Interior Design Marketing Strategy: Made Simple
So you went into interior design because you’re passionate about home interiors. Maybe like me, you used to pore over wallpaper catalogues. Fast forward to now, you prefer scrolling Instagram and Pinterest for inspirational images or checking out the new showroom properties on Rightmove. You’re often found staring at walls blankly. In your head you’re reconfiguring the layout, extending a wall, adding a built-in and designing the décor. As an art form, interior design can move us on many levels; emotional, physiological and psychological and affects our well-being, mindset and energy levels.
You dream of becoming the next Sophie Paterson, Shea McGee or Kelly Hoppen and are itching to put your design prowess to the test, make your mark and see where your interior design journey takes you.
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You can’t wait to realise all those creative ideas that have floated around in your head for an age. As someone who follows countless interior designers and retailers on Instagram and YouTube, attends KBB, Clerkenwell Design Week, the UK’s leading design festival, Decorex International, interior design event and Wow House, I get it. Design is exciting, it lights you up.
Stuck on a Social Media Hamster Wheel?
What you didn’t expect was this... The sheer volume of marketing required to get your message out there, find your ideal clients and keep them coming.
You’re stuck on an endless hamster wheel, churning out social media, watching way too many sponsored ads on how to grow your Instagram, gain followers and up your game etc. Must post x number of posts per day on Pinterest, Instagram and LinkedIn. The list is overwhelming and often confusing.
You’re exploring countless streams of social media, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, getting to grips with for TikTok, Threads or Twitter (X). You’re learning how to use Canva, create reels and become a videographer, come 5-star photographer. All this on top of designing in SketchUp, AutoCAD and Adobe and mastering the latest software updates. Sound familiar? You could work full-time on social media but you don’t have that time. You are wearing so many hats to market your interior design services, it’s exhausting. Interior design (the thing you love and excel at) is getting pushed further down the pile.
You’ve thought about turning to Google ads to boost visibility, but it’s way too expensive, at least for an ongoing strategy and Facebook groups seem to be in it for the long game.
Simplify Your Interior Design Marketing
I hear you. I feel your frustrations.
What IF I said I could make it simple for you? I could strip it right back to basics and cut out the noise leaving you free to concentrate on the design side you LOVE.
Let’s start by outlining the steps I’d take if I were to hire an interior designer.
For me, It’s the same process I’d adopt to hire any other household contractor. Aside from word of mouth, I’d Google interior designers near me with the location, budget and aesthetic I had in mind, probably in that order. For example, I live in Warwickshire UK, I have a small to medium budget and I love French rustic classic design. So I’d search ‘affordable interior designers in Warwickshire’. I’d browse the first few pages to get a feel for their vibe, view their images to find a similar design style, and read their case studies and other personal content including blogs to search for a human connection. I’d then check out their testimonials to hear from their clients. Then I’d pick three and ask them to quote.
So let’s put my money where my mouth is and go through the process.
Break Down The Customer Journey
Let’s type into Google ‘Affordable interior designers in Warwickshire’. First up is a sponsored ad, ‘Bark’ a generic comparison site, sure I could sign up there. But would the best interior designers be fully booked?
Do I want to schedule time asking people to come round and quote without first doing my own research and filter?
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Maybe I’ll return to that later. Next, I click on a national site. That too is a sponsored ad. You can spot it by the little ad sign to the right of the search title. A quick click reveals it’s for a commercial and industrial fit-out, not really relevant to my search. It only ranked at the top through sponsorship. Not what I’m looking for. I’m searching for a website that actually offers what I’m looking for. Next is ‘mybuilder.com’ another comparison site. Mmmm I really want to do my own research. Keep going. Next another sponsored ad. Internal oak doors. NO! not relevant. No sponsored ads please. The fifth sponsored ad is ‘Houzz’. Ok, at least now I have a specialist comparator site for interior design. Getting warmer. Worth a look to see who’s listed but I really want the full comprehensive list to shop from. Not just those that advertise on the platform. Sixth on the list is my first real contender. An organic website. An interior designer in Warwickshire. Let’s go.
Home page sounds amazing. I read ‘outstanding’, ‘experienced’, ‘most prestigious in Warwickshire’. It reveals how they work. All sounds impressive. Let’s check out the portfolio. Lots of gorgeous images. Looks fabulous but I want to know more. I’m keen to explore if this is a real fit for me before I make contact. More images. But I’m not yet feeling a connection. I want stories. I want to know how exactly they arrived at that amazing image. How did it look before? What design dilemma did they address? Who lives there? How do they live? Can I relate? What were they hoping to achieve? What challenges did they face? There’s not enough content here to get a feel for how they work and who they work with. I want to glean their personalities and understand who is on their team.
Interior design websites with glossy pictures and no content, look amazing but don’t create that vital connection that has the power to generate sales.
How do I know you’re not way out my league? Do you offer the level of service I am looking for at the price I am prepared to pay? I’m not yet confident enough to make contact. I’m unclear how to approach you. I want to feel you’re reaching out to me directly. Although I’m actively searching, I haven’t read anything that prompts me to take action with YOU. Having made it to the top page of Google, how frustrating would it be to fall at the final hurdle with a lack of relatable copy that prompts the visitor to follow through?
Let’s keep going … And so I continue until I find my closest fit and one I would feel most comfortable exploring.
Establish Your Signature Design Service
To attract clients, you need to nail down your offer. Getting razor-sharp focus helps you channel your marketing efforts intentionally and increases your chances of success. When determining your signature service, you should consider the following:
your unique skills and experience
jobs you enjoy and those you don’t
personal design style
your signature stamp
team size, skills and strengths
outsourcing to freelancers
your network of contractors and suppliers
local client base
local property styles
social and economic demographic
how far you want to travel for work
remote services and course programmes
other potential networks including property developers and architects
Once established, your signature service will become the foundation of your business, a pillar around which your entire marketing strategy is formulated.
