Marketing Tactics That Don’t Work for Interior Designers
Updated September 2023
It’s no secret that interior design is a competitive market. Interior designers need to stay front-of-mind with potential clients by consistently marketing their services. Unfortunately, we see a lot of marketing tactics that don't actually yield any measurable results for interior designers. In this post, I’m sharing the most common ineffective marketing tactics we see so you can STOP doing them and allocate that time toward something that actually generates revenue (or joy!) for your business.
First up: Marketing is not about who has a better product or service; it’s about perception.
A more widely known company with better marketing will be perceived as having a better product or service. We see this all the time in our own purchasing decisions. Sure, we may know that a pricey designer bag is the same quality as a leather bag, but the marketing of that designer bag is better, and the brand is more well-known, so we are more likely to purchase the more expensive designer bag than a lesser known brand of similar quality.
It’s all about raising awareness of your service and the value you provide, and then turning that awareness (traffic) into clients and sales through consistent and on-brand marketing.
So if getting the eyes of ideal clients on your business is the ultimate goal, then it’s important that you do the right things to get as many eyes looking at your business as possible. Then, once you have their attention, you must communicate the right things to motivate them to take the next step.
But how do you do that? How do you get more traffic to your interior design website? How do you get people to book your services? From my experience working with interior designers and luxury service providers, I’ve seen a lot of what works and what doesn’t. Today, we’re going to focus specifically on marketing tactics that I’ve seen to be ineffective.
01 | Sharing other people’s work in your feed
I’ll never understand this. It would be the same thing as if I reposted the work of someone who does the same thing I do.
How does that drive business?
It doesn’t.
The only thing it might do is i) add more followers from the original poster’s audience, ii) infringe on someone else’s IP, and iii) confuse your customers.
If you don’t have a portfolio of your own, there are plenty of ways to showcase your style without sharing someone else’s work. Read that article here.
Here’s a little breakdown (I’m not an attorney):
When an interior designer has a project photographed, they sign an agreement with their photographer. Typically, the photographer owns the copyright to all images they create.
The photographer grants a license to the designer that states HOW the designer can use that license to share those photos. The contracts also typically state the limitations around that license (i.e., they can’t sell the image itself as a work of art, no one else can use it for monetary gains, etc.). Typically, the photographer of that image owns the image, and anyone who uses it (aside from the interior designer who has been granted a license) must i) gain permission from the photographer, ii) credit the photographer, and iii) possibly purchase a license or pay royalties to use the image. (This is why a lot of magazines prefer to reshoot projects with their own photographers - so they own the rights. Interesting, right?)
If the designer personally took the photo on his/her camera and posted it, guess what? That image belongs to them and is protected by copyright laws. It is their intellectual property. Anyone would need explicit permission from the designer to share or use the photo.
So, i) share only your own photos, ii) put a note in your bio: “All images are the work of [insert business name],” iii) read your photography contract to see how you can use your professional photos and iv) always credit your photographer.
02 | Not having a purpose or call to action that aligns with your goals
Another common issue is marketing that doesn’t support the company’s goals or overall brand messaging. Like if you post pictures of your lunch or your dog without tying it into something business related (i.e., how laid back your office is, how the office dog and the UPS guy are best friends because you receive client deliveries all day, how you like to treat your talented team to lunch every week because they work their butts off for your clients - you get the idea!) then don’t share it. It feels weird and confusing. And when you confuse your audience, YOU LOSE.
And then, people often won’t do anything if you don’t have a clear call to action. The goal of posting or sharing anything online is always to educate, entertain, or engage. After they read something you wrote, do you want them to hit reply and tell you something? Do you want them to fill out your project inquiry form? Do you want them to drop a comment, add an emoji, share it with their friends, or save it for later?
It is up to you to ensure every piece of marketing or content you put out there is aligned with your company goals and has a clear call to action.
03 | Sharing diy content when your ideal client is not a diy-er
We’re all guilty of this because, as a done-for-you service provider, you know HOW to do things. You’re on a job site, and you jump into action. You’re pulling fabrics and swatches, and you know exactly what patterns and colors to skip to. You see a ceiling height and room size and know exactly what size and style of lighting will work.
