Challenge: How to promote health food store to a niche market

Mike Rafferty, a senior sales executive at Denver Post Media, has been in the media sales field for 15 years, so when it came to approaching a local health food store, he knew to keep it simple.

“The [health food store] owners wanted to reach a very niche market,” said Rafferty. “The challenges [were] doing [their advertising] themselves, and [listening to] me pointing out all their weaknesses…with open ears.” 

According to Rafferty, the health food store wanted to build a dominant website, so he knew he could rely on AdMall’s digital sales tools to assist them.

Solution: Keep it simple

When it comes to selling with AdMall, sales reps can find everything they need in terms of specific data and industry trends. Raffery took a very straightforward approach with the research he gathered and took it to the health food store.

“Very simple task,” said Rafferty. “I did a Digital Audit [of the health food store], and I always look at their target customers, and tell them who they should be targeting. Then, I look at all the digital categories, and came back to the customer and used insight selling, telling them what should keep them up at night. [It was] so easy to close the deal with this data.” 

Result: A huge digital campaign and great ROI

The health food store was so impressed with Rafferty’s no-​nonsense approach that they agreed to a $40,000 a month campaign, for three months, totalling $120,000.

“We blew it out of the water, at least in their terms [of ROI],” said Rafferty. “They received many new customers that they were not specifically targeting before.”

According to Rafferty, his success with AdMall comes from utilizing AdMall’s certification program, found in the Learning Center, and just “poking around” for a couple of days. Additionally, he has become a big advocate of the product.

“I preach from the mountaintop for all my colleagues to use this amazing tool,” said Rafferty.

These specialty retailers primarily sell vitamins and supplements along with a mix of organic and/​or health foods. Initially, these retailers sold products that weren't available in larger stores, but the market is changing. Competition in the health food/​product sector is growing as mass merchandisers now compete in this area.

In addition, more merchants are selling these products, especially supplements, through online channels. Since their introduction into the marketplace, dietary supplements have gained more acceptance by consumers and medical professionals. Consumers take these products to improve their health, especially in cases where a healthy natural diet may be lacking. However, product quality continues to be a concern. Analysts expect supplement sales to continue growing because the average age of consumers in the U.S. is increasing.

The value of organic foods sold in the U.S. was about $56.5 billion in 2020. Organic nonfood sales amounted to $5.4 billion. There are about 22,000 independent and chain establishments operating in the health food store industry, and they compete with the 75% of grocery stores that sell organic foods. Sales of organic foods, as a percentage of all food sold in the U.S., continue to increase as consumers are concerned about the safety of the food supply. 

The industry includes GNC and other vitamin retail chains, Whole Foods and similar organic food stores, and smaller retailers. 

AdMall’s Digital Audit will do a real-​time data capture of any client or prospect’s digital presence in less than a minute. Using real-​time big data to analyze the account’s activity and findability, the Digital Audit:

• Lists digital advertising, local search, search engine optimization, social networking, and incoming website traffic
• Provides a digital opportunity score directing you to the accounts with the most revenue potential for digital marketing services
• Compares the account’s use of digital advertising to the customers who intend to buy what they’re selling in the next 12 months
• Compares the account’s digital presence to their top local competitors
• Does in 60 seconds what would take you 60 minutes to do by hand
• Incorporates data into tablet-​optimized sales presentations in AdMall PRO