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THIS is the Kind of Marketing you Need in 2022

interior design marketing

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You know what’s easier than making a first good impression on your prospect? Making a bad one. And your marketing strategy can totally do that. The “one size fits all” marketing trends stopped working a long time ago. Today when everything from food to tech can be personalized, you need to go beyond the bare minimum to be discovered by your dream client.

Using only social media to promote your design business, no personalization in your content strategy, generic emails promoting your services 24/7. We’re heading into 2022, it’s time to ditch these outdated marketing techniques and opt for marketing trends that are laser-focused on your audience and their needs.

5 Marketing Trends Interior Design Businesses Should Try in 2022

Here are five marketing trends you, as an interior design business or design+build firm should try in 2022 because the market is changing for good.

1. Video Marketing

With TikTok taking the digital world by storm since the start of the pandemic, video, especially short-form video content is BOOOOOOMING. If your interior design business doesn’t have a dedicated video marketing strategy, this is the right time to give this marketing trend a try.

Through video content, it is easier to take the know-like-trust factor up a notch. Not just that, the way the Instagram algorithm has aligned itself with video content (due to competition from TikTok), getting the Instagram reach you always dreamt of is within reach.

How to start video marketing?

Dip your toes first. Take your audience through the journey of your design process from start to finish. And it’s more fun with video than writing a post about it. Ever done Instagram stories – they are perfect for this type of video-documenting! Give it a try.

I’m sure you already post “before and after” photos. Take it a step further by including a video version of the same. Showcasing your portfolio, client reviews, and testimonials will help you attract your dream clients.

Add animation to the existing posts – using Canva.

Host online events, lives, and webinars to interact with your audience. Start a conversation with them. Ask them questions, opinions, preferences. These events can be a great form of market research that you can use to improve your interior design business.

Bottom line: Unlike other marketing trends, video content will generate more leads in the long run when compared to static images because video conveys your personality and vision better.

2. Fewer Cookies, More Emails

email marketing

Ok, this one is far from a new marketing trend. It’s more of a tried and true classic, but it’s gold.

Google “marketing blueprint for interior designers”. Surf through the search results and go on with your day. When you go back online, you now get ads about various marketing courses for interior designers from businesses you’ve never heard of. Third-party cookies are why you get those ads.

Google is done with third-party cookies. With the rise in user privacy concerns, Google has decided to lean towards a more privacy-first web and intends to ban cookies forever. What does this mean for businesses that relied on tracking users across the web to advertise and sell?

Zero-party data collection. Businesses and firms will have to rely on zero-party data collection methods to target their ideal audience. Zero-party data is data customers willingly provide to businesses. Email newsletters, registration forms, social media polls are some great examples.

Own your Audience

As an interior design business, owning your audience should be on top of your marketing strategy for 2022. Your business should not be put on hold because Instagram crashed or your Twitter account was suspended for no apparent reason.

Email Marketing is How you Do It

Own your audience by starting an email list and nurturing your audience with a weekly email newsletter full of personality. According to Hubspot, email is 40x more effective than Facebook and Twitter combined when it comes to customer acquisition because sending personalized messages is easier through emails.

You heard it right….40 X MORE EFFECTIVE!

Ads aren’t as Effective as Email

Surface-level marketing like ads and generic (borderline spam) emails are dying… as customers are presented with numerous options to choose from.

To cut to the chase and get undivided attention from your audience, you need to get into their inbox. A simple pop-up form on your website that encourages readers to sign up for a high-quality lead magnet will get the ball rolling. But you gotta give them a really, really good reason to give up their email address!

From offering discounts to email subscribers to curating exclusive design-related content, custom tips to decorate their spaces, etc., you can encourage your audience to sign up for your newsletter with these lead magnet ideas.

Hire an interior design copywriter to go beyond the bare minimum like addressing your customer by their first name when sending an email newsletter.

3. Content That Differentiates Your Interior Design Business

Content is king. But I’m afraid random blogs published on your website without any particular strategy won’t convert visitors to loyal customers.

