Zedcomms are a company who are ‘passionate about improving the business’.  A web design, Internet marketing and business development specialist.

BJ Upholstery based in Darlington is a traditional business who restore and reupholster antique soft furnishings.  Operated by a husband and wife team they have been in the reupholstery business for thirty years.

The Challenges

The loyal customer base was reducing and the call for restoring antiques was reducing too. A wider audience was required and new markets to serve.

The Solution

First, we looked at the company website and the supporting social media. We ran a ‘Snapshot Marketing Report’ that highlighted the company’s exposure online. They had very little exposure and the new customers required did not know they existed. They were known in Darlington and narrowly showed in search results as an antique reupholster and the report gave us the information to build an action plan.

We updated the website and created an easy to publish and search-friendly platform to work with. We did not totally rebuild the website for a few reasons; we wanted to keep the costs down, it looked ok and the style showed the business as it was, a nice traditional upholstery workshop in a market town, a bit old fashioned but well established. We didn’t want to come across too ‘flash’ we didn’t want a modern generic-looking website.  The website looks like an old upholstery workshop that is producing beautiful work.

Next was to build the social profile; we added Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and started telling the BJ Upholstery story regularly. Photos and descriptions of completed work are published which is an interesting bonus as prior only the customer saw the lovely work.
Website SEO was boosted by optimising the website and adding rich content to appeal to the target customers.
This is all ongoing and flexing as the business evolves and changes with demands and requirements of the owners.

The Results

Inbound enquiries are at a historical high and the company is attracting the ‘perfect customer’. The perfect customers are people who appreciate quality and don’t mind paying for the best service. People from further afield have become customers, at the time of writing two sofas are in the workshop from Gloucester, BJ Upholstery are producing jobs for interior designers, making bespoke sofas to order, upholstered a chair in football shirts and last year reupholstered a footstool in a potato sack for a customer in London.

 BJ Upholstery travels to the Yorkshire Dales, York, Harrogate, Newcastle as well as the surrounding area of Darlington and Durham. 

Any business can request a ‘Snapshot Marketing Report’ from Zedcomms.com, follow the link and request online.