Knowing your target audience is the cornerstone of a successful furniture marketing strategy
Designing your furniture marketing strategy has to be multi-pronged whether you’re a manufacturer or a retailer. It begins with identifying your customers, and once that’s attained, the rest of the efforts should be directed towards sales and revenues. However, mere selling is only half-the-job done. Client support in the form of after-sales-assistance should be an integral part of your furniture marketing strategy.
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If you’re a furniture manufacturer, your market strategy should be about adding more channel partners to your trade network. On the other hand, if you’re in the furniture retail business, your marketing strategy should be centred around winning individual clients that might include homeowners, project developers, hoteliers, architects, and interior designers.
Well, the same category of clients can be targeted by furniture manufacturers, and this may be done through operating company-owned retail stores. Or else, the other way is to rope in dealers, and ensure their loyalty through marketing and sales assistance. What you have to consider is that after-sales is the key to a good furniture marketing strategy whether you are a manufacturer or a retailer.
And certainly, there’s no scope for a firm footing in the market unless you have an online presence. Furniture manufacturers and retailers cannot prosper in the competitive market without having a well-structured website. So, make your website as interactive, detailed, and attractive as possible to gain online traffic; a good chunk of which can be your potential clients.
In this article, we would like to walk you through the five essential aspects of a good furniture marketing strategy.
5 essentials of a successful furniture marketing strategy
- Identify your customers
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. As someone in the furniture industry, your main aim is to ascertain ‘Whom to Sell’. Now that depends on the category of furniture that you wish to manufacture or market, such as Victorian, leather, wicker, or cloth furniture. A growing favourite is ergonomic furniture that prioritises physical comfort and mental bliss.
Victorian and leather furniture exudes sophistication and elegance. Therefore, it’s quite expensive, whereas wicker and cloth furniture signify ease and nonchalance. Whatever your furniture expertise, make sure that you approach the ‘right’ customer keeping in mind your prices and the latter’s affordability. And that’s the crux -affordability.
- Well-planned marketing budget
Usually, it’s the more the merrier! The more you pump in your marketing campaigns, the higher your chances of scripting a successful marketing tale. But don’t get carried-away just by the magnitude of moolah, instead, use it properly, and strategically. As a part of your furniture marketing strategy, divide the budget appropriately among advertising, promotion, website development, creating product awareness, and point-of-sale material.
You may hire a financial analyst and a seasoned market researcher to plan your marketing budget. The idea is to allocate funds towards all marketing channels. In spite of the online dominance these days, it’s always pays to go for the traditional marketing and promotional mediums such as newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, and brochures. Trade fairs, though stagnant at the moment due to the pandemic, will resurface as market creation platform in the near future. Precise budget allocation is key to a rewarding furniture marketing strategy.
- An appealing and holistic website
Well, we don’t want to be in a situation where the battle was lost for the want of horseshoe! Unless you dedicate relentless efforts and energy towards an online presence, your furniture marketing strategy is as good as over. Try to make your website as picturesque and user-friendly as possible. Click good pictures of your furniture and post them on your portal.
And it’s good to have a detailed description of your furniture items, but one should not forget that too much complexities draw people away from a website. Instead of going to the most minute descriptions, try to adopt a moderate approach. Remember that the key to any furniture or home interiors website is pictures. Hire the best photographers in town, and rope-in the best web-developers for an appealing and holistic website. Your furniture marketing campaign will get a wonderful boost through online presence.
- Curate a goal-oriented marketing team
As a furniture manufacturer or a channel partner, you cannot explore the entire market on foot all alone. For that, you need people with proven marketing track records. Manufacturers need the right sales representatives to woo prospective channel partners and retain the existing ones. Dealers, on the other hand, also need excellent sales and marketing teams to cater to clients that visit their showrooms and stores.
Make a point to not shy away from offering incentives to the best performers. There will come a time when your marketing team would have created a glittering goodwill of your furniture company. In fact, no furniture marketing strategy can be fulfilled unless the right marketing team is in place. After all, it’s your marketing guys who represent you in trade fairs, and at dealer showrooms.
- Provide undeterred after-sales-support
Yes, the customer is king, but make no mistake that kings are nomads and always on the lookout for new territories. If a king isn’t pampered well, then he will oust you from the picture and hire a new caretaker. Too much tongue-in-cheek, but the truth is that you have to extend unhindered after-sales-support to your clients. This will ensure your furniture marketing strategy’s success in the short and long-run.
As we mentioned right at the very beginning of this article, marketing is not just selling. It entails retaining your client whether you operate B2B or B2C, and that’s what post-sales-assistance is all about.
Conclusion
Your furniture marketing strategy is an amalgamation of various dos and don’ts. Unless all the promotional mediums are explored, you will not be able to build your furniture brand. Adhere to the above tips, and you’ll succeed. We wish you the best of luck in the furniture industry.
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