Vincent Fredericks – Reactive Marketing vs Virus
Vincent Fredericks – Reactive Marketing vs Virus
How Reactionary Marketing Increased Sales During the Pandemic
We will forever remember the year 2020 for how its challenges initiated a mini-revolution in the marketing industry. Many came up with solutions to the problems they faced, many stuck to their traditional ways of marketing, and for many, it was a disaster.
We spoke to Vincent Fredericks this week, and he gave us an insight into how his team's level of adaptability and ingenuity worked wonders for Green Art Plumbing Supply.
Green Art Plumbing Supply has been in business for over 75 years and has 3 main showrooms, parts counters, and warehouses spread across Suffolk and Nassau county. They are headquartered in Freeport.
Under the Green Art Plumbing Supply mother-brand lies East Coast Sprinkler Supply, a Long Island based irrigation supply company, and Homeplumbing.com — an e-commerce only based webstore selling plumbing supplies nationally.
Green Art is a go-to local distributor of the widest variety of plumbing, heating, kitchen, bath, and home supplies. They deal directly with B2C with residential homeowners and B2B with plumbers, designers, architects, and contracting companies.
Vincent accredited a few tools for a successful business plan during this detailed interview.
These tools are the ammunition that helps in overcoming the challenges posed by the pandemic. Data, awareness, ideas, and plans are the ones that helped businesses fix themselves when the pandemic hit them.
In today's Rediscover Marketing, we will be taking a closer look at how data is super-important in various ways, and how ingenuity acts as the catalyst to increase sales and take the business forward.
Who is Vincent Fredericks?
Vincent Fredericks is a seasoned marketing professional who has previously worked in an in-house marketing team for large companies like SiriusXM and upcoming tech start-ups like Send2MobilePlus.
He is an alumnus of SUNY Geneseo (2020) with a Bachelor of Science in Business and a Minor in Marketing. He also has a wide variety of work and project experience under his belt.
Vincent is currently working at Green Art Plumbing Supply – the largest Long Island based plumbing supplier – voted the "Best Plumbing Supplier" in 2021 by the "Bethpage Federal Credit Union's Best of LI contest".
He was all praise for his team's supportive attitude and how they've adapted to the change so well. He further shared how he and his team found unique solutions to various problems that hindered their progress.
Let us look at a few problems Vincent and his team faced and the reactionary marketing strategy that worked wonders in his own words:
- In-person events canceled - We scheduled engaging virtual events over zoom with showroom designers showcasing their showrooms. It helped promote our upcoming products.
- Mask mandate - We supplied co-sponsored logo masks with their manufacturers to be used as promotional material at their counters and point of sale locations with every order.
- Limited occupancy capacity at the showrooms to stay in compliance with CDC guidelines - Switched our showroom business model to 'appointment only,' which has allowed for more personalized visits and has driven substantially higher conversion rates.
These are just a handful of examples of the reactionary marketing tactics Vincent and the team used due to the virus that resulted in increased sales and brand awareness.
Terrific, isn’t it?
Now let us dive straight into what he has to share with all the business owners out there for the year 2021.
Data—The 'Ammunition' Every Marketer Needs:
The pandemic sent out shockwaves and has changed the consumer's buying behaviours, especially online.
Vincent shared with us the reason why the sales at his company went up. "Fortunately for our business, the home remodeling industry saw a huge surge as a result of COVID. I guess when you're home 24/7, you start picking out and noticing the displeasure you have with your bathroom and kitchen. Because of the influx of remodeling projects, we started pushing residential promotions and created marketing content that reflected the market trend."
Vincent emphasizes that if one listens to their customer's needs and the market's needs, they'll find success in what needs to be marketed.
He enlightened us on how data has helped them during these testing times. For a better understanding, we have divided this into sections. Let's get started!
- Regular Review
Vincent says that they may be remote, but working with and reviewing his team's work has always been built on ensuring transparency. The weekly review meetings and the internal communication helped run the business smoothly. With everyone working from home, Google Drive and Dropbox is now everyone's new best friend.
He also expressed that he prefers Google Meets, mainly because it pairs well with Google Calendar and Google Drive.
Indeed it is easy that way.
- How Data Helps a Business Stay Successful
Vincent shed light on how data is the marketing department's focus now more than ever, and that includes all types of data, i.e., new customer data, return customer data, competitor data, and market industry data. The team's most significant use of data in steering their marketing efforts is to segment their 20,000+ marketing contacts based on customer type and buying behavior. The information that the team was able to utilize was– When's the last time they purchased? What was their order value? Type of products purchased?
Vincent stated that building out informative customer profiles goes a long way too. What's their estimated annual revenue? The total number of employees? The number of locations and where? The total area of service? This helps to segment your customer base better and personalize marketing efforts to specific sub-groups with a relatable, compelling call to action and incentive.
He shared his personal experience on running the online remarketing campaigns solely based on consumers' online activity on their websites. He explained that excessive data sharing is more helpful than harmful as most of this information collected will remarket relevant content for products or services consumers were already looking for.
- Data Sharing with Advertisers: Helpful or Harmful?
Another insight Vincent shared is how secure he feels about sharing data with big, well-known companies (e.g., Amazon, Google, Facebook, Walmart). He says the better the company's internal values and the better its reputation with the general public, the more secure he feels with sharing his information.
We asked him how he feels about the data being tracked and acquired through our internet behavior. Does it help us more, or does it do more harm? Vincent thinks it serves a purpose and is generally more helpful than harmful. Most of the time, it is remarketing content that one has already searched for or that algorithms have deemed one would be potentially interested in purchasing.
The Takeaway: How can Successful Leaders Approach Their Planning Efforts for 2021?
Vincent shares a beautiful equation here: Look, Listen and React.
He says that to be a successful leader, one has to look at their consumers' buying habits and what their competitors are doing in the market space. Listen to the needs of the target customers and the needs of the industry. And finally, react to it all in a way that effectively drives business while maintaining the health and safety of both employees and customers.
He asks us not to let the physical barrier of remote work breed disconnect and dissociation from the team and company.
Ending the interview on an interesting note, he shared how reading books, learning a new instrument, and discovering a new hobby have helped him during this extended quarantine.
