How To Use Influencers To Grow Your Interior Design Business

With the rise of social media marketing comes the rise of influencer marketing. At its core, influencer marketing is a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from influencers - individuals who have a dedicated strong social following, often over 10 thousand followers. 

Are you curious about how to incorporate influencers into your marketing strategy? Let’s take a look! 

Why work with influencers

Influencers are essentially sales masters, they are able to use their content to create the need or desire for a certain lifestyle, product, or service. 

They have built a high volume of followers over time but that’s not just about the number. They have also built incredible trust and connection with their audience. This means they have access to a lot of people who are looking at them for inspiration, advice, and tips on what to purchase, what to do, where to go on vacation… and you’ve guessed it… how to design their homes! 

The more followers someone has, the more opportunity they have to create a bigger influence. Influencers on social media will team up with certain brands to increase their sales and drive more traffic toward them. For example, a fitness model influencer will often work with supplement brands, or a yoga teacher will team up with a yoga props brand. 

Customers enjoy reading brand reviews from influencers because they feel like they can trust them. When a friend recommends a product to you you are more likely to try it right? You will also believe your friend over an ad. Well, influencers have a similar impact than that friend except that they talked to thousands of people at the same time! 

Why is this important for interior designers? Because if you get an influencer on your team, one who has an audience you’d like to capture, you automatically get a ton of new leads who are ready to connect with you!  Influencer marketing has become a preferred choice for many designers that want to reach a niche audience of buyers who trust the opinion of an influencer and are likely to make a purchase.

Welcome to the world of interior influencing

Influencers tend to be a personality that has a large audience due to their ability to create captivating content, or review products and services in an entertaining, unique, and informative way. Many people think of celebrities when they consider the word influencer, but truly, today,  anybody can become an influencer. 

In the interior design industry, influencers tend to be known for sharing their favorite styles and products and making trustworthy recommendations about up-and-coming trends and, you guessed it, designers! Influencers can recommend you and your services to their audience. The aim is to ensure all recommendations are unbiased and authentic, especially when it comes to a service recommendation. Because influencers have spent time earning the trust of their audience and are known for sharing specific types of products and services, influencer marketing campaigns can have a very strong return on investment vs. other forms of paid advertising. 

That means it also needs to be well thought out and strategized on the business side, which means on your side!

How does it work?

It’s important to know the difference between the two different forms of influencer marketing.

• Organic = unpaid marketing based on a genuine love of the product (no money is exchanged)
  

• Paid = an influencer is paid or offered an incentive to promote
  

Organic marketing often builds the most trust because people know that someone isn’t being paid to promote your product or service, however, you have very little control over that. One day you might get lucky and an influencer might genuinely like what you do and want to reshare it… but this is not a strategy to count on! 

In order to work with an influencer, especially someone who doesn’t know you or your work or someone who has a large following- you will need to offer them an incentive. Influencers earn their money from the products and services they promote, therefore paid promotions are becoming the mainstay for those with larger audiences and more potential reach. 

Some influencers, usually with a smaller audience, might be interesting in some sort of product/service exchange. Imagine how impactful it would be if you help an influencer design a specific area of their home. This is something that can be discussed and arranged depending on what you are offering and what they are interested in. 

With paid engagement, you have more control over what is shared and how it’s shared. Influencers are provided with specific services or products to review and the exact information to highlight. This helps influencers to develop the content and ensure that the brand’s products and/or services are properly represented. There is a fine line between authentic selling, and selling out so finding the right influencer for you, someone who genuinely is interested in your work is the best way to start. Influencers with longevity on their platforms will protect their reputation by carefully selecting the businesses with which they partner. 

What are the benefits?

Influencers are starting to become real trendsetters. The more influencers mention certain design styles the more likely you are to hear your clients requesting them, especially if you offer e-design services. There is an abundance of benefits to using influencer marketing as part of your overall marketing campaign - the main one being you will have access to a much larger pool of potential clients who are wanting to work with you. Another one is that influencers will have a wider range of media types, if you aren’t a huge fan of content creation, this is a great way to get your services seen on social media platforms. Influencer marketing also stands the test of time, a blog or social media post will be on their platform for years to come as opposed to a one-off paid marketing ad which ends at a certain time. 

