It’s not every day someone decides to buy a new couch or bed.
These are typically items that last a long time and get replaced as needed. But, when the time does come, you need to ensure potential customers are coming to your store with their furniture needs.
The best way to do this is with the help of effective furniture marketing.
Are you a furniture store owner in Bangladesh? If yes, then you have landed in the right place.
Let’s see how to market your furniture store online.
1. Make Your Website as Gorgeous as Your Furniture
Up to 87 percent of customers do online research before they ever walk into a store, which means your website needs to be a core pillar of your furniture marketing strategy. As a furniture seller, you’re in the business of making beautiful things. Use your website to show off your design savvy. Here are some points to consider:
Keep Up Appearances
Make your products look their best. Give your furniture the rockstar treatment with a high-quality images that will inspire your visitors. Showcase pieces, rooms, or decor themes. Make your website a place that customers come for ideas, even if they are not (yet) looking to buy.
Don’t Be Difficult
Once you have a customer’s interest, you want to keep it. Make sure your website is easy for customers to navigate, whether they want to browse for design inspiration, admire specific products, place an online order, or get directions to a local retail outlet. This includes making sure that your load times are quick—nothing turns a potential customer away faster than slow service!
But Do Be Comfortable
In our always-connected world, customers surf the web everywhere, including on the go. Make sure that your web design is comfortable to use in all formats, including traditional web browsers, tablets, and smartphones.
Stay With the Times
When people decorate their homes, they are looking for fresh ideas—you don’t want your website to feel stale or dated. Even if your brand is more traditional, a refresh will show customers that your business is modern and relevant. Your content shouldn’t be static, either. Just as interior design moods change, so too should your website. Show off new products or feature current products in different ways.
Create Furniture Experiences, Not Just Products
Build a strong brand identity that makes your furniture—and the spaces they create—easy to remember. To really make a stand-out impression, use 3D, augmented reality, and virtual reality tools to help prospective customers get up close and personal with your products. Nothing makes a connection better than seeing how a sleek new table would look in your own dining room.
2. Understand Who’s Buying Your Furniture and Meet Them Where They Are
How you market to your customers depends on who your customers are. Even though you might happily sell to anyone, the fact is that some people will love your products more than others. You’ll sell more furniture if you can identify who those people are.
Once you know who your audience is, there are various ways to reach them in today’s omnichannel environment.
#Select Traditional Furniture Advertising Outlets
Although online research is popular, traditional paid advertising methods like television, radio is still effective ways to advertise furniture. Take advantage of these outlets to put your brand in the minds of potential buyers as well as to reach shoppers who haven’t yet gone fully digital.
Think back to your ideal customers. Use these characteristics to identify regional or national outlets or tools for paid advertising opportunities. Create advertisements that speak to your audience and develop a connection between what they want and what you offer. Be selective—you’ll want to preserve most of your budget for digital opportunities, but it’s worthwhile to at least make a small investment in this space.
#Pick Social Platforms to Connect With Furniture Buyers
Using your research, determine which social platforms your target customers use. You want to reach your customers where they already spend time, not where you prefer to spend yours. If your target market includes millennials, Instagram is where you’ll find them. If your audience is older, you’re more likely to find them on Facebook. People who are passionate about decorating spend their time on Pinterest.
Post likeable images and shareable videos that are relevant to your brand. Social media marketing is all about building a relationship between your company and people who share your values. Your goal is to engage, not sell. Aim to cultivate a social media following of people who love furniture the way you do. When customers identify with your brand, your furniture is more likely to be top of mind when they’re ready to redecorate the living room—turning those followers into customers.
#Build an Email List
Nothing beats an old-fashioned letter, except a modern one. Building on your social media presence and your customer retention strategy, create an email list to share information with people who are interested in your brand. Invite people to sign up for a monthly newsletter and share regular product news with them. Use the power of the pen—or keyboard—to remind people what you have to offer.
3. Partner with Real Estate Agents
Speaking of using partnerships, why not connect with real estate agents?
There is bound to be an agent in your area with clients who need furniture for their home. Connecting with them for your furniture marketing makes moving and buying easier for everyone.
This can also improve brand awareness and loyalty as time goes on.
4. Start a Referral Program for Furniture Customers
Reward your current customers for referring friends and family to your store. To do so, you have to engage with the customers to see why they bought from you. Was it a website visit that prompted them to shop or did someone they know told them about your store and service?
Send your existing furniture customers a gift card to a local restaurant or a discount on their next purchase to say thanks for the referral. Show gratitude and you’ve likely earned a long-time, loyal customer. In a business like this (Furniture business) having a strong loyal customer base really matters a lot and is very important if you want your business to flourish.
5. Build a Top-Notch Customer Care Team
When your furniture store marketing efforts begin to work, it’s important that your customer care team knows how to assist the customers or help them with any queries they may have without delay. The leads coming in only matter if they convert to sales. And in the case of online marketing the customer care team plays an important role to close the deal.
Your customer service representatives should be able to troubleshoot problems and resolve customer issues in a positive manner. While not directly related to marketing, it’s critical that when your marketing efforts bring people in the door that you’re not pushing them right back out.
Why Is a Good Furniture Store Marketing Strategy Important?
While different types of furniture go in and out of style, good marketing will always be in style. Creating a brand image and getting your mission and your story out there to people who are likely to buy from you is the start of creating a solid customer base. Marketing is a never-ending process and it should continually be refined. Review analytics and find out what works and what doesn’t work. Invest in marketing tactics that have proven effective for you and keep optimizing your campaigns.
Listen to the feedback of customers and potential customers. Listen to the feedback of your sales and customer service representatives. Keep looking for ways to improve your marketing and the service you provide to your community.
When you do this, you cultivate a strong brand and set your business up for growth year over year.
For questions about the different tools you can use to up your furniture marketing game, contact us today. We can help you discover exactly what your business needs to create effective marketing campaigns.
