Can You Get Interior Design Clients From Social Media?

The importance of marketing is often emphasized, but are you using all the tools at your disposal? And have you identified which of those tools is the best fit for you to reach your ideal clients? Social media is one of those tools and if used effectively, is an excellent way to make connections with potential clients and stay connected with past clients. It gives you the ability to showcase your work and build brand recognition. You can build a relationship with people whom you may have not yet met but whose interest you have captured. It also gives you the opportunity to educate those people about interior design. In addition, you can take it one step further and share information about your firm and how you work. 

You may have built a wonderful set of ideal clients who love what you do and hire you repeatedly. You may also obtain clients from referrals, but you need to continually promote your business if you want to keep growing and expanding. Social media can help you do this. 

How do you most effectively use social media in your marketing plan?

1. Evaluate the social media marketing pros and cons.
   • Pros: 
     • Can expand your reach outside your local area without advertising
     • Can be more efficient as you can automate responses and schedule posting in advance
     • The cost is lower than most traditional advertising – or you can put that savings toward outsourcing your social media marketing
     • You can build relationships with ideal clients who love your work before you meet them in person
   • Cons:
     • It is less personal than face-to-face connections
     • You might need specialized skills or need to outsource to someone with those skills
     • It takes consistency, commitment and time to build those relationships
2. Have a clear brand identity – what sets you apart from your competition. That identity includes both your brand style and your brand voice. As interior design is visually driven, you want to showcase your brand style through visuals of color schemes, fabrics, furniture style, accessories, arrangement, etc. When showcasing your brand style, focus on what would appeal to your ideal clients. Your brand voice should come through in every caption and/or text post you write. It should clearly be your voice, even if someone else is writing your posts. When identifying your brand style and voice, reach out to your team, ideal clients, vendors, etc. to find out how they would describe your brand style and voice. Are they describing what you want to project? If not, ask yourself why not.
3. Understand which social media platform best fits your business and is best for you to reach your ideal clients. What are your business goals, resources and what platforms do your ideal clients use? Make sure your ideal client profiles are very clear so you will know what catches their interest and where they might find/follow you. The profiles define things such as their demographics, hobbies and interests, income, location, and occupation. This information allows you to target those ideal clients and figure out which platforms to use to reach them. Not every platform will connect you to the right people nor do you want to be on every platform. Five of the most common platforms for designers are Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. 
   • Instagram is more visually driven – key for showcasing your creativity and design expertise. If you’re a designer, you are likely already using Instagram!
   • Pinterest is also visually driven and can be effective for virtual designers. It tends to work more like a search engine than traditional social media platforms and is great for driving traffic to blogs and websites. That is a definite advantage for virtual designers relying on online traffic. It may not be as effective when trying to reach local clients, though, since in that case, you want to establish relationships with potential ideal clients first. Pinterest lacks some community-oriented features, so in those cases you might be better off focusing on Instagram or Facebook.
   • Facebook can also be used for posting your design style if it doesn’t get lost in the multitude of other types of posts found on Facebook. But for residential designers who want to establish a closer connection with potential clients then local Facebook groups might be ideal because of their community aspect.
   • LinkedIn (and Facebook) can be useful for commercial designers where you might need to network with corporate people. You can also make connections with other industry professionals and make
   • X (formerly Twitter) is best if you are posting text-based content. Though you can cultivate a wide reach of community organically (without cost), interior design is visually driven, so this needs to be considered. X is better for discussion, so consider sharing your design opinions or asking questions instead of promoting yourself.

Tips for success:

• Have outstanding visual content that will capture the viewer’s attention. Before you start posting be sure your images are outstanding. 
  • Use before and after comparisons
  • Show photos of your design process that leads to the final result.
  • Consider incorporating videos. If that is not a skill you possess, see if a member of your team could do it. With a video you can take the viewer on a tour of a space or home you have designed. You might also take them through your design process via video.
  • Don’t forget the effectiveness of posting vignettes or photos that focus on specific design details.
  • Focus on your audience. Remember you want to reach potential ideal clients – you are not posting to impress other designers. Keep in mind what those prospective clients might be searching for, what fits their profiles, what questions they may have, etc.
• Be consistent
  • Be sure that your posts always reflect your design brand – both your style and your voice. You confuse people if your posts are haphazard, and they will lose interest.
  • You must commit to the time to post, engage with your followers and be consistent. Create a schedule you can live with, a strategy, and a social media calendar. It saves time when you have identified the posts for the next month or beyond. Consider having a team member take over the social media posting. If you are not consistent it is not worth posting.
• Be focused. Don’t try to use every platform. Identify which is best for you and then tailor your content to the specific platform. Run tests and consider what kind of people use each site.
• Use branded hashtags. Create branded hashtags that will be easily remembered by your audience and encourage your audience to use them. Use them to track what people are saying about your brand.
• Use CTAs (calls to action). You want to drive potential ideal clients to start conversations and engage.

A few final points: 

Regardless of the social media platform you may decide on, keep in mind that you will need a comprehensive strategy to achieve long-term results. Create a content plan, a timeline and a process to evaluate your results. Don’t just follow the crowd. Choose a strategy or approach for marketing that works for you rather than simply following what others are doing. And always have a process to weigh your ROI – return on investment. Remember ROI includes financial, personnel and time!