal playing field for all advertisers. Those with the most audience intelligence, such as us at Prospects International who have not only created over 750 million piano interest leads in the past several years, but also the algorithms to navigate the changing marketplace and find the prime prospects who piano companies need to get in front of, can provide better results and more favorable ROI’s.
We have calculated the new critical mass and know we must place more ads to get more views, therefore conversions. This requires approximately 25-30% more ad dollars (ad dollars only, not an increase of service fees) than before the iOS 14 privacy campaign. By adding this extra ad money to your lead generation, it will hit critical mass and keep your volume where it is and your quality as good as possible. Even if the privacy laws steal more tracking capabilities than they already have, we have the sales history to use refined contextual targeting because we already know who buys pianos at a higher purchasing rate than the rest of the consumer population.
At present, Android users aren’t being affected and Verizon is actually promoting users being targeted as a positive thing because you will only be seeing and dealing with things you are likely to have an interest in. I’ve always believed that targeting was a courteous way to only put pertinent things in front of the right people instead of random BS, but not every politician or easy-to-aggravate consumer thinks pragmatically.
LeadFlow has become the lifeblood of many, many merchants and allowing an agency such as ours, who knows the current trends and has the audience intelligence to create workarounds in real time, is extremely valuable in an ever-changing marketplace. Since the world has gone virtual, we have no choice but to adapt and go to where the consumers are before reeling them onto the showroom floor or into the virtual presentation. At Prospects International, we have been providing ever improving lead generation and digital solutions more aggressively and successfully than any other entity in the piano industry. If you are an existing client, expect us to be reaching out on a “one on one” basis to give you suggestions on how to ensure that your digital marketing lead gen portfolio is humming along. If you aren’t a client, please feel free to contact us and see if you are eligible to be an exclusive client. It all starts with some complimentary research.
We remain at the service of the industry that helped us get started and are committed to bring even more profitable innovations to it. Merry Christmas and here’s to a Happy 2022!
“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.” – B
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