Furniture manufacturers work with a diverse customer base from distributors and dealers, to designers and architects, to business owners and end users of their products. Communicating with this vast network of contacts can be a daunting task, let alone marketing to them. How does a manufacturer connect with all these groups, solve their challenges, and ultimately form an ongoing business relationship? Enter, inbound marketing. Read on for practical ways inbound marketing works for this industry.
Well, before we share how it works, let's explain what inbound marketing is. Inbound marketing is customer-centric marketing strategy that proactively attracts, converts, closes, and delights customers for your business. This proven method is more effective that legacy sales strategies in marketing and growing your business much like it has for furniture manufacturers.
The first way inbound marketing helps furniture manufacturers is defining who their customers are. I know this doesn't seem ground breaking, but how can you attract and connect with your perfect customer if you don't perfectly know who they are? Traditional marketing takes a wide-net approach of broadcasting your message to the masses with as much common appeal as possible. Inbound Marketing takes time to not just identify who a furniture manufacturers' customer is, but also the what, why, how, and when that makes their customers unique. This information is consolidated into fictional characters called Personas. Clearly defining a manufacturer's personas sets the basis for all other inbound activity.
The second benefit inbound marketing provides is creating targeted content strategically in multiple applications. (Now, we're getting fancy!) This means that furniture manufacturers can layer their marketing efforts with multiple tools working together in coordination. Targeted personas (that's the 'who') are delivered strategic messages (the 'what') based on specific stages of the Buyer's Journey (the 'when') that a customer is at. Content messages are delivered via blog posts, social media channels, eBooks, slides, email, video, and of course the furniture manufacturer's own website, just to mention a few.
The specific tools employed with any inbound marketing strategy is based on how the manufacturer's personas communicate and take in information. For some a heavy use of targeted email messages that highlight various products on a manufacturer's website may be effective. For others, image rich blog posts supported by active social platforms is most effective. Inbound marketing allows flexibility and customization that furniture manufacturers need.
The third way inbound marketing works for furniture manufacturers is by providing detailed and accurate analysis of marketing and sales activity to not only give a snap shot of what has happened, but to also provide real data for developing ongoing strategic plans. Inbound marketing practices, when used on a robust platform, like HubSpot, provide historical and real time data on what content is being consumed, how engaged your leads are, and even when those leads are truly ready to talk to a sales person. This data translates into measurable results that all business professionals need - the return on their marketing investment. Analyzing historical data can better define the Buyer's Journey a manufacturer's customer takes, that ideal time for sales to engage with a lead, and even areas of their website that can be improved for a better user experience.
Truth be told though, inbound marketing works for any business regardless of industry, channel, or size. ManoByte works closely with our clients to learn who your perfect customer is, develop optimized content that engages, and provide detailed analysis to accurately plan for the future. Curious? Check out the free eBook below that shares more on the fundamentals and running a solid inbound marketing campaign.