Digital Marketing Strategies For Interior Designers
Interior design has always been a coveted field of work. Interior design businesses have flourished based on recommendations for decades. But how far can you really expand your small business with just word-of-mouth, right?
Well, you could adapt to wider marketing techniques and reach clients that you didn’t even expect. You see, 2020 transformed the world into a digital era for good. Now, in 2023, everyone is reliant on social media, emails, and blog posts for information and recommendations for everything they want to buy.
Digital marketing is particularly helpful for interior designers. You can develop short videos or presentations and upload them to attract clients. Some of them may not be potential customers looking for you. But when they come across your design ideas, they just might realize that they need a design remake from the best interior design firm in the design industry.
Read also – 20 Instagram Marketing Tips For Interior Designers
It is best that we share a few digital marketing techniques in detail so you can enhance the reach of your interior design firm. Let us take a look at the top 12 marketing tips you can implement to use digital marketing for interior design:
1. Find A Good Mentor In The Design Industry To Help You With Digital Marketing
As an interior designer, you have already mastered a field that you love. Therefore learning digital marketing for your design services may seem cumbersome. However, in this era of technological advancement, digital marketing is your best friend. Don’t ignore it. But then again, not all digital marketing ideas may apply to Interior design.
Hence, we suggest you find yourself a mentor; someone who has the experience to go with their expertise. A good mentor can make all the difference while devising a marketing plan for your interior design business. They can help you focus on your target audience and use the power of digital marketing to yield maximum leads.
- You can showcase your portfolio.
- Demonstrate your genius in the field of interior design along with your accomplishments.
- Use psychological cues to attract new clients to your business.
- Exhibit reviews from past clients.
- Share design templates that can help potential customers envision your interior design ideas in their home or office.
The maximum number of your new clients are currently surfing the internet, looking for great design ideas. Hijack the market with interesting videos and bring in new business to your interior design firm.
3. Use Pinterest Boards
Pinterest is such a ground-breaking social app for anyone who has a hint of creativity in them. Pinterest boards feature top ideas from all walks of the industry. Use this incredible app to broadcast your interior design services to a range of potential clients.
Here’s how you can use Pinterest for your interior design firm:
- Create a Pinterest account; it is really easy to do.
- Then start uploading pictures of your interior design ideas on your Pinterest board.
- Use appropriate titles for the pictures so potential customers can find them while surfing for design services.
- It is good to use high-definition pictures so clients can appreciate every aspect of your design plan.
You can feature designs with different styles and patterns. That way you can approach new clients with variable interests.
Read also – 20 Pinterest Marketing Tips For Interior Designers
4. Display A Variety Of Design Ideas
As interior designers, our job is to give the clients what they want. Some clients prefer beautiful rustic patterns and colors, while others like simplistic and modern designs. But is one really better than the other?
We think not! Every client has his or her preferences that make them feel relaxed and comfortable. As interior designers, we need to show them that we completely understand their sense of style and we can adapt our designs as per their liking.
With the help of digital marketing, you can simply demonstrate your implementation of different styles and patterns before you speak to new clients. You can optimize your interior design marketing strategies to exhibit the full extent of design services offered by your small business.
5. Implement Search Engine Optimization(SEO) Techniques
This is perhaps among the most important digital marketing tips when it comes to interior design marketing strategies.
The internet is a vortex of information, ideas, and businesses, mostly on similar grounds. So how do you reach your target audience in this whirlpool of digital design services?
It’s simple. You can use search engine optimization so that your small business is among the top search results on Google, social media platforms, and other digital marketing channels. Use the services of SEO to find keywords and phrases that your target audiences usually search for. Then incorporate these keywords and phrases in blogging, content marketing, interior design marketing materials, posts on social media, etc.
6. Create Backlinks To Lead Potential Clients To Your Website or Social Media Platform
As you know, this generation is attached to their computers and cellphones like Joey Tribbiani was to food. They do a lot on the internet, besides watching cat videos and cooking shows though. They use these gadgets to research, read product and service reviews, find new and improved ideas for home décor, etc.
As interior designer, you can totally tap into this phenomenon of information exchange. You have to start by finding various websites and channels for content marketing. They share information via listicles, articles, blogging, etc. They have a substantial target audience, albeit their information is usually somewhat outdated.
All you have to do is strategize with them and offer to update the information on their channels while attaching a backlink and a digital business card to your website or web page. This will significantly improve the traffic on your website. Once potential clients visit your page or site, they will get an idea about your design services. They can use the contact information on your business card to consult with you directly or visit your website to communicate their design needs.
7. Collaborate With Influencers On Social Media
Screenshot from @ArielleSays
If you want to reach a higher number of potential customers then define the target audience to whom you want to service. Then find influencers who target the demographic with their carefully optimized social media posts. These influencers have years of experience and they know how to create a long-term impact on their followers. They act as virtual referrals to reach potential clients.