But your CLIENTS are not DIYers, so it’s important NOT to share DIY content because you will only attract DIY clients who don't value what you can do for them.
So rather than share the HOW (how to pick a paint color, how to renovate your kitchen, how to pick a sofa), share the WHY (why picking the right paint color is critical to the overall design of your space, WHY keeping these three things in mind when renovating is essential, WHY investing in your family room sofa will save you in the long run…you get the idea!).
Another mistake along this same line: using your “designer discount” as your marketing strategy. If you ever wonder why you keep getting budget shoppers or penny pinchers scheduling discovery calls with you, make sure you’re not saying things like “discount” “save money with us” “best pricing” etc. You will automatically attract people who value those things.
04 | Creating content for your competitors
This is another one I see often, and I think it happens accidentally. This “build it in public” idea of sharing all the nitty-gritty of your business when, in reality, all that does is attract your competitors rather than your ideal clients.
In fact, I’ve seen this so often that when I look at a designer’s website or Instagram and see posts like this, I think they’re a coach and not a designer. I can only imagine how confused their potential clients are (if they are both, then I think it’s important to clearly call out who each post is for - again, make it easy for your people to know what’s for them).
You should certainly tell your story of how you got started, how you get inspiration, and who is on your team. You can do all this in a way that gives your clients a really good idea of who you are and HOW committed you are to delivering quality work and an amazing experience.
I rarely “build in public,” but here are two times I dipped my toe in it:
05 | Spending time creating a shop on your website or “shop-the-look” posts on Reward Style/Like to Know It
Even my designers with 10k or more followers don’t see a high ROI on the time spent putting collections and LTK posts together.
It’s a ton of manual work. Not just finding the items you want to put together in your shoppable posts but also creating the images and posts and tagging everything correctly. And this doesn’t even count the extra step of sharing these on Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
You could be on your phone all day saving items you want to share later…and payouts are delayed to account for returns...and let’s not even talk about if you’re building shoppable posts based on your client projects…won’t your client be upset if something you link is LESS than what they paid for it through you????? Yeah, no.
For clients who build out shops on their website with affiliate links or commission products, it takes a lot of work to curate those collections, keep your website up to date, and then continue to run traffic to those pages through Pinterest, your newsletter, blogs, Google My Business, etc.
Even if you have a big audience on Instagram or Pinterest and have a decent amount of traffic to your site, I have not seen either yield high returns for our clients.
06 | Blogging but not sharing posts on Pinterest, GMB, and via your newsletter
You can’t just build it and expect people to come. You have to get eyes on whatever you create. And if you’re investing time or money on content creation, YOU MUST GET THOSE POSTS OUT TO THE WORLD. Too often, we see designers who invest in blog writing services or put the time into writing beautiful blog posts themselves, but then they don’t maximize that reach by sharing them on search platforms like Google, My Business, and Pinterest.
If you’re going to blog, you must have a process to share those blog posts so they reach as many people as possible.
07 | Posting on every platform
Okay, I don’t know about you, but when I’m looking for interior design help, I am not going to Twitter, Linkedin, or YouTube. I’m going straight to Google, Pinterest, and Instagram.
Here are a few issues with posting on every platform:
You’re likely wasting time on platforms your client base isn't on
You need to spend extra time to ensure your content/message is formatted properly for each platform (ie, you can’t swipe for B&A on FB, you can’t swipe up on YouTube, etc.).
You also need to customize your content based on how consumers consume content on that specific platform. YouTube people like to watch videos. TikTok people like to watch short-form videos. Linkedin people like to read articles.
Posting on multiple platforms is very time-consuming.
Instead, try looking at where your best clients are coming from. Then focus on marketing on that platform only - creating the best, most engaging content for your ideal clients. Once that’s dialed in, you can focus on another platform (if you need to!).
