AN ONLINE EDGE
Car-audio shop owner Mike Bartells said that in the past 15 years, he has tested various marketing approaches, but he has only recently unlocked the keys to success on the Internet. In Feb- ruary, he hired a designer to revamp Extreme Audio’s website, which may have been the best marketing decision he has ever made. “We enlisted Mitch Schaeffer who
owns 1 Sixty 8 Media. He’s done a really good job,” said Bartells. “It’s all about getting fresh articles and new informa- tion consistently online. We redid our complete look, and afterward, we had many people call in to say they really like our website, over and over.” Additionally, new store custom-
techs that we’ve ever had. Everyone has [his] own specialty, but also is versatile enough to cover just about anything.” Bartells added that it is “refreshing” to see the way everyone cooperates and works
well together to achieve common goals. He also couldn’t be more pleased with his sales crew, who frequently elicit compliments from customers for being helpful, friendly and well-mannered—and for going out of their way to take care of them. “They will say to me, ‘You’ve got a good one here.’ And you know they are doing a
good job because people don’t normally say stuff like that,” he continued. As far as overall sales, Extreme Audio saw steady growth until the economy dropped in 2007 and 2008, which was a “serious road bump,” Bartells said. It wasn’t long before the numbers went back up and stabilized. “Last year was flat overall, but the year prior to that, we had significant growth— about 20 percent or so. This year we are on track at about 10 percent up so far,” he said, adding that the harsh winter hurt business, especially when the persistent snow and icy roads shut down the whole town. “Now we’re just playing catch up to make the numbers we’ve seen in other years.” Bartells pointed out that, despite the weather, the month of December has been a high point: In December 2013 they saw their second-highest sales figures, while the prior December was the best month they ever had. “We are busy around the holidays. It seems to get busier and busier every year, and I really think it is the repeat business,” he said. “The larger the customer base becomes, and the more repeat business there is, the bigger the buying season.”
Concentrating on Customers From the very start, Bartells stressed, his main focus has been helping people. When
customers come to him or his staff with a problem or a specific need, they take care of it, no matter what—even if it means less money on the sale. The bigger picture is more important, he said, because word travels, ensuring an ever-expanding customer base. “If there is ever a rare, unhappy client, we make sure steps are taken to avoid it ever happening again by improving our procedures to fix the problem. … It probably has cost me money over the years, not being more sales-driven than we probably are, but we’re really out for the customer’s best interests,” he said. “Just because a product is the flavor of the month or we got a smokin’ good deal on it, if it’s not what that cus- tomer really needs, we’re not going to push it on them.”
ers have commented that they found Extreme Audio online and were drawn by the many positive reviews. Bartells said he initially built and main- tained the store’s website, but he later realized he needed someone with design expertise to really make it pop. “It’s a good idea to use an expert in a field that you aren’t an expert in, so you can get fresh input,” he said. “Now we get a lot of positive feedback on our website—the fresher look and style of it. When you’re adding content to your own site, it’s kind of the gift that keeps on giving—and it’s a long-term win.” Conversely, Bartells can recall spend-
ing a tremendous amount of money with a search engine optimization (SEO) company that also handled their pay- per-click campaign with Google. Even though it was a well-known firm, he didn’t get the results he wanted. “We spent a lot on results for ‘car
stereo’ and ‘car audio’ but not for the smaller, more diverse things we do. We really saw no results whatsoever,” he noted. “We learned the bulk of people searching for car audio online tend to be younger and more interested in buying online … and are not as into our ser- vices. We already had that customer but weren’t picking up additional customers on top of that.”
me-mag.com 45
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68