Today I spoke with a small business owner who sold bespoke furniture. Let’s call him Jim.
He was overwhelmed with marketing his furniture business and didn’t know where to start. Jim needed some focus and direction on how to use his time wisely, that would lead to sales in his business.
Where Jim was at
Jim knew he needed to utilise his website and post regularly on his social media sites.
Most business owners know they have to engage with social media but they get lost in the details. They get overwhelmed with the unlimited possibilities of marketing that they almost are paralysed by it, thinking they need to be everywhere … and end up doing nothing.
The first thing I wanted to help Jim with was to get his focus back to exactly what his product was.
What is your product or service?
I know this is going back to basics but it helps to cement in Jim’s mind exactly what he is offering to his clients. We all get caught up in the product, our skills, the features of our services but forget exactly the detail of what we are really selling.
‘Sometimes, as business owners, we forget what we are selling and go off in tangents. We lose sight of our product or service.’
This is what we came up for Jim’s business -
‘Home made contemporary / industrial furniture that is predominantly sold on consignment.’
Once we hashed out a nice little definition of his product ( and services as it turned out) we could continue down the marketing trail.
Next, I asked Jim how did he sell his furniture now. His response was word of mouth, and market stalls. Now that this is clarified, you can target these forms of selling in your marketing and build from here.
What is your target audience?
Next, we spoke about his target audience. What does an ideal customer look like. I told him that there may be a few different customers that would be interested in his products.
His homework was to go away and get three large sheets of cardboard and write down the characteristics of three of his main customers. Cut pictures from magazines, so he could see what they looked like. Write down the things that they like to do, where he thought they would work, their hobbies, what kind of friends they would hang out with, and what other products and services they may like.
I wanted Jim to hang these cardboard sheets in a prominent place so he could see them everyday and visualise them buying his products.
Now that Jim had a visual of his customers to reference, he could refer to them whenever he was doing any marketing or making new furniture.
Only now was Jim ready to start thinking about marketing.
Jim already had a social media presence. He had Facebook and Instagram and a website. For a one-man band I thought this was enough for him to handle. Remember, it is better to do some marketing well than a lot of marketing poorly.
With Jim’s products and target market, Facebook and Instagram were the best places for his business – so we were off to a good start.
Jim already had a good brand theme throughout his marketing. However, he was concerned that he didn’t know what to post on these social media sites, so we focused on the type of content he could use for his social media.
What to post on Facebook
I suggested Jim use Facebook for posting what he is up to, the projects he is working on, the materials, the process of furniture design and making. He needed to be himself, be authentic, have his personality shine through the posts. People are interested in the process of furniture making. Most of us wouldn’t have a clue how to do it, let alone where to start. He was surprised at this but I reminded him that just because he knew how to make furniture, most of us don’t know and wouldn’t have a clue where to start!
Show your followers how you make your products
Jim could use video for Facebook when he was cutting the wood blocks, staining, assembling the pieces, anything along the process of his furniture making. This will give his viewers an appreciation of the furniture and show that each piece is hand-made and unique.
Jim could also post about how to care for his pieces of furniture.
Once he built up an audience on Facebook he could invest in Facebook ads and place advertisements targeted at different audiences, using the profiles we set up at the beginning. This is an inexpensive way to target your buyers.
As you can see, we are building up the marketing slowly and using what you know and have already completed.
I advised Jim that Instagram is all about the photo. Jim said that it took a long time to set up the camera to photograph the furniture, so I suggested he took lots of shots of the one piece of furniture during the same photo shoot, so he could use them for several posts.
For example, if he had a console table he was photographing, he could photograph it with lots of different items displayed, so it looked like a different piece of furniture. Try a potted plant on one, vases and photo frames in another shot, put wine bottle and glasses on another or a pile of books, glasses and a mood light. Change the background, the angle and lighting for each of these shots and it will look like a different piece of furniture. It also gives the viewer ideas of how they could use the console table in their home and widens Jim’s audience.
I also suggested to Jim that he could photograph different parts of the table, a close up of the legs, or highlight the beautiful grains in the wood.
As you can see from this one photo shoot he would have created over ten photos to use in Instagram.
That’s the image side of Instagram sorted, now he needed to write the posts. Each post could tell the viewers about the furniture, the many different uses for it, how you can change the legs, the wood, make it bigger, smaller whatever suits the customers style and interior design.
He could write what inspired him to make this design, where he found the materials. People love stories; tell a story about the furniture, about the process, did it not quite turn out how you wanted but love it anyway.
I also want him to use at least 10 hashtags for each post, so people can find his photos, like and follow (and buy his furniture!).
Every small business is different. Marketing is not an exact science, you need to experiment with different elements – ditch what’s not working and expand what works.
Are you stuck in a rut with your small business marketing? Send me a quick email with the details and we can talk about developing an easy plan so you can build your marketing and your business.