PowerBlog Review: Landfair Furniture

Editor's note: Welcome to the seventy-fifth in our regular weekly series of PowerBlog Reviews of business weblogs. This week's review is being guest-blogged by Lynne Meyer. Lynne Meyer, APR, is president of A Way with Words.

By Lynne Meyer

The Landfair Furniture blog is written by Mike and Bev Landfair.

They are the owners of Landfair Furniture & Design Gallery and Furniture Annex in Portland, Oregon. In addition to their Landfair Furniture & Design Gallery store, they have an online shop, Landfair Furniture Annex. They're using their blog to drive traffic to the online site and boost awareness of their store.

Even though they just started their blog on March 15, 2005, they report that it has already reaped handsome rewards for them. Part of the reason is that, in addition to showcasing their own operation, the Landfairs are generous in helping promote others. They feature local designers, the furniture companies whose lines they carry and even a local home show sponsored by a local realtor.

For example, the Landfairs were so impressed by the values of one of the furniture companies whose products they sell that they included the company's values, mission and goals in one of their postings. What a terrific way to cement a relationship with a vendor!

They do a great job offering a platform to local designers, with Mike and Bev interviewing the designers and posing questions.

"Designers don't have time to market, and this is our way to help them market themselves. We announce each interview in advance and get the word out as widely as possible. Including these interviews has resulted in some clients for the designers. It's been a very effective way for us to demonstrate to designers that it makes sense for them to work with us, not only because of the quality furniture we have to offer, but the marketing support we give them."

The Landfairs use an innovative idea to bring people into their store. Bev signs off the blog with this offer:

"Mention this blog when you visit our store, and we'll have a token of appreciation for you."

Who knows? If someone is in the market for a new couch or needs a little design advice, this little gracious touch could be just the thing that brings them into the Landfair's store.

When the Landfairs included excerpts from an interview that appeared in someone else's blog, the interviewee -- Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing -- emailed the Landfairs. "She suggested we come up with ten tips for buying furniture to put in one of our postings. We followed her advice and also reported on the top ten decorating trends for 2005."

The Landfairs' blog also helped them get media coverage. "Because of our blog, we were interviewed in the Business Journal. They featured us in two articles, including a photo, about how we're using our blog to build our business."

So is the Landfairs' blog helping their business goals? Absolutely, says Mike. "In an economy that still seems a little slow, our traffic to our main store has increased, and sales are up a healthy percentage over last year."

Even if you're not in the market for a new couch or looking for decorating tips, visit the Landfair Furniture blog to see all the things the Landfairs are doing right with their business blog.