furn.: raising brand awareness and driving traffic

furn.: raising brand awareness and driving traffic
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Case study · Home & Interiors

furn. has made design-led home furnishings in West Yorkshire for 50 years, but journalists did not know its name. We ran a 12-month, digital-first press office built on trend forecasting, expert comment and seasonal lookbooks. It earned 87 pieces of coverage, 80 backlinks and 7,500 direct visits to its website.

  • 7.5K direct website referrals
  • 87 pieces of coverage
  • 80 backlinks
  • 82 average domain authority
A furn. Christmas bedding set with festive cushions
  • Client furn.
  • Sector Home furnishings
  • Services Digital PR press office
  • When 12 months
  • Audience UK consumers
  • Channels Online consumer and interiors media

What did furn. need?

furn. makes home furnishings sold through major UK retailers, but was little known to the press compared with its competitors. It needed traction with consumer titles, especially online.

  • Business objective: support direct-to-consumer sales.
  • Communication objective: increase awareness and drive traffic to furn.com through high-authority online coverage with links.

What was the insight?

Shoppers want design-led pieces on a budget, and interiors editors want trends. furn. could be the expert that connects the two.

The idea was trend-led, link-led.

What did we do?

  • Trend forecasting. We positioned furn. as ahead of the trends.
  • Expert commentary. furn. experts gave comment to interiors journalists.
  • Seasonal lookbooks. Lookbooks gave editors ready-made product placement.
  • Links in coverage. We focused on online titles and pushed for links to furn.com.

What did it achieve?

Results by stage of the AMEC evaluation framework, with the source for each figure.

Stage Measure Result Source
Outputs Pieces of coverage 87 Prohibition coverage log
Outputs Coverage circulation 137M Prohibition coverage log
Outputs Average domain authority 82 Prohibition coverage analysis
Outcomes Backlinks secured 80 Prohibition coverage analysis
Outcomes Direct website referrals from coverage 7.5K furn. web analytics

What did furn. get from it?

A brand the press now knows, and a steady flow of visitors from coverage to furn.com.

What did we learn?

  • Be useful to editors. Trends and lookbooks made furn. easy to feature.
  • Prioritise links. Online titles delivered traffic as well as awareness.
  • What we would do differently. track sales from coverage referrals, so we can show the direct-to-consumer return.