Client Success: Increasing Foot Traffic for a Local Furniture Retailer

The ease of online shopping has made it much tougher for small businesses to draw customers into their stores—even when it comes to buying and selling furniture.

These challenges are especially relevant for local businesses with limited brand awareness in their communities. Even when local businesses are able to innovate and offer in-demand services and shopping experiences that today’s consumers are seeking, spreading the word about these retail experiences can be a challenge.

When Cox Media was contacted by a local furniture store facing this exact challenge, the business was looking for an experienced advertising partner to help increase its visibility and its brick-and-mortar shopping activity.

The Goal

After conversations between Cox Media advertising experts and the local business, the furniture store decided to prioritize a digital advertising strategy that would increase local awareness of the store’s on-site inventory, incentivizing shoppers to visit its retail location and check out these furniture pieces first-hand.

To keep pace with the service offerings of both online and local competition, the company also wanted to promote its same-day delivery services as a reward for shopping locally. The furniture store’s goal was that, by leveraging its local presence and available inventory to deliver faster service and satisfaction than online retailers could match, the business could win over shoppers that didn’t want to wait for their online furniture orders to finally arrive at their home.

The Solution

Cox Media helped the local furniture retailer create a cost-effective advertising strategy that focused its ads to specific geographic areas where the business was interested in building up its customer base. With these location-based priorities in mind, Cox Media set up addressable geo-fencing campaigns targeted to local households whose consumer data showed an interest in home décor and/or interior decorating.

These campaigns were also targeted to specific ZIP codes identified as high relevance and high value for the client. In addition to residential geo-fence targeting, Cox Media also set up geo-fenced advertising aimed at competitor retail locations, with a goal of persuading local shoppers to explore their options at a new local furniture business.

The Results

Shortly after launching its advertising campaign, the local furniture store reported an uptick in activity aligned with key performance metrics. These positive results included:

• More than 1.5 million impressions delivered within the client’s community;
• More than 2,700 ad clicks;
• More than 2,900 weighted actions (in this case, visits to the brick-and-mortar-store;
• An overall increase in foot traffic conversions from 70 per month to more than 600.

Based on the strength of this campaign performance—including the more than eight times increase in foot traffic conversions—the client opted to continue that campaign over the course of one year. This produced an year-over-year increase in sales for the business, delivering strong ROI that helped the furniture retailer not only drive sales revenue, but strengthen its presence in its local market.

Struggling to gain a foothold within your local community? Cox Media can help you build a cost-effective advertising strategy that supports your entire sales pipeline, from awareness to conversion to customer retention. Contact us today—we’re here to help.