In the early days of human civilization, strategic Branding didn’t exist. With the advent of the industrial revolution, competition arose and Marketing became imperative for any business to succeed. As time progressed and technology became more advanced, the concept of marketing also expanded. Today, every business, especially interior designers, must focus on showcasing their products and Services to their target audience or no one will ever be exposed to the brand.

Branding in the modern age helps individuals, businesses and organizations set themselves apart from the competition. The same is true for almost every profession, and interior designers are no different. The housing and real estate market has seen a steady growth over the years and so has the number of interior designers and architects in the industry.

With the number of players in the field increasing, it is a sound Strategy to market yourself in a way that helps the target audience ascertain what you do differently and why is it a good choice to enlist your services.

Following are some of the most relevant branding practices that interior designers can follow to better strategize their marketing.

Find your target audience

As an interior designer, you need to identify your target audience and then divide it into smaller markets so that you can produce customized offerings that cater specifically to those difference consumers. This is known as niche targeting.

As a firm or individual, it is not advisable to spend resources on targeting almost everyone you can find because only your target audience will be valuable customers and respond to your marketing efforts.

Finding your target market implies answering a few important questions:

What is my product or service and who would need it?
Why am I choosing this segment of society?
What does my product or service have that will add value to the life of this segment?
How do I communicate clearly to this target audience?

The answers to these questions can help you determine a number of different things About the members of your select group and how you’re going to target them. It helps you create the perfect customer who will be interested in your services.

Once this group has been selected, further filters must be deployed to divide them further so you can speak to them on a more personal level making them feel special and even more attracted towards you as a brand.

Pick the appropriate platforms

Your target market helps you identify the venues that you need to focus your marketing strategies on. Digital marketing offers cost effective ways to market through almost every platform, but it’s not wise to spread your efforts so extensively that eventually most of them start being neglected.

As an interior designer, there are certain platforms that catch the most attention. Visuals are the name of the game and platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Houzz are the hubs of visual marketing and micro-blogging. The important thing to notice is that not every person is active on every social network. It requires some research to determine which avenue is the most effective for your company to be present on.

For example, Houzz is one of the most effective mediums for home decorators and interior designers with a user base of around 40 million and 25 million unique visitors every month. The competition is steep however with around 1.5 million professionals meaning that you need extensive efforts in order to stand out.

Choose the right content types

Marketing platforms are only as good as the content that goes on them. The dynamics of what is described as the appropriate content has changed over the years. People these days prefer visual content to plain texts which is why videos have started to dominate the world wide web and it is estimated that in the coming years it will contribute to almost 80% of all traffic on the internet. Today, consumer digest visuals faster than text, partly due to the hurry that people are in throughout their day and constant exposure to messages.

That being said, text has not lost its importance in marketing strategy. Google has shown that the average word count of a post that shows on the first page of the search results is 1890 words. This goes to prove that every content type has its own importance amongst respective target audiences and platforms.

In order to build a brand of yourself as an interior designer, you have to move away from traditional and generic content types like blogs on topics that have been addressed extensively elsewhere and focus on producing specialized materials like video tours of projects, time lapses and collaborative articles etc.

Focus on influencer marketing

This is a fancy twist given to word of mouth marketing that is a popular strategy in the digital world today. Bloggers, established designers and decorators, celebrities etc., are the types of influencers that you can target. The objective is to have them endorse you and your services in a way that doesn’t seem forced. This can be an effective tool especially if the influencer promoting your business is credible in the field and trusted by their followers.

Try to personalize as much as possible

We keep coming back to customization and personalizing content again and again because it has been proven to be one of the most effective targeting methods available with marketers these days. Consumers want the service provider to make them feel special, they want them to offer products that they feel are designed specifically for them and value their feedback where possible.

Although this might sound difficult to achieve, it is actually quite simple because it requires minor tweaks in communication styles and service.

Branding means promising consumers something that competitors can’t. The essential element to success here is how well you keep that promise because hollow claims will fall apart sooner or later, which is why an enormous effort has be to made to create a brand of yourself. At the end of the day, it is worth it.

Ready to kick-start your branding today? Contact us to get started!