Interior Design Marketing [11 Strategies to Grow Your Business]
When it comes to growing your interior design business, marketing is every bit as important as your design skills. There are uber-successful designers out there who are no doubt talented, but are they in fact the “most talented?” The answer isn’t actually important because one thing's for sure: if a designer has a big business, they absolutely have marketing talent!
And you can too!
Read on for 11 key marketing strategies that can have a dramatic effect on the growth of your interior design business. (The first two are super important, but often get swept under the rug and forgotten. 🧹)
Define your niche
Define your Ideal Client Community
Keep an idea file
Attract clients: build-out your Google Business Profile
Attract clients: Network online and in person
Attract clients: Impress with a design services guide
Find your voice to stand out from the crowd
Request & showcase testimonials
Get professional photography
Create a show-stopping website
Optimize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
DESIGN MARKETING PRELIM
01 Define your interior design niche
If you’re a newer designer, its important to specify what kind of design work you want to do and have the skillset to do.
Nail down exactly what services you will offer. Then tailor your content marketing around it, starting with the Design Services page of your website.
Bullet point your services and describe them. Add general pricing information like hourly rates or package starting points.
Here's a secret - niching makes your marketing so. much. easier. Trying to appeal to everyone can cause much frustration on your end. Why? Because it's impossible.
Once you niche down, you might feel like a big millstone has been lifted off your chest. (A fabulous, centuries-old millstone that you might love to install in your client's garden, but a millstone just the same.)
But in fact, this isn’t a secret at all. Most business/marketing experts will tell you that it's often best to niche down at first. Then you will become known as the go-to person for your set of services or products. It's so much easier to stand out.
Rather than going wide, you can go deep.
Niching now doesn't preclude you from going wider later. Once you gain experience in a particular area and develop a skillset that also has broader applicability, it becomes much easier to expand your reach.
Or to put it in design biz specifics, once you get experience in room layout and furniture purchasing, you have the confidence to take on additional scope of work. Eventually you can work your way up to large renovations.
02 Define your Ideal Client Community
Determining your ideal client is an exercise where you create a fictional ideal client avatar or ideal client community avatar as I prefer to think about it.
It’s designed to help you get crystal clear on who you really want to attract to your business and work with.
Rather than marketing to anyone and everyone, drilling down on the values, habits, pain-points, and aspirations of a particular client profile will help you customize your offers and marketing messages to exactly what your Ideal Client Community needs and wants.
So the goal here is to get into your ideal clients' heads. Understand how they live, work, and think.
What are their needs and desires? What keeps them up at night?
What are their habits? Where do they hang out?
What’s their lifestyle like and what are their aspirations?
And once you really understand your ideal client, then you can tailor your marketing strategy to them. Speak their language, so to speak. :) Speak to not only their present state, but also their aspirations.
Tailor your language to them, even hang out in the places they frequent whether it's Instagram, a parent group meeting, or the pickleball court.
Need help defining your ideal client? Get crystal clear with my Ideal Client Avatar for designers workbook.
Now that you know who you are trying to reach and what makes them tick, let's move on to the actual marketing strategy!
INTERIOR DESIGN MARKETING MECHANICS
03 Keep a convenient idea file
I don't know about you, but I get marketing and design ideas constantly, and trying to hold them all in my head is like trying to hold water in my hands.
You have to have a convenient spot to quickly get your ideas down when you're out and about so you can reference them later. (My many shower ideas are a bit more inconvenient though and sometimes I just have to hang on to the thought!)
After doing some experimenting, for me the easiest method is either Asana or Notion. (I’ll admit, I haven’t fully committed to either - they’re both great in different ways.)
You can quickly create a new task entry from mobile or desktop, title it, and then provide all the details and any links that you need. Both work great with a free account that gives you access to lots of features. If you are working solo, you might not ever need a paid account.
There are many tool options for this though, from just your phone Notepad or a Google doc to dedicated software like a Trello board or Evernote. A quick convenience spot to get them down before forgetting with the ability to retrieve your ideas later when you’ve possibly forgotten all about them is what matters.
To this last point, I also create tags in Asana so I can reference everything on a particular subject (tag) even if they're in separate projects. For example, I assign a “Copy” tag so any ideas for copy writing can be pulled up instantly.
Again though, the app isn’t the point. Do whatever's easiest, so if you just want to use your phone Notes file and/or a Google doc then that's great.
04 Build-out your Google Business Profile
A Google business profile is a must-do if you have a service-based business.
Even if you’re fortunate enough to get much of your business via referrals, you still want to rank for local search results. Even if a potential client found you via Instagram and has seen some of your work, they’ll still absolutely want to find you online, check out your website and portfolio, and then get your contact information if they want to pursue working with you.
Make their job easier through Google Business Profile. It’s an important way of letting Google know you’re in a specific location so Google can put you on the map so to speak.
