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Articles for the hunting, shooting and outdoor sports industry pertaining to branding and inbound marketing.

How to build your hunting brand

8 Ways to Build Your Hunting Brand in 2024

By Hunting and Outdoor

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that eighty percent of consumers look at online reviews before making major purchases, and a host of other studies have recorded the strong influence those reviews have on the decisions people make.

Social media has accelerated the trend to an astonishing degree: a dud product can become a laughingstock in a matter of hours. In the old days, you might buy a Remington hunting rifle or Bear Bow because that’s what your dad hunted with. Today, such considerations to brand loyalty matter much less due to the availability of customer reviews. Now, each product has to prove itself on its own.

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people. – Office of Consumer Affairs

If you have a great hunting, outdoor or firearm product and are looking for ways to maximize outdoor industry marketing or your branding to increase sales and build your reputation in the industry—here are 8 sure-fire ideas to help turn your customers into raving fans that will increase your bottom line and build your hunting brand.  

1. Be somebody

The old saying goes, “you can’t be everything to everyone.” Companies must find a way to stand out among the marketplace clutter and find the “whitespace” to stand for something. Don’t just tell your customer your products are quality, superior or dominating—demonstrate it. Prove to them you are worth their time by demonstrating your brand values, mission and how it will benefit them.

 


2. Make them feel something

The best way to connect in today’s digital world is through storytelling and contextual marketing. Our ancestors sat around a fire telling stories since the dawn of time, and this still continues today—except now we get it from the Sportsman Channel, the internet or social media. There is something intrinsically valuable to storytelling. When you connect with people at the heart level and make them feel something—your message will go a long way. Today’s marketing isn’t about highlighting features and benefits, it’s about “celebrating the benefit in the way it impacts other people’s lives,” says Simon Mainwaring, author of “We First.”  Put your product in context of real everyday stories for greater impact.

“People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.”

3. Be authentic

The best way to be authentic is to just to be yourself. Too many hunting and firearm brands try to be something they’re not. Weave your personality into your content, messaging and imagery. Through authentic and good-willed communication, customers will innately share your message and bring it to life.

4. Delight them after the sale

Do not have a “one and done” mentality. At the end of the sales process and after the product has been delivered, add value to your customers through events, continued education or through helpful content that continues to solve their problems. This will increase their loyalty to your brand. Show them you care after the sale. It costs 5 times more to acquire new customers than it does to keep current ones. (Source: Forbes

5. Make your hunting brand all about them

Every product or service should be centered around what is called a buyer persona. If you don’t know who your customer is, you leave a lot of opportunity on the table.  Make your customer the superstar of your business.

Here are a few examples:

  • I’m in the market to buy a new rifle and I can’t figure out which brand I like better: Bergara, Remington or Winchester. I may find an ebook on Bergara’s website “How to choose the right hunting rifle.” In an easy to understand format, it provides me options, use, price and customer reviews to help me make a better decision. I’ll most likely develop a strong preference to choose a Bergara. 
  • I’m a gun store owner looking for information on how to best track my inventory. A manufacturer may send me a case study on how other gun store owners are using their product to help them to keep track of their firearms and remain compliant. The manufacturer then follows up with a series of emails that builds trust.
  • I’m a hunter who is not sure what kind of bow I will need for an upcoming elk hunt. A manufacturer might send me their top 3 bow recommendations based on my stated preferences.

6. Talk their language

Don’t use fancy terms and ‘gobblygook’. Talk their language. Using the examples above, meet them on the range, in their facility or on the mountain. Talk to them like an old friend. You have to earn your customer’s money more than ever.

7. Give them what they want

Do your absolute best to make a great product and don’t cut corners. If enough customers ask for something—give it to them. Give them a way to sound off on what is needed to make your products better. You can create a customer support portal with an area titled “Submit product ideas” to encourage participation in your product development. Don’t let Facebook be the platform they choose to voice their disapproval if something with your product goes wrong. 

CRM for Outdoor, Hunting and Shooting Sports

Manage your customer support with the HubSpot CRM

8. Fanatical customer support

Last, but not least is customer service. When you provide great customer experience and give excellent support, you are much more likely to have that experience passed on via word-of-mouth.

A survey by Harvard Business Review concludes that customers want knowledgeable front line customer service reps and that the problem be resolved on the first call. On average, 40% of customers who suffer through bad experiences stop doing business with the offending company. This points to the importance of companies hiring people who align and know their brand(s) products best. Hire your customers.

