Tag: retailers

As consumer habits continue to evolve, retailers have had to shift their marketing strategies to encourage online sales. Having a strong social media presence is one of the most important marketing strategies for furniture retailers. Let’s discuss how you can drive online sales with a thorough understanding of your audience, a solid online presence and great social media content.

Research Your Audience

Before you start building your social media marketing strategy, you have to understand who you’re serving with those accounts. Decide who you want to target and who typically uses each social media platform.

Look at your existing customers. Make note of their:

• Age range or generation
• Location and time zone
• Spending habits 
• Income and education
• Interests
• Stage of life
• Values, needs, or challenges
• Social media habits

Above: an example of some of the insights you can view for your business’s Facebook analytics

If your social media pages are set up as business accounts, you can get much of this information from their analytics. Then you can begin defining your target audience from this data. An example might be the following: 

“Our target market is educated parents 28-40 years old living in or around the city. They’re either starting or growing a family. They want high-quality, aesthetically pleasing furniture pieces that will last a lifetime, some of which they can pass down to their children. They use Instagram and Pinterest for home decor inspiration photos.” 

You can begin creating social media content that speaks to this target audience. You would craft family-friendly, highly visual content on Pinterest and Instagram.

Build a Strong Online Presence

Now that you know your target audience, you can begin strengthening your online presence for your furniture store. A strong online presence goes beyond regularly updated social media pages. You should have a good website as well, especially if your furniture store relies heavily on online sales.

What should you include on your website, aside from your furniture selection? View your website from a customer’s perspective. Consider the information they need to know in order to buy. That includes product-centric information like price, dimensions, care instructions, and so on. Invest in high-quality photography that accurately shows colors, fabrics and woodgrains. 

Above: from Ikea, the anatomy of a great product page includes price, a description, views of options, availability, reviews, and lots of great photography and video

Your website will also include business-centric information, like how to contact you, the history of your store, delivery and return information, and much more. Make it easy for people to buy. Review your entire customer buying journey on your website to pinpoint any issues. Display your customer service contact information prominently.

Your online presence extends to business listings, such as Google My Business, and review sites. Claim these profiles wherever possible and keep the information up-to-date. Monitor them regularly and be prepared to respond quickly to questions or customer complaints. 

Produce Valuable Content

Whether it’s on your website or social media pages, you have to produce content in order to show up in search engines. The more content you produce in the form of blog posts or social media posts, the more often you’ll be shown to customers who are searching for furniture. Post often, and post content that’s valuable to your target audience.

Use content on your social media pages to lead people to your website and blog. For example, if you’re debuting a new furniture piece, share the product page link on Facebook and highlight its features in your caption. Or share photos of the product in different settings with different decor so your customers can “see” it in their space.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

Don’t forget the power of excellent customer service. Customers expect to interact with you through social media and they expect a response. This is a chance to show who you are as a company. 

If your social media followers ask questions on public posts or in direct messages, answer them as quickly as possible. You might go one step further and answer FAQs in an Instagram Live or Facebook Live session. Post how-to articles on your blog, or begin a series of how-to videos on YouTube. Focus on the platforms that your target audience prefers. 

Let ThumbStopper Help

Once you know your audience, you can tailor your online presence and social media content to excite, inform, and inspire your customers. Share valuable content that meets their needs, and watch your social media pages boost your furniture store’s sales.
If you need further help maintaining and posting content on your social media pages, try ThumbStopper. With our BrandManager™, we’ll help you automate your furniture store’s social media pages, working with brands to distribute high-quality content effectively. You choose a plan that suits your store’s needs and budget, and we’ll begin automating beautiful brand-curated content for you. Learn more about Thumbstopper’s retailer-focused social media services now.

Social media can drive sales and increase awareness of your furniture store. It’s a powerful tool, but only if used correctly. Before embarking on a social media marketing strategy, understand the opportunities and best practices. Here, you’ll find five actionable furniture store social media marketing tips to help you engage your followers and boost your social media presence.