Be sure to think it through to ensure it works for you in a way you can manage and sustain. Whilst building your interior design brand, keep offers simple. Limit your services to no more than three key areas, so your message remains clear, targeted and memorable. Too much information leads to confusion and hampers brand recognition.
Adopting a personal brand will differentiate you from competitors. Design is infinitely diverse so, however popular your niche, you can always find ways to set yourself apart from the competition and imprint your unique stamp. Your entire branding design from the colours you choose to the brand voice you adopt, should align with your signature services to create a comprehensive and cohesive package.
Keyword Strategy for Interior Designers
So now we’ve established your core offer(s), it’s time to research SEO keywords ie the words that your clients will search when looking for an interior designer.
Your keywords should align with three main areas: location, design style and target audience
If I’m after a feature style in my house, what will I Google? If I want an interior designer in Warwickshire, what will I search? It needs to be a budget-friendly option, so let’s add that in. And if I want all three? Here’s an opportunity to employ longtail keyword phrases that are often easier to rank for. Put yourself in the shoes of your client. Check out interior design competitors who show up on the first page of Google without paid ads and leverage the words they are using. Use specialist SEO tools such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, which aims to make online marketing easy, Moz, the ultimate SEO tool or Uber Suggest, one of the best keyword research tools for generating keyword ideas, to identify keywords and their search volume. In an oversaturated market, the higher volume words will not be as easy to rank for. You might need to get creative and search for hidden potential.
Local SEO Tips for Interior Design Copywriting
Local SEO is a must for interior designers. Clients search their home location to simplify travel, materials, site visits etc. Here are some ways you can optimise local SEO:
Register a Google Business Profile, formerly Google my Business.
Include on-page local SEO keywords.
Encourage clients to leave a local directory business review.
Build links to (and ultimately from) from local places and organisations.
Add business addresses and maps. It helps to have a separate contact page.
Get listed in other trusted directories including Bing places for business, Yelp for Business, with free solutions to help you get found by local customers, Yell, a leading market place for businesses and Houzz, build and design software for pros and homeowners.
Optimise your business listing for keywords both local and business related.
Add content that includes geographical locations or events including local case studies.
Claiming your Google Business Profile is the most important action you can take to optimise your ranking for Google’s local pack results and organic results because it literally puts you on the map. Appearing as a pinpoint on a Google business map is where you aim to be.
Read ‘The Ultimate Guide to Local SEO for Interior Designers’ for a full comprehensive step-by-step, guide, packed with tips for beginners. Start by registering for Google Business. Following the steps outlined, will go a long way towards helping you boost your local rankings.
As a specialist directory, Houzz offers a free as well as a pro subscription and is dedicated to interior designer businesses so check out how to create a free business account on Houzz. Not only do you earn referrals from local directory listings, but you also benefit from their SEO since they tend to rank highly.
Super Blogs: Interior Design Content Writing Gold
The next step is content writing, actually writing it. As an interior designer, your content should reflect both creativity and personality. That’s what the client’s buying into. Whoever said ‘content is king’, (Bill Gates in 1996), was right and today it rings truer than ever provided you focus on quality over quantity. If you want to rank highly on Google, if you want organic traffic to discover your website without paid ads, it all begins with optimised content writing. Fresh supplies of updated content targeted towards your niche keywords. Sprinkle them throughout your website including headers, tags and blogs. SEO will keep your website visible, pulling in fresh traffic from popular searches. Let it do the hard work for you.
Long-form SEO blogs have the potential to become ‘evergreen’ meaning they will continue to attract traffic, long after the blog is published. Whilst paid ads yield short-term gains, useful for promoting live launches, they are rarely sustainable, unless you have deep pockets. So lay some solid foundational pillars that will serve you long-term, creating passive sales without you having to constantly show up on social media or pay up on ppc ads!
SEO drives 1,000% more traffic than organic social media.
An estimated 70% of online marketers say that SEO is better than PPC for generating sales.
Curating one long-form blog packed with SEO keywords for visibility, allows you to create multiple quotes and social media posts which can be repurposed for many platforms including Instagram reels and carousel tips. When it comes to social media, it pays to work smarter, not harder, focusing on strategic sales conversion over the number of ‘likes’ and comments.
Repurpose your strategic content to optimise reach. It keeps your entire marketing strategy cohesive with repetitive messages that make you memorable and makes life easier for you.
Your blog content may be revamped for a live video, reel or podcast.
Purposeful blogs create a snowball effect that sparks countless ideas for new content, simply by getting clear on direction.
Neil Patel, the award-winning SEO powerhouse, recently posted on social media ‘traffic isn’t everything. Your goal should be to have the right type of traffic. Don’t just write content to get more traffic. Write content related to your ideal customers’ needs and focus on revenue over traffic’.
The message is clear. Focus on quality over quantity and tailor content to your core services. Some traffic works harder than others. Long-form content fares better for SEO opportunities, so it’s worth including some core pillar content alongside your regular content.
If you’ve been feeling the strain of social media, take a moment to take stock and get back to basics. For optimal results, focus on super blogs that align with your ideal client’s search intent AND your core services, extracting key points for multiple social posts.
Written by Jane Eley
Freelance Interiors Copywriter
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I write for *Interior Designers *Home interior retailers *Lifestyle brands *Product Designers *Kitchen and Bathroom Designers *Home Stagers *Fabric Suppliers *Architects *Contractors and all things home.
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Jane Eley Writing
Interior Design Copywriter for Home and Luxury Lifestyle Brands