A Google Business Profile helps you to rank in local search. This means its easier for your audience to track you down, check out your beautiful work, and inquire about working together.
If you don’t get a lot of referrals yet, you should definitely create a strong Google Business Profile for your interior design studio. It’s one of the quickest “SEO fixes” you can do.
Many people will google “interior designers near me” to check out all of their options, whether they’ve seen some local designers on social media or not.
[For a deep-dive into the topic, read Google Business Profiles for Interior Designers]
05 Network online and in-person
Remember when I said in the beginning that your marketing ability is at least as important as your talent as a designer? Here's where the rubber meets the road. Relationships are so important in an interior design or any home design business!
In a nutshell: if you can form relationships and build trust with potential clients and referral sources and then follow through by producing quality work that is on time and on budget, then you’re set.
You’ll have ups and downs in this industry because real estate, design, and home improvement are cyclical. But if you can make and maintain relationships then you’ll be much better prepared to weather the cyclical storms and to make hay when the sun shines. 🌞
So putting yourself out there and forming those relationships with potential clients and people associated with interior design-adjacent industries is a must-do.
Friends, parent groups, pickleball people
Realtors, contractors, trades people
All of them are potential client sources for you.
[For specific strategies on finding clients, check out my free workshop, “3 Strategies For Finding Your First Interior Design Clients”]
[Read this post for tips on networking with Instagram to help grow your business.]
06 Integrate a Design Services Guide into your inquiry outreach
When you get an inquiry from a potential client, you want to quickly deliver to them relevant information about working with you while creating a professional first impression. You also want to deliver this info efficiently without dropping whatever it is you’re working on.
A design services guide is a professional way to communicate to potential clients what it’s like to work with you before you ever get on a discovery call.
A design services guide goes a long way toward demonstrating that you're a professional we-have our-act-together kind of interior design business. It helps build that all-important trust between you and a potential client who doesn't yet know you. Create it once and it will serve you for years.
Use it to automate your workflow by linking to it on your website so potential clients can download it and then auto-schedule a discovery call. All without you having to lift a finger.
How’s that for efficient marketing?
Don't yet have a website?
If your website isn’t up yet so you’re still doing things manually via email, that works too. Just attach the guide as a PDF to your email follow-ups with potential clients.
[Here’s the Interior Design Services Guide if you want to create a professional first impression and automate your workflow.]
07 Find your voice to stand out from the crowd
If I can stress one strategy that has really helped me to stand out from the crowd, it's developing my own voice and not being afraid to express it. It may sound a bit cliché, but there's no one else like you. And once you find the confidence to express yourself as yourself, it can be a marketing game changer.
If the rest of the herd is doing one thing but you see things differently or have a different opinion, don't be afraid to say so (albeit in a tactful manner if it's controversial.)
“Finding your voice” also pairs with finding your ideal client community. It makes perfect sense. If you’re “being you,” you'll resonate with a group of people who get you and vice versa.
And working together will be a pleasure! 🤩
It's not easy, I know. For me, it’s still a work in progress for sure. But in the last few years I’ve come a long way, and I know you can too.
Once you learn to harness and deploy your voice, your “flair”, you’re kind of unstoppable. Whatever it is that makes you unique is a powerful asset indeed.
This goes not just for marketing, but for everything else you do too!
There are so many people competing for attention online, many of whom offer similar services. People buy from people every bit as much as they buy a product. This especially holds true for a luxury service like interior design where you’ll be working in and on your client’s most intimate space - their home.
If clients don't like and trust you, you're literally not getting past the front door.
But hear me, this does NOT mean people pleasing and trying to appeal to everyone. No, no, no! That's a one-way ticket to misery when designers ignore red flags in potential clients.
What I'm saying is learn to be genuine and unapologetically you to attract those ideal clients.
(I couldn’t quite bring myself to use that over-used word …wait for it…“authentic.” Although it would have been perfect!😂 See what I did? That’s me being slightly-snarky me. #sorrynotsorry)
So let the inner you come out to play and the right people will come your way! (I also can’t resist the occasional rhyme, which can be a slightly annoying habit sometimes.)
08 Request & showcase testimonials
Testimonials are a powerful way of generating trust. Potential clients haven't worked with you before, so hearing somebody else's positive experience with your business goes a long way toward building the trust they need to reach out and inquire about working together, let alone actually sign a contract and plunk down their hard-earned money.
So for this reason, I recommend actively requesting feedback from clients. The best time is just after a project has ended and they’re most excited and happy about it. You can ask them in person during the final walk-through or send them an email asking for a quick testimonial if they’re happy or just ask for feedback in general.
When I do a web design project, I send an email follow up shortly after the launch asking if they have any questions and to fill out a quick survey. After someone has purchased one of my products, I have a short email sequence set up to ask for feedback at specific times.
Be sure to take note of any spontaneous testimonials too. If a client says “Wow! This looks amazing!” during a progress meeting, make a note of it.
