I love lighting showrooms and want to do anything I can to help during the COVID-19 outbreak. If you want to use the campaign described below, email me by Friday April 3rd and I’ll send you everything needed: jason@hansenlighting.com

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During dark times, who better to start lighting things back up than lighting showrooms? My team and I have been working on a social marketing campaign for my showroom (Hansen Lighting) and Lit Living clients, but I’ve decided to make it available to any showroom who can benefit.

(note: you MUST have a brick-and-mortar showroom. If you’re a pure e-tailer… that’s a “no” from me)

THE PSYCHOLOGY & STRATEGY

• People in panic or shock tend to freeze up and do nothing. Much of our country is in that state during the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the most effective ways to re-engage people is to ask them to do something simple to help someone else.
  
• How? It’s really easy to run a contest like this. You’ll run some social media ads that ask people to tag someone who has been hit hard by the COVID-19 and then share/like the post. Anyone who does so will receive at least a $25 credit for themselves to use in your store and one for the person they tagged. One person who was tagged will win an exclusive Full Home Lighting & Ceiling Fan Makeover… and so will the person who originally tagged them!

PURPOSE

1. Build brand goodwill for your showroom.
2. Drive new short-term sales (especially next 30-60 days).
3. Show lighting buyers that they can still shop with your showroom by using technology.
4. Build and/or add to an email list that we can market to in the future.

CAMPAIGN DETAILS

Campaign Name: Light Up A Life

We’ve built all ads needed (including images, text, video etc. ) to post onto social media and other online traffic sources (Google My Business for example) inviting people to share, like, and then tag someone who has been hit hard by the COVID-19 outbreak. This could be someone who has gotten the virus, a friend or acquaintance who has lost a job or a loved one, a person who’s business has been hit hard, etc.

Anyone tagged is entered into a drawing for a FULL HOME LIGHTING & CEILING FAN MAKEOVER. The makeover will include consultation with a lighting expert and all of the fixtures/materials needed to fully re-light the home with healthy, functional, and beautiful lighting.

The person who did the tagging will also win a similar home lighting makeover.

Many people who are stuck at home – on top of dealing with the stress of being isolated – are now finding themselves spending much more time in unhealthy lighting. Science has shown over and over that proper lighting has a massive impact on our mental, emotional, and even physical health (FYI “headaches”, “depression”, “joint pain”, “sleep trouble”, “abuse” and other non-COVID related health terms are trending in Google searches WHILE many of those same people are also searching more frequently for terms like “bedroom lighting”, “home office lighting”, “kitchen lighting”, etc.).

All of the ads will position your showroom as a source of light and goodwill and participants will be engaging with you and your brand directly (not Hansen Lighting or Lit Living, etc.). As far as they know, this will be a unique campaign to your company.

In addition to the Grand Prize, everyone who participates by tagging/sharing/liking someone else gets a $25 credit – both for themselves and for the person they tagged. The credit can be used within the next 60 days at your showroom by either calling in to you or shopping with you online*.

* if you don’t have a website with a shopping cart, chat tools to assist online shoppers, ability to let designers/contractors log in and create orders, etc. email me, I may be able to help you get something set up quickly at no cost.

All of the promotion will be for your local showroom. Hansen Lighting will cover all of the costs of the two Lighting Makeover give-aways (we were planning to do this in just our local market anyways, so now we’ll expand it to let more showrooms benefit*).

*note: the drawing will now be for one pair of winners nationally… only one pair of winners TOTAL from all participating showrooms will be drawn at random.

I am also negotiating with all of the major lighting vendors (and so far EVERY vendor I’ve talked to has agreed to help) to help offset the $25 credits by providing participating showrooms with account credits, discounted items to feature, etc. and many of the vendors are committing to give the group co-op dollars, credits, and shared promotion, to help boost this message far and wide!

Finally, because we want more than just a short-term boost, as people participate with the campaign, their contact information will be captured and they will have given permission to market to them in the future.

WHAT TO DO NEXT:

• LIT LIVING MEMBERS: Just email me to opt-in. There is no cost to you. The campaigns (ad creation, ad setup, ad cost, capturing contact info, etc.) will be run for you automatically. 
  
• NON LIT LIVING: Send me an email and I’ll forward you multiple packets with everything needed. I’ll include all of the ads you should run (they’re ready-built… just post them), a set of step-by-step instructions on how to post each at the right time, choose the right demographic, where/how to “boost” intelligently, etc. I’ll also send some guidance on how to interact with participants and capture email addresses to use for future marketing, etc.

A PERSONAL MESSAGE OF ENCOURAGEMENT

These may be tough times, but we’re tougher. When I bought Hansen Lighting out of near-bankruptcy in 2004, the company was doing an average of only about $17,000 in sales per month and had over $43,000 in monthly expenses (all fixed). It had piled up a mountain of debt bigger than all of the profits combined for the last decade. If ever there was a lighting showroom you’d call a dumpster-fire… Hansen Lighting was it.

If my showroom can be pulled out of the mire that it was in, you can pull yours through the COVID-19 and be stronger on the other side!

We’ll pull through this together by putting some simple but smart adaptations into place. If you feel hopeless or just don’t know what to do from here, email me (jason@hansenlighting.com). I’ll take the time to answer every email and if we need to get on a phone call to put together a plan of attack, we’ll do that too!

Just remember that your windshield is much bigger than your rear-view mirror for a reason. Look and work forwards not backwards.