Market furniture business locally

6 replies
I run a computer business, which is my main source of income, but I also make furniture. I do all sorts of carpentry, really, but tables are the most fun to make. People happen to like what I make, and since my profit is about $300 a piece on average, it would be cool to scale it up a little.

I made a post not too long ago where I asked for advice as to how I could market my computer business effectively without it costing too much. Now, the one thing I've gotten more customers from than anything else, is posters in the local stores etc. I figured I could try the same thing with my furniture, but are there other things I should do as well? I have a fanpage on Face with ~350 likers on it (took just a few days to get that many), but the problem is that they live all over the country and it seems like they don't see a table being sent to their home with regular mail as an option (even though it is, it's not even that expensive.)

I have a website which will soon take the top spots for my main keywords (the site still needs some work), but even if I rank as #5 for my main keywords I hardly get any traffic. Below the fold, so that's probably the reason, but I'm also one of only two in the entire country that is buying traffic from G. Not helping much on my traffic though.

So I figured - if I make myself known locally it would be easier for people to buy. I'm still gonna focus on getting more traffic from Google, but local marketing might be faster, it will let me make more money sooner. What do you think?


Edit: I keep forgetting to tell you this, but I don't live in the US, I live in Norway. We don't have Craigslist etc. Too bad, really..
#business #furniture #locally #market
  • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
    I think Craigslist would be a good choice.
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  • Profile picture of the author larsjorgenbr
    We don't have CL in Norway.
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    • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
      Originally Posted by larsjorgenbr View Post

      We don't have CL in Norway.
      Okay, do you have alternative classified ads sites? If so, those would be a good place.

      Even a small newspaper ad in the right section might work (very, very old school though)...

      People will need to pick furniture up so they have to live close by. Maybe passing out flyers if it's allowed in your area...
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  • Profile picture of the author larsjorgenbr
    I'm offering to deliver the furniture they buy, so they don't even have to pick it up themselves. I cover a pretty large area with my computer company, so wouldn't be a problem to deliver furniture while I'm at it.

    We have a couple of local newspapers, maybe that's the route to take. Didn't work out too well for my computer company, but I guess the success depends on what you're offering. Newspaper ads are *really* expensive in Norway, btw. Costs about $4-500 for a small ad in a newspaper that's got only 5000 readers.

    We do however have a newspaper that has about 170K readers and covers an area that isn't THAT huge - and I'm right smack in the middle. A lot of potential customers, I would think. But an ad that covers 1/9 of the page costs about $700, one print.
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    • Profile picture of the author PerformanceMan
      Originally Posted by larsjorgenbr View Post

      I'm offering to deliver the furniture they buy, so they don't even have to pick it up themselves. I cover a pretty large area with my computer company, so wouldn't be a problem to deliver furniture while I'm at it.

      We have a couple of local newspapers, maybe that's the route to take. Didn't work out too well for my computer company, but I guess the success depends on what you're offering. Newspaper ads are *really* expensive in Norway, btw. Costs about $4-500 for a small ad in a newspaper that's got only 5000 readers.

      We do however have a newspaper that has about 170K readers and covers an area that isn't THAT huge - and I'm right smack in the middle. A lot of potential customers, I would think. But an ad that covers 1/9 of the page costs about $700, one print.
      I know the costs are usually very high. That's why most people end up looking for free classified sites and/or doing SEO. Those ways are always the cheapest route to take. You may as well try Twitter, YouTube, Google+ etc. You will probably find an order or two here and there using social media marketing.
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