08 | Not including your location on your website, in your SEO, or in your social bios
If you are a location-based designer (most are), you must let people know what areas you serve. All of this is searchable. When I type into Google “Interior Designer in Chicago, Illinois” guess who comes up? Interior designers in Chicago who have put those keywords on their websites. MAGIC!
I recommend updating the SEO of your site pages and images with the locations you serve. You should also include location details on your contact page and in the footer of your site.
Be sure to add the locations you serve to your bios on Instagram bio, Pinterest, FB, etc. (PS: bios are searchable). If you serve other areas or will travel, add that too!
09 | Not having a Google My Business account
Google is the #1 search engine and the first place people go when they’re looking for just about anything. And when it comes to local businesses, if you don’t have a GMB account, your business could get passed up by companies that DO have a GMB account. The more reviews and fresh content you have, the more Google rewards you by showing your site to people searching for interior designers.
Set up a free GMB account. Build out your profile. Ask for testimonials via your GMB link. Add new photos every few days.
10 | Putting social media icons in your main navigation bar
This is a user experience thing - when you put your social media icons in your nav bar, guess what…people click on them and leave your site to head over to your social media account.
But the action you likely want them to take is ON YOUR WEBSITE…and you just sent them away…to the rabbit hole of Instagram with reels, beautiful imagery, and cute pups.
You want to keep people on your site for as long as possible, and that means having that nav bar guide them through the main pages of your site so you can create a user experience that encourages them to take the action you want (usually this is filling out an inquiry form or signing up for a newsletter).
So, head to your site, remove those social icons from your nav bar, and place them in your footer. Then when Google sees people spending more time on your site, they’ll know you’re putting out good content and will rank your website higher when someone is searching for an interior designer in your area.
11 | Building a website and then waiting for sales to roll in
Okay, I’m guilty of this too. You build your first website and are SO nervous to hit publish because you’re like, “I'M NOT READY”. You’re sure inquiries will just come flying in, and you’ll be slammed with projects before you officially launch. Hahah.
“Build it, and they will come” only applies if you have already built an audience, AND THEN you build something for that audience. THEN they will come.
So if you’re putting your website out there, launching new services, rolling out a course, whatever - you have to get the word out and tell people about it.
12 | Direct outreach without offering a clear solution
For designers who are just starting, it’s important to network to get in front of upstream and downstream referral sources. But this won’t work if your “networking pitches” require the other party to do a lot of work. (This happens to me and my clients all the time - someone wants to collaborate or pitch you, yet offers zero value in their email, makes YOU do all the work to connect, and then has zero follow-ups. Don’t be that guy.)
So, make it valuable if you’re planning to do cold outreach to potential referral sources. Spend time researching that company and learning how your partnership could be mutually beneficial. Make it SO easy for them to connect with you. Make it clear how you would like to help them and how they can help you. Remove any friction, and I’ll bet you’ll book more coffee chats and networking meetings.
13 | Showing projects that don’t appeal to your ideal client
I know you all have that project you photographed that you just can’t let go of because it was expensive/it was your first one/it’s your only one/whatever.
The thing is if it’s a project that doesn’t highlight your talent, doesn’t showcase the type of future projects you want, and doesn’t appeal to your ideal clients, guess what?!
That photography is hurting your business and COSTING you money. Sure, it might still bring in some clients, but they’re probably not ideal. Maybe they want something you don’t offer. Maybe they don’t have the budget you are most comfortable working with. Maybe they just aren’t a fit personality-wise.
Cull your portfolio and remove any photos that don’t speak to your true capabilities, your vision for your company, or your ideal client.
Time is money, and with the endless distractions business owners face, investing your resources wisely is CRITICAL. It’s not enough to simply put things out there in a crowded industry. You have to increase awareness and get more traffic to your website.
Every post, newsletter, blog, and piece of marketing you create for your business has to do a job. It should bring awareness to your company, educate your audience, let people get to know you, inspire others, and have a clear call to action.
If you are looking for help with your marketing, be sure to check out these additional resources:
What to Consider When Investing In Photography
Looking for more? Keep reading:
