From the Editors

Your No. 1 marketing source

Karin GelschusThe National Retail Federation just released a 176-page document outlining how retailers can leverage mobile technology. However, it also pointed out that a whopping 62 percent of retailers haven’t begun or are only in the early stages of laying out a strategy. I’m willing to bet that percentage is even higher for companies in the powersports industry given feedback we’ve gotten from readers.

A recent online poll Powersports Business conducted asked: What source is the majority of your marketing budget dedicated to?

The answers were across the board. Only 3 percent of respondents answered “TV” and another 3 percent said “social networking sites.” The largest groups said “Direct Marketing” (15 percent), “Web site” (21 percent) and “Other” (33 percent).

With the number of different marketing avenues available, including new initiatives like social networking sites and mobile marketing, Powersports Business is going to delve further into the most effective methods. In order to produce the most beneficial information, we need more input from you.

To help:

1. Answer the one-question, online poll.

2. Respond below with marketing areas you’d like more information about, your company’s current marketing avenues, and/or any other thoughts regarding the vast world of marketing.

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4 Comments

  1. Hi Karin,
    >
    > Yes, not long ago we created a Facebook page. Got quite a bit of action
    > in the first few weeks, but it pretty much died after that. The problem
    > with social networking on the internet is like everything else. You get
    > out of it what you put into it. Money, time or both are needed. We can’t
    > afford to pay someone to spend the amount of time necessary to get the
    > full benefit from the site. Would it work? Most likely. But we are
    > spending our time at local events with direct public contact, which
    > seems to be our most effective advertising strategy. With an overworked
    > skeleton crew that allows us to keep the doors open it is impossible to
    > accomplish all the promotional options available. So yes, we have a
    > page and we could use any other means of electronic communication, but not the time or money to take advantage. I would bet that a
    > dealer extensively using social networking is doing little else.

  2. Our marketing stratagies are shifting drastically. We are spending alot more time and effort doing Facebook and Twitter these days. It turns out to be directing our message to the right people instead of a few lucky enough to see or hear the message on TV, radio or print. We made a group on FB and asked all of our employees to join and add their friends to the group. In less than 2 days, we had over 400 people interested in OUR business and our products. When we post something on the group, we let our employees know what we did and they “Share” or “Comment” on the topic. With just 7 of our employees active on FB, a general “group” comment will hit over 2000 people directly. It is impossible to calculate the entire network of people that the message can hit, but I would dare say it could be in excess of 5000 people for one posting. Again, on the first 400 people that joined our group, they were all “invited” by someone in my store. They then had the option to join or not. If they joined, they must have a genuine interest in something we sell or service here. Yes, some of the 400 people are in their early 20’s, but the future of the Powersports industry is going to someday be in their hands. What a better way to keep our face in theirs…..

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