Companies Who Said They Were Focused On Experience Grew 40% Faster And Increased Customer Lifetime Value By More Than 60% Versus Those Who Weren’t. – Forrester Research

Are you in a boring industry segment? Then the focus should be shifted to recruitment and employer branding. There are 1.6 million people who work in the hunting industry (Source: Congressional Sportsman Foundation). Are the best people working for you?

A great non-industry example is Zappos, the shoe company. Who gets excited about selling shoes? At Zappos, the culture is the product and shoes are what they do on the side. Create a great culture to work at and the boring product stuff becomes fun. 

“So many people when they go to the office, they leave a little bit of themselves at home, or a lot of themselves at home. And they have to put on this different persona in the office, especially in corporate environments. And our whole…there’s a lot of talk about work life separation or balance and so on, whereas our whole thing is about work life integration. It’s just life.”— Tony Hsieh, CEO

In conclusion, it all starts with a great product that solves a problem on a massive scale. To connect that great product with your customer—you must be somebody, you must be authentic, play the guide, not the hero in their story, make your brand all about them, talk their language, give them what they want and provide outstanding customer service above all else so that good customer reviews come natural. 

outdoor hunting shooting sports customer buyer personas

 

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This is How You Optimize Your Outdoor Products for Higher Profitability

This is How You Optimize Your Outdoor Products for Higher Profitability

By Hunting and Outdoor

What would you do if you had to increase revenue and profit by 25% next year? If we’re heading into recession—and most telltale signs tell us we are (or already in one according to some economists)—how would you increase your profit to stay afloat? 

Well, you might start by working on your marketing. Or you might start cold calling customers i.e. dialing for dollars. Or do what most companies do—cut costs. 

In this article, I outline Business Made Simple’s Product Optimization Framework and give you five ways to find the money you need to grow your business in 2023 that might be right underneath your nose. 

1. Perform a product profitability audit 

So many business owners lose sight of their most profitable products. Revenue is crucial to keeping your business from crashing. So how do we audit our products to give us the clarity we need to optimize our product offering? 

When sales are down of a particular product, we tend to increase marketing spend to get those sales back up—regardless if they are profitable or not. But, what we need to do is sell more of our profitable products to make up any shortfalls. 

Now, you may be thinking, duh—of course I’m going to focus on selling more of my profitable products, but the reality is you don’t because you don’t know which ones are the most profitable!

We chase the downward trends of unprofitable products because the psychological reality is our minds tend to grab onto problems that cloud our ability to see what the real opportunity is. We are incredibly good at solving problems but awful at letting go of problems.

Product Profitability Sheet

Product Profitability Audit Worksheet

And this is the reason to conduct a product profitability audit. It will wake you up and help you see where your most significant opportunities are. 

Here’s how you do it: 

Rank the products you sell from the most profitable to the least profitable. Use the following table for your outline:   

  1. Cost to produce 
  2. Cost to sell and market
  3. Cost to distribute 
  4. Cost of additional support
  5. Total profit per unit

Roughly figure out what it’s costing you, and then calculate your profit after you’ve added all that up. This is the number you want to know. Don’t worry about being exact; this is a leadership exercise—not an accounting exercise.

Now that you have them listed, what stands out? Take notice of your top sellers and your low ones. 

Tip:  If you have 5,000 products, list the top 10 per category.   

Source: Business Made Simple

2. Devote more marketing and sales energy to your most profitable products 

Now, look at your top three products to determine what is selling. You want to focus your time and energy on these products. It is easier to increase sales on products that are selling than it is to sell products that are not. 

The Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, captures this perfectly. In most cases, 80% of your profit comes from 20% of your products. So, what this means, is if you increase your focus on sales/ marketing on the products that are selling, you’ll most likely double revenue! 

So how do you do this? 

  • Can you create a sales funnel that sells more of your most profitable products?
  • Can you feature your most profitable products more prominently on your website?
  • Can you feature your most profitable products more prominently in your retail store?
  • Can your sales (or customer service team) mention your most profitable products to every existing customer? 

Tip: People buy solutions to problems. If you clearly define their problem, you’ll sell more products.

 

3. Consider dropping your least profitable products 

Yes, you have products that you should no longer be selling. For example, you’ve created something you love—but no one is buying it. In other words, what you’re cooking, no one is eating. And if they are, that product is not making your business money. 

Consider dropping your least profitable products. Here’s how: 

  1. How much overhead goes into creating and selling your least profitable products? 
  2. Are any of your least profitable products loss or even break-even leaders?
  3. How much time will be freed up to market and sell more profitable items if you drop your least profitable items?

