Tips for Furniture Companies: How to Build Brand Awareness

According to the January 2017 Market Research Report, there are over 39,003 furniture stores in the United States alone. Together, they generate the revenue of over $60 billion per year, marking the annual growth of over 2.7 percent. Seeing how this is definitely one of the niches with a stronger representation in a number of companies, what is it that makes some more successful than others? There are only so many furniture materials and designs, so what is it that some companies do better than others? The answer to this question lies in a simple term you encounter in nearly every business guide out there ‒ branding.

The use of social media

One of the first things that comes to mind when the word branding is mentioned is the idea of social media marketing. When it comes to sales, these networks are quite potent; nonetheless, each of these mediums has its own preferred target demographics. While Facebook is still dominant as a social-media sales platform, furniture companies could also benefit greatly from promoting their products on Pinterest.

First of all, Pinterest has 150 million active users, 80 million of which are not from the US. This makes it a great platform for closing international deals. In the past, there was a lot of debate on whether Pinterest is predominantly used by women. Still, over the past year, the number of male users has grown by a staggering 120 percent. The greatest advantage of this network is that (not unlike Instagram) its posts are picture-oriented, which makes it easy for you to efficiently present your product to the audience and for them to ‘pin’ what they like. Keep in mind that Pinterest is one of the networks that drives the largest amount of traffic, which means that those interested in buying (or at least learning more) won’t hesitate to go straight to your homepage.

Make a great website

Sure, you have made your target demographic click on your link… what’s next? The next step is making your website as engaging as possible. According to one statistic, upon visiting your page, 86 percent of all visitors want to see the information about your products. One of the options is to display some of the most popular ones on your homepage, but this gives you a bit of a limited space.

A much better idea would be to lead them straight to your products category and show them exactly what you are offering. A perfect example of the way this works can be seen on the Robert Plumb website, which gives short descriptions and high resolution images of the items on offer. Another important thing to notice here is that the simplicity of website design and a cunning use of white-space help draw more attention to the products.

Good customer service leads to great reviews

Finally, you need to make sure that you give your best to improve your customer service. A good customer service leads to great customer experience. In time, this provides you with positive online reviews and even incredible word-of-mouth recommendations. Furthermore, keep in mind that return customers are the cornerstone of a successful business model. If you play your cards right, you can get to the point where about 8 percent of your customers generate up to 40 percent of all your profit. This, however, is something you need to work on.

Offer better terms

Finally, seeing how material has its price and no supplier is going to offer you a deal on which they will lose money, you might try to find another way to accommodate your clients (other than lowering prices). We are talking about an option of going with a payment plan over 12 or 18 months, a forgiving return policy and a series of other customer-friendly terms that are bound to make your products look much more attractive.

In the very end, you need to keep one thing in mind. If you skimp on materials, use low-quality ones or inflate your prices well above those of your competitors, no amount of branding is going to help you. These marketing efforts are only there to rise you above those who offer similar services to those you provide. Nonetheless, this might turn out to be more than enough.