12 Digital Marketing Strategies for Interior Designers in 2024

If you want to succeed as an interior designer, effective marketing is an absolute must. And given the fact that virtually all of your future clients are online, digital marketing is especially important.

However, unless you already have a degree in marketing or extensive experience in the field, understanding digital marketing for interior designers can be harder than it looks. Here are 12 strategies to get you started.

1. Create a Professional Website

As they pour effort into discovering new online marketing strategies, plenty of business owners forget one of the most critical elements of digital marketing — a great website. Your website is your digital storefront, so you want it to look professional enough to attract new clients.

Think of it this way: would you walk into a shop that appeared dusty, run-down, and possibly abandoned? Probably not. If a potential customer visits your website and sees that it’s outdated and visually unappealing, they’ll probably move on, too.

If you have some knowledge of web design, you might be able to successfully create your own website. However, because your website is so often at the center of digital marketing efforts, it’s well worth paying a professional to create it for you.

2. Harness the Power of Social Media

For the professional interior designer, social media has two key uses: it lets you showcase your work and makes it easier for you to engage with clients. A successful social media strategy includes creating business accounts on multiple social media platforms. These are some major ones:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• TikTok
• LinkedIn

However, it’s not enough to simply create your accounts and occasionally post. When you maintain a regular posting schedule, your audience will be more likely to engage, and you’ll be more likely to show up on their feeds. You might post photos and videos of current projects, offer behind-the-scenes glimpses into your workspace, and even share design tips.

Each time you post, make sure to stick around to answer questions and engage with viewers and commenters. This kind of interaction personalizes your brand, and it’s a great way to grow your following.

 
3. Start a Blog

Blogs may have started out as a way for people to share their thoughts and feelings online. However, having a blog is now a smart business decision. When you add a quality blog to your website, you build credibility with your clients and the broader design community.

Your blog is also a way to introduce would-be clients to your business. People may stumble upon one of your blog articles when searching for design-related topics. If the reader finds the article helpful, they just might become a client in the future.

A word of warning here: a poor-quality blog will often do more damage than not having a blog at all. If a reader sees that your blog is riddled with spelling errors and poorly written, they won’t see you as credible, and they likely won’t hire you. 

4. Develop and Offer a Quality Lead Magnet

You can’t gather new clients without getting new leads. One way to generate leads is to use a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a particular service or item a person can receive in exchange for their contact details.

You’ve likely received at least a handful of lead magnets before. Have you ever taken a quiz and then put in your email to get your results? That quiz was a lead magnet. If you’ve ever entered your phone number and email in exchange for a free e-book or PDF, that e-book or PDF was a lead magnet, too. Here are some examples of lead magnets for interior designers:

• A free guide to interior decorating on a budget
• A design-related quiz (like “What Style of Design Are You?”)
• A checklist of what to look for when assessing your home’s current interior design
• A list of things to know before hiring an interior designer

 Not every lead you get from a lead magnet will turn out to be a customer. But usually, at least some will!

 
5. Host a Workshop or Webinar

Hosting a webinar or workshop is a great way to build credibility. It’s also a great way to draw in potential new clients. But in order to have a successful webinar, you’ll need to choose a specific aspect of interior design to focus on.

For instance, you might choose to host a webinar focused on designing on a budget or decluttering. If you’re especially knowledgeable about a particular style of design, you might consider a webinar focused on that.

6. Collaborate With Professionals in Related Fields

When done strategically, collaborating with those in related professions can be a way to build your following and create a valuable referral network. Because you’re competing against other interior designers for clients, you wouldn’t team up with a fellow designer.

However, collaborating with an artist, furniture designer, or architect is a good idea. Doing so will give you some exposure to the other professional’s following. In the future, they will be able to refer their clients to you if they’re in need of an interior designer.

7. Create a Newsletter

One of the best ways to win the trust of customers is to do something helpful for them before they actually become customers. For example, if someone has already received valuable design advice from you, they’ll be more likely to hire you when they need a designer.