1. Share Unique Content

What sets your furniture store apart from your competitors? Whether it’s the personalized shopping experience you offer every customer, rare furniture pieces you sell, or a wide selection, use that in your social media marketing efforts. Highlight what makes your store unique, and why customers should choose you over others.

To spotlight your customized shopping experience, share video testimonials or public reviews from your loyal customers. You might post photos of a beautifully made table, and talk about how you found the piece and added it to your selection. 

If you sell through certain furniture manufacturers, consider using one of their 3D online design tools to show a piece of furniture in various settings. Manufacturers like La-Z-Boy and Ashley Furniture have these tools available for the public to use and the images they produce can be very compelling to help a customer see a piece in different environments.

• 

• 

Above: image captured from Ashley Furniture’s 3D Room Designer featuring the Mallacar Coffee Table

Another idea is to share a video walk-through of your furniture store to show social media users your inventory. Anyone can shop online, but customers who value the in-store experience will appreciate that kind of content.

2. Use High-Quality Visuals

Whether you decide to post photos or videos, make sure they’re high quality. Show your merchandise looking its best. Grainy, pixelated photos with poor lighting miss important details of construction or upholstery and capture color inaccurately. Ultimately, low quality photos fail to attract buyers.

Think of your products from a customer’s perspective. What do they want to see when they’re thinking of purchasing a bed, a desk, or a couch? Consider what angles best showcase a product. Find ways to convey the scale of a furniture piece against other common home items.

Sharing visuals of your furniture pieces is practical; people can see if an item will actually fit in a space. However, social media users want to see how a piece will fit in their home aesthetically as well. The #homedecor hashtag on Instagram has nearly 70 million posts of home decor photos. Social media users want photos that will inspire them. Take advantage of that demand by sharing beautiful, bright photos and videos of your pieces. 

3. Post Useful Tips and Advice

Avoid limiting your furniture store social media marketing ideas to pretty visuals. You can also use your platform to advise your customers.

If you have a furniture piece that can be used for a variety of purposes, like a bookcase or side table, highlight its many uses in an informative post. You could share these ideas in a photo carousel on Instagram, in a series of photo tweets on Twitter, or in a photo collage on Facebook. Content like this is both inspiring and helpful to your audience. 

Above: a sample post of a well conceived hashtag strategy and a great photo of details

You might also share how-to videos on assembling a popular item in your inventory or cleaning different types of furniture surfaces. Videos are a helpful format for these types of posts, but they also work as long-form text or checklists as well.

4. Engage with Your Audience

The unique content you create, the useful posts you share, and the beautiful visuals you post will only perform at their fullest potential when you engage with your audience. Ask meaningful questions. Like and reply to users who comment on your posts. Answer questions quickly and honestly. 

If a customer posts a photo of a piece they bought at your furniture store, like it and share it with their permission. Sharing user-generated content builds trust in your audience and can influence others’ purchasing decisions. 

Social media is a conversation. When you make an effort to engage with your followers, you make them feel good about your brand. That feeling can lead to loyal customers and sales in the future.

5. Tailor Content to Your Local Audience

Now that you have plenty of social media ideas for your furniture store, you should adjust your posts to speak to a local audience. One customer in one local community may have completely different needs, values, or hobbies than another customer. They may use different social media platforms, have a different income, or live in a different type of home. All of these factors will influence how they purchase furniture. Once you develop buyer personas within your target audience, you can refine your social media strategy and focus specific content toward those personas. Your salespeople tend to know their local customers well and they can often provide valuable insights into what those customers want.

Instead of creating, curating, and sharing content all day long, let an expert deploy that content for you. ThumbStopper works with retailers across industries to create a steady flow of distributed content. With ThumbStopper’s retail services, your furniture store can expect a growing customer base, increased social media followers, and higher store traffic. Get started with ThumbStopper and learn more about what we can do for your furniture store today.

