Small business owners who sell mattresses in the Fayetteville area might be losing sleep.
Last year, local consumers spent close to $17 million for new mattresses. A recent survey conducted by Piper Jaffray indicates that many retailers believe that the category will become even stronger during the last four months of this year.
The reason for the owners' sleep loss is that many customers are bypassing local stores and buying their mattresses on the internet. According to Statista, 37% of buyers are now purchasing from one-of-175 direct-to-consumer sites like Casper or from online retailers like Amazon.
To keep customers shopping local requires advertising.
“Think you have a great product?” asks the US Small Business Administration. “Unfortunately, no one’s going to know about it unless you advertise.”
“Advertising, if done correctly, can do wonders for your product sales, and you know what that means: more revenue and more success for your business."
Based on any metric, the best way a local mattress business to advertise is on Fayetteville radio.
Last week, for instance, 98.2% of households planning to buy a mattress during the next 12 months tuned-in to a Fayetteville radio station. This is significantly more than watched local TV; read local newspapers; logged-on to social media sites like Facebook; or streamed audio from Pandora and Spotify.
According to a study by Edison Research, 41% of consumers have visited a store after hearing a commercial on local radio. Good news for local mattress retailers looking to drive customers into their showrooms.
Kimbrell’s Furniture, an iconic local business that has been selling mattresses in North Carolina since 1915, has only recently discovered the value of advertising on Fayetteville radio.
According to Cheryl Parker, General Manager of Kimbrell’s Person Street, Raeford Road, and Ft. Bragg Boulevard locations, up until now, the company’s use of radio has been sporadic.
This year, however, Ms. Parker convinced her district manager to advertise on Fayetteville radio continually for six months.
Ms. Parker knew to increase sales in her stores, she would need to reach beyond Kimbrell’s core customers. “To grow in Fayetteville, we would need to branch out to include Hispanic customers, cash customers, good credit customers. Also, with Ft. Bragg right here, we needed to reach out into the military community. Using local radio was the best way to pinpoint those new customers.
“We increased the number of Fayetteville radio stations we advertised on to pinpoint the new audiences we needed. Our commercials were designed to match the content in our store circulars. For the Hispanic audience, we made it clear that for credit, Kimbrell’s customers just needed a tax-identification number and not a social security number.”
After just three months, Ms. Parker has seen remarkable in-store results. “Our overall store sales have increased,” she says. “The only thing we’ve been doing differently is advertising on Fayetteville radio.”
“Since we started the current radio plan, our cash business has grown, our Hispanic business has grown, our good credit business has grown, and our military business has grown,” says Ms. Parker. So much so, that Kimbrell’s district manager has approved continuing Ms. Parker’s radio budget.”
More Great Advice For Fayetteville Small Business Owners
- Advertising: How Fayetteville Radio Stacks Up Against The Internet
- Make Budget Work Harder When Buying Advertising On Fayetteville Radio
- Small Business Owners Recruit Blue Collar Workers on Fayetteville Radio Stations
- What Is The Best Way To Advertise To Mothers In Fayetteville?