Tips to work with influencers

• Engagement vs number of followers

It’s important to note that a large following is not a reason to reach out to an influencer to collaborate. A smaller following of people who genuinely interact is much more beneficial. What you want to look into is the amount of genuine engagement they are getting from their followers. Many influencers will pay to artificially inflate their number of followers and you can tell by the overall lack of engagement, so it’s important to be savvy and know what you’re looking for. 

Engagement is going to be a huge determining factor in the overall success of your influencer marketing campaign. Sometimes called “micro-influencers,’ it’s not uncommon for successful interior design influencers to have 10K – 20K followers as opposed to those in other industries who might have several million. These micro-influencers have the advantage of still being really close to their audience - they usually engage with them by DM, respond to their comments, etc. something that gets harder to do when you have millions of followers. This is why micro-influencers can be really good to partner with as their audience is more engaged and engaging!  

• Shared target audience

Ensure you look for an influencer who is reaching your target audience, not just anyone and everyone. This is where knowing your niche market comes in handy. Click here to learn more about how to find your target audience.

If your area of genius lay in tiny houses and minimalist designs, you don’t want to collaborate with an influencer who talks mainly about children's nurseries or family outdoor patios. You’ll probably have more luck with an influencer who shares a passion for solo traveling, simplicity, and well-being. 

The first step is thus to be clear on who you want to target and then to research influencers who share that same audience. 

How to gain a collaboration

Here are some ways to create a successful influencer marketing campaign.

1. Make a list of influencers that would be a good match for you

Follow and engage with them in a genuine manner. You want to get to know their work and who they are before doing a collaboration with them. This will also help you to get your name out.

Take a look at their website and the collaboration deck (often available on their site) to see what they currently offer and their rates. 

2. Create content that will appeal to them

Determine which interior products or styles they’re reviewing the most. Then you can begin to create similar content to support your social media strategy and add then your professional opinion as an interior designer. This is a great way to position yourself as the expert and get their attention as well as the attention of your audience. Just because someone is sharing a brand new piece of furniture, doesn’t mean they know how to style it or position it. 

3. Develop a specific offer for an influencer’s audience

If you’re already working with someone or building up a relationship, create something unique just for their audience. This could come in the form of a discount or a particular service that you don’t offer elsewhere.

4. Decide on how you want to work together

There are many ways to work with influencers. From a service/product review, a mention on social media, an interview on their podcast or YouTube chain, a special promo code offer only to them and their influence, an affiliate link, or even a giveaway. This will depend on what you have to offer, your goals, and their preferred way to work with you. 

5. Consider a collaboration on a design project

If you find an influencer who is known for their unique style and taste, and it matches yours, consider collaborating on a design project with them. This will help you raise your profile with their audience, it also makes great content that people love to consume. Maybe see if they are willing to work with you on an upcoming project, even something as simple as styling a room or shopping for accessories together and sharing it through a blog or YouTube video.

This could be a great idea to look for influencers currently renovating their house and reach out to ask if they need any help! 

6. Get clear on the specifics

Before agreeing to work together, it’s important to get clear on what you are expecting them to do and create.

• How many posts, stories, mentions, and backlinks can you expect to see?

• Do you need to provide pictures or they are taking care of it? Can you use the pictures afterward for your own marketing?

• When will it be posted?

7. Make sure your social media and website are ready to welcome new visitors

If the campaign gets approved, the influencer will tag you and link back to your site. Great! You now have the opportunity to have hundreds/thousands of new visitors! Are you ready for it?

What will these new visitors see? Is your content well-branded? Are your offers up-to-date? Does your first impression invite them to follow you, click on your website, and keep reading? 

Remember that the goal of the influencer is to send people back to your page. Your goal is to capture them. 

This might be better to delay your campaign with the influencers and first work update your social media or website. 

8. Follow-up

Once the campaign is over, make sure to check that all the requested materials and specifics agreed on were performed. 

This is also a great time for you to check your website and social media analytics and see the effects the campaign has had on your end. This will help you to know if it was a success and if you should do it again or not. 

If influencer marketing is something you want to dive deeper into, or you have more questions, get in touch with us. This can be a really fun way to reach a broader audience. But don’t let it fool you. It also needs to be strategic for it to be really effective. We’d love to help you build your design brand and ensure the right people are finding you. Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation.

Like this article? Pin it now! 📌