An email newsletter offers you an easy way to deliver valuable design advice to your readers. It also helps to personalize your brand and make you stand out from the competition. Of course, you can always include a promotion or discount in your newsletters to encourage those who haven’t yet become customers to take the plunge.

That said, you should be careful not to overdo it. If you send out a newsletter too often, your readers might feel like you’re spamming them. A good rule of thumb is to send out a newsletter every two weeks or every month — no more frequently than that.

8. Write a Google Business Description

If you want to boost your business’s visibility online, make sure you have a complete Google Business (formerly called Google My Business) profile. This is a profile that lets you control (at least in part) the way your business shows up on Google searches or on the Maps app.

With a well-written profile, you can reach new people, connect with your clients, and show off some of your best work. Google is the world’s most-used search engine, and Google Business profiles are free, so there’s no reason not to set one up!

How do you create a Google Business profile that gets results? Here are a few best practices to follow:

• Always make sure it’s immediately clear what you do
• Highlight what sets you apart from other interior designers
• If your business history is especially important, include a few sentences about it
• Include one or two high-value keywords (more on keywords below!)

 You can write a business profile yourself, but if you’re already working with content writers or a content agency, you also could consider asking them to develop one for you.

9. Use Paid Advertising

If you’ve been searching for “How to promote my interior design business,” you’ve likely come across advice for bringing organic search traffic and leads to your website. It’s always wise to have an organic strategy, but bringing in leads this way takes time.

Most new businesses can’t afford to wait for customers. Paid advertising can be a helpful way to start gaining new clients. Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising is particularly effective, even if your advertising budget is fairly low.

In order to run a successful PPC campaign, you need to have a solid working knowledge of how the system works. When you consider the hours you’d probably need to learn about the process and manage your own campaign, it’s almost always more cost-effective to hire a marketing professional.

10. Design a 3D Virtual Tour

This is a somewhat non-traditional strategy, but it’s a great way to engage your digital audience — whether you post it on one of your social media profiles or your website. Your work is your greatest advertisement, and if you design a 3D virtual tour of a project, you’ll make your audience feel as though they’re right onsite with you.

Of course, you can post photos of your work, too. But part of digital marketing is standing out, and offering your followers a 3D online experience is certainly a way to set yourself apart from the competition.

11. Seek Out Podcast Guest Opportunities

One way to get the word out about your brand is to be a guest on design-related podcasts. It’s an especially effective strategy if you’re a confident public speaker. If you can eloquently communicate your design expertise, you just might catch the ear of someone looking for an interior designer.

If you aren’t sure how to begin, start by finding a few high-quality design podcasts you admire. See if any of them routinely have guests. Some podcast hosts may openly invite designers and other professionals to speak. If you don’t see an open call for guests, consider contacting the host — it doesn’t hurt to ask!

12. Prioritize SEO

Wondering how to get interior design clients through your website and blog? Search engine optimization (usually just abbreviated as SEO) is the answer. Essentially, SEO involves identifying keywords that your target audience often searches for and placing those keywords strategically within your content.

When the right keywords are placed carefully (but not stuffed!) into a blog post or other piece of content, that content is more likely to show up higher on the search engine results page (SERP). And as you know, searchers are much more likely to click results closer to the top of the page. Over time, that high SERP ranking brings more people to your site, which generally translates to more business.

SEO is a key part of digital marketing. Like pay-per-click advertising, it’s something you can technically learn yourself. However, the process of doing keyword research, planning out your content strategy, and writing the content itself can be incredibly time-consuming. It often makes more sense to hire an agency or individual marketer to handle your SEO.

Ready to Elevate Your Business?

Online marketing for interior designers takes time — time you may not have when you’re busy growing your business. Fortunately, Behind the Design can help. Start your journey to a profitable business, increase your visibility, and build the business of your dreams.

Transform your vision into success with Behind the Design. If you're an architect or interior designer eager to elevate your business, our expert team is ready to guide you. Schedule your introductory meeting today and embark on a journey to build your business to great heights. Schedule here for a "Let's Chat Marketing" call!