Creating and automating social content for your retail store may sound intimidating and time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. A Facebook content calendar can help you draft consistent, engaging posts that will hone your online presence. With the right process and tools, a Facebook content calendar will actually streamline your social media strategy, saving you time and effort.

How to Use a Content Calendar for Facebook

A content calendar doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated. You can simply start with a blank spreadsheet and add the following categories along the first row:

• Social media platform (If you’re only using one platform like Facebook, you can add this category later to grow your calendar.)
• Date and time to post (Will you post daily? Weekdays only? Weekly?)
• Post idea
• Audience
• Visuals
• Link to assets
• Link to published post

You can remove categories or add new ones as you see fit. For example, you might categorize your posts by type, like product launches, sales, how-to content, or blog posts. You may also identify the post format, such as Facebook Live, Facebook Stories, a poll, an ad, and so on. You can always adjust your calendar to suit your needs as you continue to use it. 

What Sort of Content Should You Plan?

Now that you know how to start your content calendar, it’s time to start crafting your posts. What type of content should you share on Facebook? 

Put together an interesting mix of social media posts to keep your followers engaged. This is called the social media “Rule of Thirds”: one-third of your posts should promote your business and drive sales, one third should share resources that benefit your audience, and the last third should personalize your business. Here are some post ideas grouped by “thirds”:

Promote Your Business on Facebook

• Tease a new product or service that will launch soon
• Disseminate company news or press mentions
• Share a photo or video of a popular product
• Share branded or influencer content

Benefit Your Audience

• Post tips and tricks for using your products or services
• Share news about industry-wide trends or concerns
• Share an inspiring or informative blog post
• Answer FAQs in a post or video
• Host a giveaway or contest
• Thank customers

Personalize Your Business

• Post a tour of your office or workspace
• Feature an employee
• Ask for follower feedback with a survey or poll
• Share a positive customer review 
• Share user-generated content (with permission)
• Showcase your company culture

The Facebook posts you choose will depend on your target audience and your marketing strategy, but these ideas offer a starting point.

Look at Audience Behavior and Make Adjustments

After you outline your posts on your calendar, it’s time to publish them. Copy and paste your captions and upload graphics to Facebook’s Publishing Tool and then publish immediately or schedule for later. 

Once posts go live, monitor their performance to see if you need to make changes. Try to learn the following: 

• When is your Facebook audience most active?
• What types of posts do they engage with most often? 
• Are you gaining or losing followers after certain types of posts?
• Can you directly connect social engagement with other actions, like calling the store or registering for an event?

Consider your audience’s behavior and make adjustments accordingly. For example, if you find that certain types of posts get a lot of engagement, plan future posts of the same type on your content calendar. You might even schedule those types of posts more frequently if your audience wants them. 

If certain posts don’t perform as well as you expect, try changing the date and time you post, or swap that type of post for a different one. Managing your content calendar is an ongoing task that requires constant refinement.

Make Your Posts Automatic

Even with a plan, it’s a lot of work to publish, manage, and monitor your social posts. That’s why it helps to schedule your Facebook posts in advance rather than manually uploading them every day or week. Benefits of automatic Facebook posting include:

Less Time and Effort

When you don’t have your Facebook content planned out in advance, your social media strategy may feel more erratic and stressful. Automating your content forces you to focus on this task for a specific block of time. You’ll create posts efficiently all at once, freeing the rest of your workday to focus on managing your store and taking care of your customers.

Organized Strategy

With an automation strategy, everything lives in one convenient location. Content inspiration, a posting schedule, links to share online, digital assets, are all in one place. You’ll no longer have to pull pieces of your content from different sources to create one post.

Consistent Online Presence

You will need to discover the right frequency to stay present in your followers’ feeds without overwhelming them and driving them away. Regardless of frequency, however, consistency is key to success on Facebook. For example, if you post every Tuesday and Thursday at 10 a.m., because you’ve learned that’s a time when your followers tend to be online, you’ll get more engagement by sticking to that routine. Schedule posts in advance and consistency takes care of itself.

