In every decision we make, we try to do what is best for the store as a whole. In marketing, our goal is to drive traffic to the store, rather than specific spaces. We have five full time marketing staff and partner with two advertising agencies, who all work together to get shoppers to walk through the door. The pictures and videos we choose to highlight are specifically picked to grab the attention of those most likely to shop in our store. We know there is no way to cover every item or space within the store, rather we try to appeal to the masses with ads that are proven to cause the most shoppers to interact with us.
We’ve tried every avenue available, from billboards and magazine ads, to radio and tv commercials. We utilize Search Engine Optimization on that make us pop up to the top of the list when someone searches words like home decor, boutique, fashion, clothing, gifts, candles, marketplace, homegoods, local, and more. We place digital commercials that pop up when someone watches a show or movie online. But over the years, we’ve found the best bang for our buck has been in social media. It’s amazing how many people can be reached through Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest advertising. This is different than just boosting a post online. We can control exactly who we want to reach based on their gender, their age, where they live, and even what they like. If they like posts about shopping, decorating, clothing, HGTV, or any one of the hundreds of words that the system discovers might make a repeat Painted Tree shopper, our ad will pop up on their feed. To do this, we’ll test 5 ads at a time, each with different pictures or videos, different titles, and different subtext. We analyze the data to determine the best picture, best title, and best subtext that resulted in the most shopper interactions. Then we build the ad with the best picture, best title, and best text and increase the amount we spend on that ad to reach the most people within a specific radius of the store. The best part is once, a shopper discovers us on one of those platforms, they can reach out to their friends to introduce them to Painted Tree or even invite them to shop together. We’ve seen many of our posts and ads go viral, spreading from one friend to another, eventually reaching hundreds or thousands people.
But the best marketing we have is you. The beauty of our community is that our stores are filled with hundreds of passionate small business owners who can each reach out to their friends, family, and community to spread the word about their shops in our store. If each of the 200 or 300 shops in our store will spread the word in person and on social media, we can potentially reach thousands of shoppers who will come to support you, but will inevitably purchase something from another shop in the store as well. We truly are better together.