Banker & Brisebois Advertising – the oldest retail furniture industry specific advertising and marketing agency, and FurnitureDealer.net – the furniture industry specific click-to-store website and online marketing service provider, announced a business partnership and the launch of e-hoopla. This turn-key integrated marketing program makes it simple and affordable to integrate traditional retail promotions (direct mail, newspaper, TV, radio, or online only) into a marketing-driven website promoted through email campaigns, in-store materials, social media communications and more.
According to Andy Bernstein, President and Founder of FurnitureDealer.net, “Up until now, the most successful internet strategies for local furniture retailers focused mainly on the online showroom, online product presentations and search engine optimization. The next big internet opportunity for furniture retailers is to improve integration with their advertising strategy.” Bernstein feels like much of our industry’s online promotion has simply been pasting print and TV advertising onto websites and into email blasts. “It’s time our industry implements a holistic marketing strategy focused on consistent and cost effective communication across channels.”
According to Lee Gilmore, President of Banker and Brisebois Advertising, “With e-hoopla, we have thought through what works on the internet, what works in the store, and what works for traditional retail marketing. Now we’ve put it together into a complete turn-key solution that focuses on promoting the marketing event across all online and offline customer communication channels.” e-hoopla is all about generating excitement and giving the customer a reason to come in.
The program is also very easy to use. A retailer chooses the event they want to run and the store messaging or “e-plugs” they want to feature. These include special financing offers, store services, web coupons, what’s new and other offers they want posted on their website. Next, they select up to 15 product specials they want featured on their site along with pricing and descriptions from FurnitureDealer.net's product content library of more than 45,000 products. Finally, they schedule a start and stop time for the event to run.
The core service offering includes a feature rich website, email marketing campaigns, social media communications and in-store POS printing options. When the event is scheduled to start, e-hoopla transforms everything. The event theme gets changed on every page of the website and updates the merchandising specials and e-plugs. The new event is then communicated through an email marketing campaign and can be transmitted to followers on Twitter and Facebook. Dealers can also tie-in with customized newspaper ads, direct mail, free-standing inserts and POS to carry their message onto their sales floor. Store branding messaging that promotes the store’s selection and value is also provided for use between sale events.
Other features of the e-hoopla program include an interactive online room planner, store locator with interactive Google map, search engine friendly pages, website hosting and monthly reporting. Up to fifteen email blasts per year will be sent to the store’s email list, with tracking and reporting of each email campaign, all provided as a complete and turn-key solution handled by B&B and FurnitureDealer.net.
For more information, a live demo, or to schedule a meeting, visit e-hoopla.com, contact B&B at 1.800.456.0210, or bbinfo@bbfurnitureadvertising.com or FurnitureDealer.net at 1.866.387.6357 or sales@furnituredealer.net. The two companies will be exhibiting in the NHFA Retailer Resource Center in the 1st floor of the Plaza Suites building during the High Point Market. They will be jointly presenting a seminar titled “E-mail Marketing: A Killer Tool for Tight Budgets” on Tuesday, October 20th from 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 in the RRC seminar room.