Tip: Remove all emotional detachment from products that need to die! This will happen when you see how much money they are sucking out of your business. 

hunting product bundle

Can you batch your products together and sell them as a new product? Photo Credit: GoHunt

4. Batch existing products to create a new product offering 

Can you batch products together that solve a single problem? What combination of products can you combine that further solves your customer’s problem? For example, in the outdoor, hunting and shooting sports industry, you rarely head afield with one piece of equipment. We often need, in addition to a rifle: an optic, ammunition, sling, case, truck, gas, lunch, camo, etc. What can you combine to increase perceived value and cost in your product offering? 

 Here are a few examples:  

  • Pre-Season Scouting Kit (OnX app discount, binoculars, harness, and lens cloth) 
  • Wilderness Launch Bundle (tent, bear spray, fire stove and water filtration)
  • Long Range Shooting Package (optic, mount, case, ballistics app and a wind meter)

Combine your top-selling products with add-ons your customers will need. These work great for retailers and online direct-to-consumers (D2C) brands. 

 

hunting-product-optimization

Photo credit: Hunt Nahanni

5. Consider creating new products that are similar to your most profitable products 

What new products can you create that will immediately increase your revenue that aligns with your best sellers? This typically works excellent for outfitters and guides who can add additional value to their clients’ hunting or fishing experience.  

10% of people will spend 10x more of their current investment with you if you can deliver a better experience. For example, let’s say you’re an outfitter that charges $20,000 for a big horn sheep hunt. But for $10,000 more, you offer the VIP experience, providing an upgraded cabin, meals, and maybe a helicopter service from the airport to your location.

Don’t be afraid to ask for money if you can deliver more value. 

In conclusion, the money you need to grow your business may be right underneath your nose. Your product optimization is the low-hanging fruit you need to generate more revenue in 2023 to come through the upcoming recession on top. 

If you’re interested in tightening up your business as we head into 2023. Take the below assessment. 

 

Thanks to Chris Dorsey for photo use.

6 Secrets Of The Duck Dynasty Hunting And Outdoor Brand

6 Secrets Of The Duck Dynasty Hunting And Outdoor Brand

By Hunting and Outdoor

Sometimes, a brand comes along that is really different—and goes against the grain of everything else you’ve been accustomed to. With over $40 million dollars in revenue in 2012 (Source: Wikipedia), and the number one cable show in history, no one can deny that the Robertson Family/Duck Commander/Duck Dynasty brand has done something right.

If Willie Robertson were to sit down in my office (see end of this post), and I was able to ask him what advice he had for hunting and outdoor business owners and marketers about building their brand, I think this is what he would say…

1. Be authentic

One thing that Willie Robertson would say about your branding efforts is to be authentic. This has been one of the genuine traits of the Duck Commander/Duck Dynasty brand. No fluff, no gloss, no razzle-dazzle. Customers feel a real connection to the Robertson’s and buy their products because they are real.  A lot of companies develop their brands that feel and look manufactured. For decades we’ve been soaked with Madison Avenue style advertising that it’s become something we naturally ignore. Kind of like air. You know it’s there, but you don’t really think about it. By being authentic your chances of cutting through the clutter increase.

2. Keep it real

Willie would say keep it real. Don’t be something you’re not. Your company starts with the personality and character of you—the founder. Don’t loose that one thing that separates you from everyone else—you. Great brands are built on men and women who keep it real. Look at Steve Jobs, Donald Trump, Chuck Buck and Howard Shultz.

3. Know your customer

Willie says, know your customer. Duck Commander and Buck Commander as well as the Duck Dynasty and Robertson brand all meticulously built their brands around their customer that truly connects on a personal level. Research and interview your customers—find out who your ideal customer is. Build your brand and your branding efforts around them. Talk like they talk, do what they like to do, hang out where they hang out.  Engage them, solve their problems. This is the most important step in developing a brand.Duck-Dynasty-brand

4. Hire your customers

Willie only hires people who are hunting fanatics and who adhere to their cultural virtues. Hire people who are naturally passionate about what you do. This will pay considerable dividends from a customer service and standpoint and reduce turnover costs. Customers generally turn out to be among the best performers when they become employees. You already know them and they know you. (SOURCE: ERE)

5. Sell the experience

The old saying “your brand is your product” certainly applies here. I would bet that like Harley Davidson, most of Duck Commander’s revenue is made through shirts, hats and other branded apparel—people aren’t necessarily buying just duck calls. People want to be associated with the Duck Commander/Duck Dynasty experience—which is another reason why the brand is so powerful. They want to feel like they are apart of the family or out in the blinds with them.