What you need to market your interior design business effectively is a solid content strategy or blogging strategy that aligns with our business goals.  Create unique, evergreen content that’ll help position you as an industry expert which will attract our dream clients.

The truth is, the internet does not need another list of 10 white paints to brighten up your space unless it has something new to offer but there are way too many of these blogs.

If you truly want your interior design business to stand out, you need content that differentiates you from others.

How to Create Content that’s Different?

  • Got a niche? Specialized content rules the world these days. The more specific it is – the better it performs. Educate your audience about your niche – show your audience the ins and outs of it and come out a true expert as a result.
  • Got a unique design process? Write a blog about it, or a social media post, or record a video or go on IG stories to discuss it. Your process could be the one thing that sets you apart from other designers in your space.

Tell Stories

storytelling

Whatever you choose at the heart of your content strategy – wrap it in a story.  Stories are more impactful and memorable. Compelling stories are a great way to sell without selling. It is easier for someone to remember a story 22x more than a statistic according to Harvard. Great story= stronger relationship with your audience= thriving community of clients over time. Share a customer’s journey from start to finish. This will help your potential customers understand your process.

A professional copywriter can help craft meaningful stories that resonate with your audience. Want to capture your prospect’s attention with stellar copy, reach out to me here and we can create content that’ll help you stand out.

4. Conversational Marketing to Interact with Your Audience

The number of ads you come across on a day-to-day basis vs the number of purchases you make because of ads are drastic. Me, you and everybody else online have become numb to most ads we come across.

Educating your customers and clients about why they need you instead of hard-selling is the epitome of conversational marketing. And it should be at the forefront of your interior design marketing strategy.

Most businesses mistake conversational marketing for relatability only. Publishing a few relatable tweets and Instagram posts doesn’t mean anything if it lacks meaning or purpose. Centering to customer’s needs, wants and pain points instead of your service will help you attract more customers.

Try this incredibly powerful marketing trend. You, as an interior designer can approach conversational marketing by using your dream client’s language in your content, go behind-the-scenes and host live events or Q&A sessions. Tying it back to the previous points, evergreen and educational blogs on your website, newsletters and videos can be great conversation starters too.

Utilize polls, quizzes and questionnaires provided to you by social media and email service providers to interact with your audience.

5. Personal Branding to Get Ahead of the Rat Race

Not so new amongst marketing trends, but so good. Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Shea McGee and Gary Vaynerchuk. You know who they are and the businesses they are associated with. Now if I ask you who the CEO of Ford, Yahoo, or Twitter is, you probably wouldn’t know the answer. By choosing to be the face of their businesses, these CEOs were able to gain a competitive edge over others in the market. Well, it’s one of many reasons they did.

Personal brand could be the reason why people choose you over your competitors. By putting more of YOU into your marketing, you make it easier for people to choose your brand.

Personal branding is the easiest way to instill trust and credibility in your prospects’ minds. This will in turn help you attract high quality clients as most of them seek out an expert or a trustworthy “person”.

Brands that Got it Right

Take Lauren Liess for example. If you look at her website, it seems more like a lifestyle brand than a website dedicated to designs only. Because she’s an established name, people follow her for her first as opposed to for her work.

Justina Blakeney on the other hand has a certain design aesthetic and loves to incorporate a lot of her own home redesign and transformation content. This implies that people who go to her for their design needs choose her because of her style. They want to emulate the same aesthetic for their homes too.

These two contrasting examples of personal branding should be enough to convince you to start working on developing one for your interior design business. Because the minute personal branding is brought up, most businesses shy away thinking personal brand = putting too much of yourself out there.

With powerful website copy, strong personal brand messaging and an integrated multi-channel marketing strategy, you can get ahead of the rat race and grow your interior design and build a business.

Want an outside perspective to make sure your content is just as clear to your ideal customers as it is to you? A website copywriting audit can help you with just that. Feel free to reach out to me if you’d like one.

Copywriter for interior designers

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