What About the 90%?

For years as a direct response specialist, it was all about the immediate respondents we could deliver, the immediately available business to be written. In the days of direct mail, it was about the 2% response rate before it fell below that and became an unpredictable result. In the more recent past, it has been about the approximately 10% of online traffic that would fill out a form to see a specially curated list. These leads have proven to be a fast track to new business if they are currently in the market. They also represent trackable future business opportunities. It does however leave us with the question, ”what about the 90%,” who will not exchange their information and participate in consent marketing but  nonetheless have piano interest. 

In the old days of mail, based upon demographic targeting, it was impossible to tell who of those that you mailed that were currently in the market, would never care about what you had to sell, or already had one. Since the advent of digital marketing in 2004-2007 when Facebook, Smart Phones, YouTube and Twitter came on the scene, consumer behavior has become more trackable and finding people with interest in what you sell has changed the landscape of marketing. Digital marketing has made it much more possible to reach niches; it has obviously excelled at items with universal appeal, as Amazon has proven. Yet, In the luxury marketing space, we live with the reality that our buyers aren’t as frequent as commodity buyers. Still, the ability to play to your specific audience is a LARGER ADVANTAGE THAN WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF! We have

un-accessed opportunities and that is why we mention the 90%.

What exactly is the 90%?

It is that segment of the market that is actively online showing interest in what you sell, that will NEVER engage in consent marketing.

I credit the past financial success of the weekend sales events for stealing all the focus and routing it away from the 90%. Back when a well-themed school sale or event (in the beginning the “Armory sale”) had buyers used to shopping in person, lined up out the door, much of  the luxury marketing world, boats, pool tables, spas, jewelry and pianos, could count on 4-5 HUGE events a year as a part of their annual revenue. That created a culture that ignored the “day to day” shopper to a certain degree because retailers could have a successful weekend sale and go on cruise control in between sales. Even though the endless parade of sale events works with diminishing results these days, retailers continue to brand themselves as always running a sale with their email marketing. That is a conversation for another day, but suffice it to say that sales are not knocking it out of the park and most pianos are sold “one at a time” on a typical sales day, not a "sale day."  

If they won’t come into the sales funnel through the list method, how do we make sure we outperform our competition and meet more of them than they do? By branding your company and yourself as the most dependable and friendly place for piano information in your markets and showing off “happy faces” of customers from all walks of life. Where? In  your Facebook, Instagram, Website, YouTube, in email marketing and “one on one” daily sales associate activities. While the rest of the retailers are pushing and shoving and explaining why they are the best place to get a percentage off, pull them in with content that allows them to know how many people you have helped have more music in their lives. Showcase the organizations, everyday people and the influencers you’ve sold to so that all of these segments can see satisfied customers. YES, reviews are great; but a picture paints a thousand words and videos ten thousand.

Let’s be real, with some numbers, no matter how good your company has gotten at chasing down leads and turning them into sales, the lion’s share of the world is not comfortable giving their personal information to a retailer or a retail sales person. Even if you are REALLY GOOD at chasing leads, making friends, and turning them into sales, more than 50% of your revenue will come from people who decide to reach out to you when they are in the market in earnest and call, email or come in because they have gone online and researched the dealers in their market and you made the cut to be considered. That is precisely where your past branding and reputation management can be your best friend. If you have social media evidence that you are a safe person to do business with, or they knew about you because of a friend, family member, church or a local arts organization from “live” or internet social networking.

Synergy is real. All of the ad dollars well-connected with your other ad dollars through consistency of look, feel, messaging and integration is the recipe to create the synergy. This is how the 90%, who will never feel comfortable telling you who they are until they are in the market, see you, through everything other than lead generation. Why they won’t engage and give up their contact information differs from person to person and, for the sake of this article, is a moot point. The fact of the matter is that they exist and we will be sending a ton of them to your Facebook and Website; when they start vetting you out to see if you are a trustworthy resource, they may see where all you are on social media and that will have a lot to do with how they perceive you. Perceptions and relationships start online. Your online outreach and presence is critical to your success in our current marketplace.

Although the baby-boomers and Gen Xers had to adjust to technology, the Millennials, Gen Y and Gen Z shoppers are all about checking most everything out online thoroughly before making a direct connection. Your Facebook game to the Boomers and Xers, where the bulk of today’s large ticket items are purchased, needs to be present and designed to “stop the scroll.” We have an educational job ahead of us where the younger generations are concerned in that they need to be made aware of the value of beautiful large pianos. It’s easy if you expose them, but since they grew up with many small entertaining devices, they need to experience how GRAND a grand really is.

How Do We Help With the 90%?

The 90% of the online piano lovers who aren’t willing to relinquish their contact information are a reality. One of the best ways we can help you communicate better with them is by understanding that they are buyers too. They may not be the most accessible but they are the majority. Lock this fact into your marketing mind: just because they haven’t done something yet (like fill out a form or pick up the phone to call you), doesn’t mean they aren’t going to but something from someone. The timing and need will intersect and they will. They best way to handle the 90% is to continue to feed them content that positions you as the best choice in the market for them to learn all they want without pressure, so that you will get the lion’s share of them when they do pull the the trigger.

One thing we have learned about the new Andromeda AI is that it is smart enough to show us ads that make more impressions whether they convert to page views or not.

Part of the strategy is to have educational and entertaining ads in the series which makes the harvesting ads work better. There is a balance to be met though. When some ads don’t get enough views or conversions… they gotta go. We replace them, but to answer the question more directly, when we place ads that give the consumer the freedom to be a

90%’er and simply get to know you virtually without converting, we are being a catalyst. When we retarget people with piano interest and portray you as the most dependable and friendliest place to get piano information, we are serving the 90%. Branding you with the quality and messaging in the ads, juxtaposed with your competition, allows us to get the attention you deserve by giving Meta more of what it wants to show. Some agencies do a quarterly review, some monthly; we perform weekly reviews and get as much exposure out of your ad series possible.   

So in summary, we aren’t simply a lead generation resource. We allow you to work the 90% who don’t come in through our funnel in Dash, learn what they look like, and use that as retargeting fuel. Every time we get an ad in front of the piano-interest people, every time they see your landing page, jump off our ad to your Facebook and then subsequently check out your website (assuming you have a link on your FB) and check out your other social activities and reviews, we are serving the 90%. They are the ones who want to protect their private information and shop at their own discretion; 50% of them statistically will buy for someone, once more when the timing and need intersect, and they will appear in your life at the moment they are ready make a purchase, having already decided from the evidence you have consistently fed them. that you the safest place to get the advice to make the purchase from.

Yes, we could concentrate 100% of your ad dollars to only those willing to participate in consent marketing and leave the rest of the market to find its way to you using other avenues, but since we are executing an a average of 5 ad impressions a month per client per app, doesn’t it make sense to allow the value conscience clients to shop as they see fit and have the chance to convince them that we are their best choice? You don’t do that with a closed loop and a hard close. To the 10% that are willing, or too curious not to consent, that will work; to those wary of the dangers of the net, exhausted with scammers and pushy sales people and the constant urgency being exerted on them, they need evidence to develop trust. A form won’t do that.