Discuss the policies of your interior design firm, the design services you offer, and your goals in the design industry. These influencers will then go ahead and create posts to improve your business with their own digital marketing strategy.
With an effective combination of graphic design, hashtags, service narrative, and your business card, they can create a powerful post. Don’t worry, the distribution is also up to them. They will get the word out on all their social networking channels so new clients are made aware of your design services. If potential clients find their posts fascinating, they will also share them on their own social networks. In a way, it is that word-of-mouth scenario that we previously talked about. Except for this time the word of mouth spread through a larger target audience than you originally anticipated. With the magic of digital marketing, your list of potential clients will be much longer than you know.
8. Develop A Valuable Network On LinkedIn
Your LinkedIn network is a valuable means to get in touch with the experts and influencers of the industry. These people can not only help you as contacts, but they themselves have a significant following of your target audience. You can create a digital marketing strategy for your interior design business and share it with your LinkedIn network. They will in turn share it with their network.
Much like influencers on social media, LinkedIn influencers can generate a buzz about your small business. Their word of mouth is even more valuable as the LinkedIn networking site itself is focused on connecting professionals to each other. You will notice a compounded increase in traffic on your websites once they help you get the word out about your small business.
9. Know How To Build Partnerships With Significant Brands
Partnerships don’t necessarily mean those who hold a significant amount of stakes in your interior design business. No. We are talking about another form of collaboration of sorts. You see, there are multiple brands out there whose business plans may not exactly involve interior design services or products per se. But these brands have a sizeable database of potential clients for your business.
To implement this highly beneficial digital marketing strategy,
- First, you must define your target demographic.
- Then use analytics to identify the brands of products and services for which they usually search.
- Now use your creativity to align your interior design business with these brands.
You may wonder at this point, how is a brand that has nothing to do with interior design, going to help drive up your business….?
Allow us to explain. You see, even though the brand is not associated with interior design directly, they do have a database of clients who may require your design services. That is why you need to find an innovative way to fit in with the brand.
For instance, if your target demographic is single independent women between the age group of 26 – 32, you have to realize what they usually find most appealing. She most likely she sits by the fireplace with a glass of wine and a good book or magazine, after a long hard workday.
Your ideal clients would be reading an interior design magazine so you wouldn’t have to go through all these efforts of analysis. But that is a very rare window of opportunity. So to benefit from this scenario, you can partner with magazines that feature luxury brands and fine wine.
This strategy implores the attention of new clients. You can use the partner companies’ database to send out newsletters about your interior design firm, share your latest design ideas, etc. You tap into a whole new market and turn them into paying customers.
10. Use Subtle Conversational Cues For Sales
This is a somewhat tricky form of digital marketing. You may have come across webinars, chatbots, live chats, etc. that constantly prompt the features of various small businesses. They use a subtle marketing plan to inform and engage new clients.
You can implement this by holding webinars to inform people about your business. Or you can advise them about the effect of having a well-designed home on the human psyche. This is a method of encouraging people to spend money without making an aggressive sales pitch. All you do is have a light-hearted conversation regarding the benefits of surrounding themselves with things they love; to make them happy.
Although these tactics only work on 10 – 13% of people, it is still a considerable number of new clients who will bring in revenue to your small business.
11. Use Email-marketing To Your Advantage
You may think that email marketing has lost its value as most marketing emails end up in spam. However, in reality, a well-drafted email has a higher chance of drawing in traffic on your business page. There are a few specifics that you need to bear in mind while drafting these emails though, for maximum effectiveness:
- Use an enticing subject line that will prompt the readers to open your email.
- Make sure the preview text in your email captures their attention. You can use curiosity to your advantage here.
- Use an individual’s name such as the moniker of the proprietor of your small business. Don’t use your company name. This makes the email seem more personal.
- Use content marketing strategies and provide valuable information in the email. Now, when we say valuable, we mean adding value to the customer’s life. For instance, how you can use color patterns that affect the client’s mood to make them feel calm and happy.
Once you have designed the perfect email to entice customers, track their effectiveness. Then change the parameters of the information in your next email. This way you can determine which sections of the email marketing strategy work best to attract new clients and work off of the best practices for the same.
12. Define A Digital Marketing Budget
Before you sprint off to implement your digital marketing ideas, take some time to define your marketing budget. Take advice from your mentors or speak to qualified experts in the industry on LinkedIn to get an approximate idea about the costs. You don’t have to spend an exuberant amount of money to spread awareness about your small business. Instead, you can formulate interior design marketing strategies across digital platforms at nominal costs.
Wrapping Up Digital Marketing Tips for Interior Designers
So, you see, digital marketing for interior design can actually help you expand your small business. Or at the very least it will help you find potential customers in the oddest of situations. Use the advantages of the technological era to your benefit and drive up your revenue exponentially.
About the Author
Ray Slater Berry is a content strategist at Outreach Humans, and has been working in social media and content marketing for eight years. He specializes in the tech, innovation and travel sectors. He has also recently published his first work of fiction, Golden Boy.