File those testimonials for later use
Create a “kind words from happy clients” file. Get in the habit of keeping all quotes you have from clients and customers expressing how happy they are with you and your services or products. Quickly screen-shot any texts and either file or copy/paste emails that express the same happy-with-your-work sentiment so they’re captured and organized.
I keep a file in my Gmail specifically for testimonials collected via email. I keep a master file in Notion with all of them.
I can pull these testimonials out later and sprinkle them across my website and use them on social media.
09 Have your work professionally photographed
Once you’ve completed a project and you’re happy with the outcome, it’s time to invest in quality photos. I know I’m (mostly) preaching to the choir, but I’m still going to give some tough love for a moment: quality imagery can make or break your website and social accounts.
Try this: think of the most inspiring websites and social feeds you know - beautiful, cohesive images across the board, am I right? Now mentally swap out those images for some fuzzy, mismatched and non-color coordinated photos. What do you have? A website or social feed that isn’t nearly as inspiring.
As a designer, your imagery is a brand ambassador. It’s not the only factor of course; your skillset, professionalism etc. are crucial too. But there’s no getting around that interior design is a visual field, so investing in quality photography is going to be a cost of doing business.
They’ll serve you beautifully in your website portfolio, but be sure to get the most from them by repurposing way beyond your portfolio to other places in your site and across your social channels and emails.
10 Create a show-stopping website
#1 Your website is your most important piece of digital real estate.
People visiting your website are much more likely to become paying clients than social media followers. If they're on your site, they've sought you out rather than passively encountering your latest post in their feed.
This means they're more likely to be serious about needing your services.
A designer can be an Instagram queen, but in the end, all roads need to lead back to a strategically design website. On a strategic site, visitors are taken on a client journey where they learn more about your business, see your portfolio, and check out your design services. Then your ideal clients will inquire about working with you.
If your site is really streamlined, they’ll also be able to download your Design Services Guide and book a Discovery Call.
#2 A static website = a static business.
What do I mean by this? I’m saying your website is your digital home, so being able to quickly make additions and changes is a must.
A website that collects digital dust isn’t going to cut it for long, no matter how beautiful it is.
Just think about the past few years. Who amongst us didn’t have to pivot?! (Heck, that may be why you’re reading this post.)
So thinking of your website as a “one and done” project once the initial site design is launched is NOT the path to success. Being able to easily add new portfolio work, post announcements and updates, create blog posts, and add products is key to a thriving interiors business.
One more point (and its an important one) - Google rewards sites that are added to and updated. Google tries its best to serve searchers with the highest quality results. This means if your site is indeed collecting that digital dust, it will eventually hurt your SEO (search engine optimization).
Bottom line: your website isn’t just a static glossy brochure; it’s your primary workhorse. So you need to be in control of your site, and not the other way around.
My recommendation? I’m so glad you asked! 😊
Here’s a hint: it’s not to hire an expensive web developer to create your site and then you have to pay more every time you need to make a change. Plus wait on their schedule. Not at all.
Instead, allow me to introduce the Linden template + Website Launch Blueprint digital course.
The Linden is a Squarespace template custom-designed for interior designers
Website Launch Blueprint is my digital course that guides you through every step of the template build-out from content creation through post-launch marketing.
Together they’re a powerful package that will have you launched in about a week.
And after launch week? You'll have the skillset to maintain every aspect of your website, so your site can grow as quickly as your business.
11 Optimize for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
A big part of any strategic website is optimizing it for SEO. What does that mean?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of practices designed to improve a website’s rankings and visibility when people search for services or products related to that search in Google and other search engines.
SEO optimization is a whole subject unto itself, but here are some top tips:
Do research to discover keywords relevant to your business. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal clients: what keywords or phrases would they use to try to find a designer offering your services?
Use those keywords in your titles, headings, and subheading. Incorporate them in a natural and user-friendly way. Google is wise to what’s called “keyword stuffing” where they’re included excessively for the sake of SEO.
Create high quality content relevant to your business that also contains your keywords. Quality content is the number one driver of search engine rankings. There’s no substitute for great content, so take the time to write blog posts regularly.
Update your content. Remember in the section above where I said a static site will be penalized by Google? Regularly updated content is viewed as one of the best indicators of a site's relevancy, so be sure to keep it fresh.
FYI - the Linden + Website Launch Blueprint has you covered for SEO. It’s not just a “pretty template.” It’s a strategic AND pretty template that includes SEO! 😄
[Intrigued by all this SEO-Googley talk? Check out SEO for Interior Designers and Architects [10 Quick Wins]
The End :)
Phew! OK we’ve covered a lot of marketing points here. Which of these have you tried already in your interiors business and which do you plan to work on?
Leave a comment below and let me know, and I’ll be sure to respond back.
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Other design business-building posts you’ll love:
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