Whether you like Duck Dynasty or not, as a hunting and outdoor business owner you have to admit that what makes this brand unique is its authenticity, their approach to keeping it real, their intimate knowledge of their customers, the experience they sell and the people they hire. The brand’s story and ability to connect with millions of people make it a great brand to emulate and apply to your own company’s branding efforts.

Photo Credit: Jeff Riedel

Hunting-Outdoor-Website-Design

6 Tips To Increase Your Hunting Website’s Traffic

By Hunting and Outdoor

Your hunting, outdoor or firearms company’s website is an immense investment of time and money in your ability to enhance your business and brand online. It must be responsive (mobile, tablet and desktop viewable), it must be easy to understand, informative and entertaining. However, most marketers and business owners in the industry minimize this aspect during the design phase and forget to think about how to effectively keep visitors coming back after they’ve visited. It’s typical to be more focused on graphics and aesthetics—but just having an awesome looking website will only get you so far in today’s digital environment.   It doesn’t matter what size of a company you are—a small business of 10 employees or 5,000, every visit is an opportunity to build a relationship, customer or lifetime promoter of your brand. Below are six simple tips you can use to turn your website into a traffic and lead generating machine.

1. Write your content based on your customer

According to recent statistics, over 90% of visitors to your website never come back. The reason they don’t come back is because they didn’t find anything to keep them coming back. To keep them coming back, target three potential customers or buyer personas and write helpful, relevant content specifically for them—that solves a problem they have one at a time.  Learn about their pain points, where they hang out on social media and how they talk. Implement this across every page of your website and watch those bounce rates decline. 

2. Optimize your content

It goes without saying that all websites should be optimized, but I am always amazed on how many marketing people skip this crucial step. Today, Google accounts for over 65% of web searches. The most important aspects of your hunting and outdoor website for SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages) are title tags. Make sure they accurately describe what your page is about with the keywords in the title and URL. The title tag should be under 60 characters and the description tag under 160 characters. Keep them short and pithy. Look to sprinkle your keywords throughout your page 2-3 times over 500 words—if it makes sense. Write naturally and don’t stuff your keywords. Write for humans, not search engines. 

3. Create free downloadable content

60% of the sales cycle is over before a buyer talks to your salesperson. Consumers today behave in a way that requires you to establish trust. The years of broken brand promises by politicians, get rich quick schemes and magic pills have taken a toll on the consumer market and with the economy in its current state—consumers don’t blow money like they used to. No matter what type of product you sell, you are an expert in something. Write about it, package it and offer it to your customers. Parallel this with follow up emails and other content as you create it. This simple tip can begin building trust with your customers and will grease the wheels come hunting season.

4. Create a strong call-to-action

Make your downloadable content irresistible to your visitors. For example: “6 Elk Hunting Secrets from Today’s Top Trophy Hunters.” I think we’d all like to download and read this offer! If you are offering up relevant content that solves your customer’s problems, the call to action should be designed to entice them to fill out a form, send an email or pick up the phone and contact you. Experiment with different colors and different headlines to optimize your offers.

5. Blog weekly

Companies that blog receive 97% more inbound links. (HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report) The more blogging you do, the higher your rankings will be on SERPS—which means more traffic—which means more customers. Almost everyone these days has a blog, but now it’s more important than ever to keep that content fresh and flowing. Make a commitment to start a blog and maintain it weekly. All content is not created the same. Make sure you are blogging on topics that solve your customer’s problems and use titles like “How-to’s”, “Tips on…”, and other enticing subject matter geared specifically for your audience. Google’s latest algorithm changes suggest that stagnant websites are no longer useful for users. 

6. Get social

Social media has an 80% higher lead-to-close rate than outbound marketing. (State of Inbound Marketing). Every page on your site should have a way for users to share content. If it’s not shareable, you loose out on your content being spread. Social media will become more important to hunting and outdoor brands than ever before. Try to personalize your posts as well. People want to work with people. The number of businesses that say Facebook is critical or important to their business has increased by 75%. Use social media to expand your message, expertise, and personality. The simple tips above you can begin to shape and optimize your hunting or outdoor business’ website for more traffic and leads. 

how to get your hunting product into walmart

How to Get Your Hunting Or Outdoor Product Into Walmart

By Hunting and Outdoor

Recently, a long-term sporting goods client of ours was rewarded placement in Walmart for their revolutionary new product. It won over Walmart because it’s innovative, made of quality materials, packaged correctly, easy-to-use and understand and our client has the support and the inventory to fulfill the required purchase order (10,000+ units).