To achieve all of the above, you need a tool that helps you show up in the social feeds of your local audience — and doesn’t require an overwhelming amount of upfront work.

Rely on ThumbStopper to Get Instant Content into Your Feed

Consistent, thoughtful content deployment is where ThumbStopper lets your business shine. We direct high quality content produced by the brands you carry straight onto your company Facebook page. It’s already expertly timed and carefully curated to show your products in their best light, with no effort from you.

By trusting content distribution to ThumbStopper, you can focus on engaging with your audience, adjusting your planned content, and brainstorming new ideas for future social media posts. Make the most of your Facebook content plan. Learn more today.

Likes, comments, shares, saves, sends, reactions — there are many different ways customers and audiences engage with social media. But what does it all mean? Despite popular belief that the size of your following is what matters, it’s engagement you want to focus on. Why? 

The more users engage with your content, the more visible you’ll be on your followers’ timelines. And their followers’ timelines. And possibly their followers’ timelines. Before you know it, you’re reaching customers beyond your following.

So, how do you go from simply posting on social media to generating real, meaningful engagement? Here at ThumbStopper, we’re sharing our best social media engagement ideas. 

Consistency is Key

The more consistently you post, the more likely your followers will become better acquainted with your brand and what you sell. To stay top of mind (and hopefully top of feed), set a goal for how often you want to post. Then, create an editorial calendar and plan ahead to ensure you follow through. But don’t post just for the sake of it, as the quality of your content is more important than quantity. 

Pro tip: Don’t limit yourself to just posts; use every feature of your social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook Stories, IGTV, and links to your website and latest posts.
Example: Ulta Beauty is a great example of how to mix different types of content throughout one platform. In the first post, they featured several different brand products to create a how-to. It was shared as a post with a link to watch the full video on IGTV. On their Instagram Stories, they shared posts from other profiles — no product or brand promotion — as a way to increase content output and engagement.

ULTA BEAUTY:

Engage in Conversation and Community

Another way to enhance your engagement on social media is by sparking genuine conversations with your followers and like-minded profiles or businesses. You can start these conversations by:

• Responding to comments
• Responding to reviews
• Engaging with other profiles
• Building connections with other small business owners
• Providing thought leadership on important or timely topics
• Using hashtags and location markers

Engaging with other people and businesses can showcase the quality of your customer service while building connections. By offering genuine support and encouragement to your followers and community members, you’re likely to see others do the same for you. Win-win.

Example: Made in KC, a retail store in Kansas City that sells local goods, joined the Takeout Tuesday trend as fellow businesses struggled to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. This post below is an example of one of the local restaurants they spotlighted, despite having no affiliation or selling any of their goods. It was a simple, yet effective, nod to the local community and small business owners.

Encourage Feedback and Responses

One of the simplest ways to get your followers to engage is by asking them what they think. There are numerous creative ways to ask questions without directly promoting your business or brand. You can try things like:

• Asking questions (and encouraging responses)
• Creating polls
• Using the ‘Ask a question’ feature
• Posting a contest or giveaway
• Creating sharable and savable content
• Asking customers to share their reviews or experiences
• Creating a unique hashtag

Pro tip: Don’t just ask questions and ignore the answers. Post and share your followers’ responses. That will show you take the time to listen to their feedback and genuinely value what they have to say.

Examples: Boulevard Beer utilizes the ‘Ask a question’ feature on Instagram Stories to engage their followers. Target uses a similar strategy on Facebook, asking users to answer their question in the comments. Wendy’s — which receives significant engagement on its social platforms — tweeted a poll for followers. While it didn’t necessarily ask for direct feedback, it still showcased a fun and creative way to boost engagement. Check out the 19,000+ votes! Finally, take a look at another example from Ulta Beauty on Instagram, where they encourage followers to use their unique hashtag, #ultabeauty, to share posts and pictures. This is a smart way to get engagement and free brand engagement at the same time!

