The furniture industry is big business in the United States. In 2015, Americans spent $15.6 billion on sofas alone. There’s clearly money to be made in making and selling furniture, when done correctly. The correct marketing design helps furniture manufacturers and retailers excel in their industry.
The U.S. furniture market has been on the rise since 2009, in the wake of The Great Recession. The industry’s projected to continue to expand by 2.9% a year, until at least 2022. Consumers have more expendable income than recent years, which will further bolster the U.S. furniture market.
Every industry has its own particular marketing design trends to appeal to its unique customers. Here’s how to create the best marketing for furniture companies.
To help learn how to market furniture companies properly, here are 7 marketing design tips for furniture companies.
#1: Investigate The Competition
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to marketing design for furniture companies. There’s lots of exceptional furniture marketing on the Internet from retailers and manufacturers alike.
Take some time and investigate the biggest furniture companies on the Internet for some marketing inspiration. Investigate their websites as well as their social media to give an idea of how to construct a thorough marketing campaign from top to bottom.
#2: Optimize For All Devices
Mobile marketing continues to grow every year. This fact greatly shapes the way marketing design for furniture stores should be approached. The top 80% of Alexa search results are mobile responsive, as of March 2017. Keep this in mind when constructing websites and social media for furniture retailers and manufacturers.
One way marketing content could be optimized would be to segment marketing materials for different times of day.
How To Optimize Content For Any Device:
- Smartphones are the most common method of browsing in the early morning, from 7 – 10 AM.
- Desktops are the most common devices used during the workday, from 10 AM – 5 PM.
- Tablet usage peaks in the primetime, from 8 PM – 12 AM.
For even more rugged customization, consider the geographic region of the demographic that’s being targeted. Take the time to configure content for different devices depending on the time zone where the audience is located.
Taking advantage of these statistics allows for a customized, user-friendly marketing approach that will entice shoppers rather than alienating them.
#3: There’s More To Mobile
SMS marketing is on the rise. SMS marketing is sending short promotional messages via text message.
Customers have to sign up to receive SMS marketing messages. This is a surefire way to only reach interested customers, which is a marketer’s dream.
SMS marketing is particularly effective for local marketing.
To integrate SMS messaging into a local marketing campaign:
- Offer rewards to entice customers to sign-up.
- Send SMS messages about particular sales or promotions.
- Send customized messages to reach different customers effectively.
- Know when’s the best time to reach different demographics.
- Use SMS marketing to bolster expected slow periods.
Don’t overlook the power and potential of SMS marketing.
#4: Implement E-Commerce
E-commerce is becoming increasingly important for the retail industry, as well.
Online sales make up 15.8% of all current furniture sales. That number is projected to rise, as more traditional furniture retailers like BillyOh.com Rattan Furniture move online. That’s not taking into account the emerging world of furniture entrepreneurs.
E-commerce is increasingly important for capturing millennial loyalty. Millennials do roughly 50% of their shopping online at some stage of their buyer’s cycle.
Many millennials are reaching college age for the first time. The rising number of college students will also impact the furniture industry. The back-to-school season is the second largest furniture shopping period of the year, generating $6.23 billion annually.
This means millennials are buying more furniture than before, changing the way furniture is advertised and marketed. Implementing the best design for furniture retailers is integral to taking advantage of these rising figures.
For those who are currently operating brick-and-mortar furniture stores, start implementing e-commerce into the marketing design.
Currently, many are still using online portals for research and making purchases in-store, so factor that into the marketing strategy, as well.
#5: Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing should be a part of every marketing design to truly bring customers what they want. 61% of marketers claim inbound marketing and improving organic reach to be their main marketing goal.
Increasing amounts of consumers are impervious to online ads. PPC campaigns can even do more harm than good, which runs the risk of pushing something on a customer that they don’t want or need. Or it might simply reach them at the wrong part of their buying cycle.
To counteract this effect, create blog posts and social media marketing content to reach customers at various points in their buyer’s journey.
The three stages of the buyer’s cycle are:
- Awareness
- Consideration
- Purchase
Some ideas on how to create content for different stage of the buyer’s cycle:
- Create interesting or entertaining content to raise awareness about furniture design or trends.
- Integrate more persuasive content into the consideration phase.
- Create offers, incentives, and sales to entice customers in the ‘Purchase’ stage of their buyer’s journey.
The inbound marketing cycle eliminates wasted time and effort. There’s so many better things that could be done with those resources.
#6: Create Fresh Content
Creating fresh content regularly is possibly the easiest way to entice customers to visit regularly. Customers are also less likely to trust brands with outdated websites. 70% of customers are less likely to make purchases from companies with outdated web presences.
Fresh content doesn’t have to be blog posts or written articles, either. Video content or press releases also make for great fresh content and are less time-intensive than high-quality written content.
#7: Social Media Marketing
Social media is the easiest way to stay in customer’s minds without sending out endless circulars or e-mail marketing. It’s also one of the fastest ways to establish a brand as a leader in their industry, jumping in on trending #hashtags and commenting on other user’s posts.
It’s also the best way to circulate content. Create social media posts on the network of choice to reach out and entice new and existing customers. Remember to use high-quality graphics and a tone suitable for the audience that’s being reached.
These are just 7 of top tips for an effective marketing design. There are countless more to think of. Furniture retailers and manufacturers have a unique opportunity to take advantage of a well-conceived marketing plan.
Create great content for websites to bring in continuous hits from the SERPs. Broadcast that content with high-quality social media posts, build brand awareness and customer loyalty. Rinse and repeat.
There’s no such thing as a boilerplate marketing campaign. Every company is different and so are their clients. Exceptional design plays up those distinctions to reach an audience in the way they want to be reached.
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