I was early for a Zoom call earlier this week. Only by a couple of minutes, and I wasn’t even first there.

 I’m glad I was early though, because the two guys who were there before me were having an interesting chat and I caught enough of it to make me think. (Both kitchen retailers, by the way.)

One of the guys (I think called Steve) was talking openly about his volume of sales enquiries – or rather the lack of them. We were three weeks into August, and he’d only had two meagre enquiries find their way into his showroom.

In the world of kitchen design, we often ride waves of feast and famine when it comes to client leads. Like a tide that ebbs and flows, there are times when our inbox is overflowing and times when leads seem to barely trickle in.

 How we navigate these waters can be a game-changer in the long run.

It’s a stab in the dark, but I’m guessing the Bank of England won’t be on your Christmas card list this year?

You’re not alone – the continual, monthly rate rises aren’t exactly good news, and was further confirmation of something we’re all well aware of:

For a lot of kitchen retailers, it’s been getting tough out there.

And it might get a bit tougher yet.

In case you haven’t noticed – summer’s arrived.

You can feel it in the warmth on your skin when you sit till dusk in the garden. When you can look at the weather forecast without a sense of despondency.

Usually, those would all be seen as positives. Still, traditionally, kitchen retailers approach the summer period with a dose of foreboding.

In 2023 so far, two things have become evident in the world of kitchen sales:

1. Competing in the sub-£25k bracket has become more challenging.

2. In the £25k+ bracket, people are spending more money than ever on their kitchens

 What you do about these trends will likely define your success for the rest of this year and beyond. So, if you take one thing from this note, it’s this:

This time last week, I was getting ready for one of the more special evenings in the KBB calendar – the KBB Review Retail & Design Awards.

One of our wonderful clients was up for an award and invited me along for a fantastic night in Cardiff.

The event was entertaining, well-organised, full of fun, and once again made me feel proud to be a member of the KBB community.

Now, I’ve not touched on awards much before, but it’s something well worth covering.

As the dust settles on Q1 and we all enjoy the Easter break, I wanted to share something we've noticed in the KBB world that may resonate with you.

We work with kitchen retailers throughout the UK, and we've seen a theme so far in 2023…

I know a couple that committed a cardinal sin the other day.

Well, a cardinal sin in my book, anyway. They bought a £25k kitchen from Wren.

The couple in question know me well enough to know better. Over the past year, I’ve made it clear to them the benefits they’ll get by going to a great independent retailer, of which I know a few.

As you might expect, I attempted to give them a bit of a hard time about this decision, but quickly it became clear that the fault didn’t lie with them.

Here’s a question for you to mull over:

If we took the name of your business off all your advertising - your website, your leaflets, your Facebook ads, all of it – and replaced it with another business’s name, would anyone notice?

If not, it’s almost certainly not doing its job.

We’re a month into 2023, and I’ve now got a decent fist of how the year’s started for KBB businesses.

If you had a poor autumn, struggling to sell kitchens, there’s a fair chance that’s still the case in 2023.

If you had a somewhat buoyant autumn, you’ve probably had a pretty good January, at least from an enquiries perspective. Albeit, you’re probably having to battle a bit harder to get people over the line, though.

It’s January – prime time for many kitchen retailers.

Whether your prospects are making plans for the year ahead, or they’ve emerged from the festive season resolving to never cook Christmas dinner in that kitchen again, leads are out there. You’ve just got to go and get them.

What we’ve seen over the years is that the new year wave typically lasts until around mid-February. Then, we’re into routine.

Question is: What will this year’s ‘routine’ look like?

Ahhh, the festive season. For most kitchen retailers, this means a well-earned rest. Marketing might be the last thing on your mind right now, but opportunity awaits.

You might well be closed during the festive break, but that doesn’t mean your customers aren’t looking. 

In fact, it’s quite the opposite – there are three big reasons why you need to be visible during the festive season and into the new year.

In 2023 we’ll be doing more offline marketing for our kitchen clients than ever before.

More leaflets through people’s doors. More signage. More focus on shopfronts and vehicle livery. Billboards and Out of Home. More magazines, and maybe even radio and newspaper advertising.

Why?

Well, here’s a simple fact…

I’m a sucker for a good ad campaign, and one of my favourites?

This doozy from the New Zealand Tourism Department:

We all know the role search engines can play in connecting you with people looking for what you do and what you offer.

But the truth is, plenty of kitchen retailers are dipping their toe in Google’s waters but not getting the return they want.

And - frankly - a lot of the time, it’s because they’re dabbling rather than doing it properly, fully committed.

It’s a funny old time right now.

Every time we think things are getting back to ‘normal’, something else happens.

The Queen’s died, schools are back, the Ukrainian conflict is in the balance, the pound’s dropped to an all-time low, the list goes on.

All set against the ‘cost of living’ backdrop.

With all of these external pressures, it’s no surprise that many kitchen retailers feel it’s quieter than they’d expect entering autumn.

In the digital world, it’s easy to get waylaid. Distracted. Sent on wild goose chases.

You’ve got Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok; the list goes on, and on, and on.

(And on.)

And with the sheer abundance of digital media available, it’s easy for kitchen retailers to forget what marketing is all about – generating positive awareness with the people you want to do business with and acquiring leads and clients as a result.

For good reason, I've banged the drum for Google many times over the past few years. Google is most often the first port of call for today's modern kitchen buyer, and if you're not there, that can be a big problem.

A couple of interesting situations for us recently highlighted - once again - that there are good Google searches, and then there are great Google searches.

I’ve said this many times this year:

In 2022, Google is a non-negotiable part of a successful KBB marketing strategy.

While there’s still a place for offline media, Google has superseded so much of it, hoovering up a vast proportion of people looking for new kitchens.

And if you ignore Google, you’re missing the primary way people begin their search for a kitchen company.

Pretty obvious, right?

What’s less obvious - and where independent kitchen retailers often get stuck - is the HOW.

Whenever we sit down with a new kitchen client, we always ask this question:

“What marketing are you currently doing, and how is it working?”

The answers vary. Sometimes it’s leaflets that are working well, sometimes they’re getting good results from Google Ads or lifestyle magazines, and often they get a lot of business from word of mouth.

But in almost every case - regardless of what they’re doing - they’re not doing as much of it as they could be.