Marketing Article

Rubber Surfacing Marketing 101

With all new industries comes the persistent and often tedious ground work of exposing itself to uncharted territory. With a largely untapped market, Rubber Surfacing would seem, at first glance, to be easily marketable; this is just not the case. We have seen many companies fall short in this area and without the proper execution the start-up won’t be to far away from the close-down. The problem here is a lack of public awareness with regards to Rubber Surfacing and rubberized surfacing products in general. There have only been a few companies marketing Rubber Surfacing and they have owned the industry for some time in North America. For them, there was really no need to go beyond the scope of local marketing. When executed properly, a local marketing plan can be all you need to generate a healthy income. If you are a seasonal company (living in a northern climate) your marketing plan/strategy will be much more important to remain strong. If you are acting solely as a Rubber Surfacing company your marketing plan will be your life-line.

The type of business you operate and your market demographics will play a major role in your marketing plan execution. Pool decks are one of the best selling Rubber Surfacing applications so if your area has lot of pools than you are swimming in potential. The range of income per household in your area will also determine the amount of interested buyers. All these areas need to be considered when determining the structure of your marketing plan. If you are a pool or landscaping company you will have a different approach and an easier time selling Rubber Surfacing as you will probably already have a healthy client base. If you run out of a store than marketing Rubber Surfacing can be a walk in park, or a walk in the store, quite literally.

The key to your marketing success; “Seeing is Believing”. There is no better way to generate leads and sell installations than for the public to see Rubber Surfacing in action. Store-based displays, trade-shows, and public-site access are the best marketing options. When a potential client can walk on it, feel it, see it, they are usually sold right on the spot. We have to remember that with all new and exciting products, they must be properly explained to the public. Trade-shows offer face-to-face communication with prospective buyers, and in this type of setting you will be able to explain Rubber Surfacing in full detail. Trade-shows are the best way to generate leads for your Rubber Surfacing venture. Many companies focus on a solid round of trade-shows at the start of their season and normally generate 300 plus, well educated, well informed potential client leads in a single show. I don’t know about you but to us, those are some serious numbers. You can become a very successful company over night with one trade-show and we have experienced this amazing feat first hand.

If you are looking for a quantum-leap into Rubber Surfacing then your greatest focus at the start of a season should be hitting up every major and minor home-show from to here Nebraska. The bigger the trade-show the more leads you will rack up. Home shows, Garden shows, recreational shows, outdoor living shows, anywhere you can have the public interact with Rubber Surfacing is a good thing for business. I cannot stress it enough; you must attend tradeshows.

There are many other strategies for marketing Rubber Surfacing. If you are coming into this as an experienced business owner than you probably have you way of doing things. For those who are new to the game, we will lay out the other available marketing options. Just remember; any marketing is good marketing, the more your budget can handle the better. Always test the waters in your area before investing too much money into a marketing style that may not work for your area.

Some great options are:

•    TRADE SHOWS!
•    Print Advertising (Local paper Home and Garden section) Explain Rubber Surfacing and ad a few nice pictures. Advertorial style is most effective.
•    Mail-outs (Brochures, Cards, packages etc)
•    Networking with local stores (place displays in flooring stores, pool store etc.) Offer commission on leads that turn into sales.
•    Lawn Signs ( Bag signs are cheap and effective)
•    Word of mouth (Do a great job and you will have the neighbors interested)
•    WEBSITE (the internet is amazing, need we say more?) 
•    Vehicle wraps and decals (Be a moving billboard!)

So there you have it! Go fourth with this knowledge and prosper. Be sure to be on the look out for more articles pertaining to Marketing coming soon to RubberSurfacing.net!
 

Click To View the PDF Below

Attachment
marketing article master1.pdf