If you are a hunting or outdoor company that has attempted to get into Walmart, you know it is not easy. Walmart is the holy grail for most sporting goods companies because one purchase order can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Below are 6 points to keep in mind that will improve your chances of getting your product into Walmart.

1. Create an innovative and quality productHow to get your product into walmart
All great businesses start with a unique offering in the marketplace. In order for any large retailer to do business with you, your product has to be somewhat innovative. It has to solve a problem needed by many. It also must be durable and packaged in a way so that when customers buy it, it doesn’t break, people can’t steal it and it is designed to be seamlessly placed on Walmart’s shelves. Keep this in mind as you design and develop your product and packaging. Make sure that during production you adhere to Wal-Mart’s requirements and build in good cost margins as Walmart will ask for pricing below wholesale.

2. Develop your brand
We are firm believers in the following statement: “Unless you stand for something, you stand for nothing.” We have 10-20 of everything in the marketplace. Unless you develop your brand you risk falling into the cacophony of products that only differentiate on functions and features. A well-developed brand makes your product stand heads and shoulders above the competition because of its unique story and personality.

3. Design great packaging
Package design is key. A great package design can help your product look larger than life on the shelf. A good package design dramatizes and communicates the brand to the customer while demonstrating its use, function and features. It differentiates your brand from your competitors and allows you to stand out.  Our client also adds QR codes on their packaging so the customer can scan using their smart phone to see a live demonstration—which further persuades the customer to buy. This also helps you persuade the Walmart buyer when you get your 30 seconds to pitch your product.

4. Build your inventory
One thing that most hunting and outdoor start-ups overlook is the ability to fulfill large orders. Walmart promises to always give customers the lowest prices on their products and they always ask for large purchase orders…always.  Larger orders are typically classified as 7,000 – 10,000 units or more. If Walmart accepts your application to be a supplier, you will need to fulfill the purchase order under their terms, which could be within 15 days, and you may not get paid for 60-90 days. If you do not have a good inventory and the means to stay afloat for 3 months, this could be a deal breaker. This also relates directly to my next point about business history.

5. Build your business history and a good product case study
A lot of our past hunting and outdoor start-up clients have come to us with one thing in mind: “We want to get into Walmart, Costco, Home Depot, Sports Authority, Dick’s, Lowes, Target, etc.” Most haven’t thought through what it takes to build their business first and are shocked when we tell them the bad news about what it entails—unless the product is truly remarkable and the client has the necessary inventory—but this is rare. We will typically advise you to build a business case study first so that when it comes time to go for it, you are equipped with a track record that says success to the Walmart sporting goods buyer. You will also learn much along the way. A simple website with online store and internet marketing program can help you build your business and obtain valuable experience. This strategy gets the most ROI and allows you to test the validity of the product before making a significant inventory investment. While this is taking place, we advise you to get out there and be willing to take some risks with smaller retailers. This also will provide you with much needed experience to perfect your sales pitch and allow you to test the appeal and validity of your product. Long before Walmart, our client was selling in smaller retail outlets like Sportsman Warehouse, Cabellas, Bass Pro Shops and others. This allowed them to identify and get over the many hurdles that you will face along the way.

6. Perfect your pitch and be persistent
Once you have developed your brand, designed a killer package design, built your inventory, have a deep sales history, product case study and have perfected a winning sales pitch, it’s time to apply. Your presentation should be brief and to the point; it needs to showcase and demonstrate the product’s value, tell the product’s sales history, list customer testimonials and review and project future sales. Once you’re accepted, having other products in your product line with the same standards will allow you to expand in Walmart and potentially get into other retailers. If you get turned down, or you experience fragmented or down right rude communication, don’t give up, it may take a few months or years to finally get that first meeting.

By following the above points, you’ll have a good idea and direction on how to go about getting into a large retailer.

inbound--marketing-turkey-hunting

Why Inbound Marketing Is Like Turkey Hunting (Infographic)

By Hunting and Outdoor

If you’ve made it to any of the recent trade shows in the hunting, firearms or outdoor industry—you may have heard about something called inbound marketing or sometimes called digital or content marketing. Outdoor companies are looking for ways to bring their brands online and to reach broader audiences that they were once limited to because of expensive media buys or trade show fees. They may also be looking for ways to reduce their marketing spend and get a better return on investment from their hard-earned marketing dollars.

To help you understand—we’ve put together the below infographic to help explain the differences between inbound and outbound marketing; and how it can help your company move its marketing online—versus spending more on trade show, print and T.V.

inbound-marketing-hunting-shooting-outdoor