Find a Trusted Social Media Automation Tool

As a small business owner, managing all your social media profiles on your own or without experienced help can be costly — in terms of both money and time. With a social media management partner like ThumbStopper, you can experience growth and exposure on your channels without doing the heavy lifting yourself. Your social growth will translate into more customers and in-store traffic — and an overall boost to your business. 

Engage Your Audiences with ThumbStopper

Social media engagement is crucial to growing your business, but so is your time. Thumbstopper’s automated, turnkey solution maintains and posts content to your social media profiles without you lifting a finger and, most importantly, without sacrificing quality. Ready to find a customized solution for your business that doesn’t require you to come up endless social media engagement ideas yourself? Get started today.

As a small business owner or retailer, producing social media content is part of the job. Continuously creating and distributing content for your feeds can become overwhelming. Sometimes you don’t even know where to start. In addition to building your business and servicing your customers, you also need to understand how to promote and sell yourself on social media, where nearly 3.08 billion people are currently active. So, how do you make time for social media and produce effective content?

Here, ThumbStopper helps you get started by sharing four easy steps to planning and producing social media content for your small business. 

Step 1: Determine Your Target Audience and Goals

Before you begin creating content, determine and outline who you’re talking to and how you want to talk to them. Start by considering things like:

• Your target audience(s)
• The goals of your messaging (Is it engagement? Conversions? Both?)
• How to balance between promotional and brand messaging
• Where customers are in their purchase journey
• The types of content that are most relevant to your target audience(s)
• Your brand voice

This crucial first step can help guide and inform how and when you post, the type of content you create, and who you’re speaking to. When you meet customers where they are — and provide them with relevant content — you’re much more likely to engage them.

Step 2: Plan and Create Different Types of Social Media Content

When it comes to social media content, creativity knows no bounds. Keep in mind, however, that you still should create posts within the parameters you defined above. Your content can include things like:

• Sharing a post from your blog
• Important business announcements and updates
• Thought leadership on current and important topics
• Behind-the-scenes of your business
• Frequently asked questions
• Employee introductions

No matter what social media content you create, always aim for a response from your audience. Maybe you entice them to like, save, or comment on your post. Maybe you want them to click a link to your website to read a blog or purchase a product. Prompt them to schedule a service. Whatever the case, always try to move your followers to action. 

Step 3: Create an Editorial Calendar

One of the hardest parts of planning social media content for your small business is posting consistently and intentionally. Instead of creating posts just for the sake of being visible on someone’s timeline, it’s important to create content that’s actually valuable to your audiences. It’s also important to share posts regularly.

With an editorial calendar, you can stop scrambling to get something posted at the last minute, and you can make sure each idea meets your “criteria” for a high-quality post. You can make sure that your posts are engaging, use the right hashtags or keywords, include high-quality graphics or brand photography, and are aligned with marketing calendars or promotions. Your calendar can also help you organize when and where you’ll post, so you maintain your presence. 

Step 4: Look to Social Media Management Partners

Simply put, planning and producing social media content for your small business can be really challenging and time-intensive. 43% of small businesses spend six or more hours on social media each week, taking crucial time away from growing their business. That time can quickly add up to even more hours if you’re not well-versed in social media planning, writing, or management. 

Sound familiar? That’s where ThumbStopper steps in to help. We automatically maintain your business content on social pages and it’s all 100% hands-free on your end. You don’t have to sacrifice quality or quantity. 

Let ThumbStopper Plan and Produce Your Content

ThumbStopper creates and automates social media for thousands of small businesses, increasing visibility up to 700 times. Take social media off your to do list: we’ll curate and post high quality brand content on your retail social pages, as well as engage with your audience. Our proven methods can boost your social media presence — all it takes is a quick sign-up to tell us your industry, your budget, and your brands. We’ll take it from there.