Take a Seat: Content marketing in the Sofa industry

You’re no doubt aware of the likes of Sofology, Loaf, Furniture Village, Sofa.com and more. But, you might not be aware of the power of content marketing and branding that got them in front of you – or even got their products in your living room!

Executing powerful content marketing campaigns can seamlessly get you in front of your audience without the hard sell. It can get them talking about you, sharing your content and, eventually, buying from you. And, it’s what we do well here at Evolved Search.

We’ve created hundreds of campaigns in the home and interiors sector, so we know what works, and what doesn’t. So, in the interests of being the canny lot we are, we thought we’d let you in on a few of our secrets…

What can powerful content marketing do for you?

First things first, good content marketing tells a story. It’s about creating something that will get people talking and sharing.

Get it right, and you can appeal to your audience. And, if you think even bigger – such as combining your home and interior sector with other relevant sectors – you could put your brand in front of a whole new range of people. Those who you hadn’t even thought of as your audience.

How have we done it?

Take Drench, who had never done content marketing before. We produced content campaigns to widen their audiences and gain coverage within publications the brand had yet to be featured in. Doing so helped us achieve over 220 linking domains, which, in turn, helped improve their average rankings.

Mattress Online is another client of ours that we’ve helped build a positive link profile. In fact, we’ve built over 300+ links since we’ve started work. This has helped improve reputation and get them in front of their target audience, and our approach has even helped us pick up a much-coveted UK Search award.

So, what does it look like?

When it comes to content marketing and digital PR in the sofa industry, there’s a lot you can do. It’s not a one size fits all approach, but here are some examples you can take away.

Product PR

This is a particular driver for eCommerce clients, and can directly drive traffic and sales (as customers are actively looking for your service) to high-value products. This is, typically, used for certain times (think Black Friday) but you can reap the benefits from this type of PR throughout the year.

Take our client, Mattress Online. We rounded up the best mattresses for 2021 and secured coverage in Hello Magazine and more.

Take advantage of your customer data

If you’ve got customer data on, for instance, buying patterns or even trends emerging for the next year, why aren’t you using it?

This data is yours and yours alone, offering journalists unique assets that make them want to cover your story. This alone can help you gain coverage in your target publications. Your data can even start the conversation for future ideas, or leave you with something to revisit every year – making you an authority on the subject. The possibilities are almost endless!

Furniture Village used their data to highlight the rise in sofa searches and, in particular, the style that received coverage in The Times.

Teaming up with experts

There are a wealth of experts available online to boost your campaign and add that additional authority. For instance, if you are talking about sleep, get a sleep expert if you can to boost that campaign.

Sofology did just that when they paired up with sofa fabric brand, Aquaclean, to offer pet-friendly sofas.

In the UK, there are over 12 million households with pets. So, you are already appealing to the masses. Plus, pairing up with that expert fabric brand helped give the campaign that extra ‘oomph’ that saw it receive coverage in Ideal Home.

We can see with each of these campaigns that they are:

• Super relevant to the brand
• Offer assets for the journalist that makes them want to cover the story – whether that’s unique data, hi-res images of products
• Offer expert advice for more authority
• Appeal to a wide audience

How do you create the right campaign?

Most people have a sofa or armchair, or use one to camp out and watch the TV (guilty). So, you’ve already got a decent-sized audience. But to really push the boundaries with your content campaigns, we’ve got some tips (you lucky things).

Know your audience, and then some

You need to know who you are appealing to, but that doesn’t mean you can’t branch out. For instance, when it comes to sofas, it’s more than likely homeowners will buy them. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t target renters, or those who might be moving into unfurnished flats.

Likewise, pet owners aren’t the target demographic for Sofology. But that didn’t stop them from creating sofas for pet owners.

Understand what your business can offer

Know the business inside out. Can you offer unique data and create an exciting story? Can you provide expert quotes to journalists? If so, you are already winning.

Research

Consume the news in your sector.

What are your competitors doing? What can you add value to? Have you seen a particular story that seems to be getting traction? For instance, if you are seeing interior trends for the next year, can you use that to your advantage and share the sofas or chairs that are becoming popular with your customers? Are there any unexpected products? The more outrageous, the better.

Stay reactive

You’ve got to keep your eyes on the pulse. Like above, if you see a particular news item that you can comment on, or better yet, have created a campaign on, get it out. The more reactive and proactive you are, the more likely you are to continue gaining consistent coverage.

We’ve actually got tonnes more info on reactive content and why you need it more than ever if you fancy some extra reading!

Keep pushing the boundaries

It’s important that you keep striving for creativity and, you guessed it, pushing as far as you can. This is a competitive industry and you need to stand out. You need to create a story that will get you quality, relevant coverage and your audience talking.

And if you are struggling, you can always talk to us. We’ve got the experience and the know-how to deliver solid, relevant campaigns. Just check out our work – it speaks for itself.