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Originally Posted On: https://adesignpartnership.com/blog/an-interior-designers-complete-guide-to-marketing-on-instagram

 

Instagram marketing is a must for interior designers, it’s the best way to grow your business in 2022. Interior design is visual, and so is Instagram!  A match made in heaven!

Marketing on Instagram can feel very daunting for some people. We won’t lie to you, it does take work, energy, and time! But with the right intention and strategy, it can also be your best tool to attract your ideal clients.

With over one billion active users it can feel like you’re competing with hundreds to get you and your services be seen by the right people. So how do you get your content to stand out? How can you generate engagement from potential clients who are actually ready to buy? In this guide, we will share with you our top tips for marketing yourself on Instagram, including some essential strategy tips to get you started! Whether you’re new to the app or if you’ve been using it for years – these tips are sure to help!

WHY DO YOU NEED TO BE ON INSTAGRAM?

These days people are spending far more time scrolling on social than on Google. People will look on IG to pick the restaurant they’ll go to, they plan their upcoming trip following hashtags, and they fall in love with pottery artists after watching their reels.

Instagram knows that and they are updating the app to make it more user-friendly to search content on the app! It is really becoming a search engine!

So the need for you to be on Instagram is becoming greater and greater. Many interior designers are already experimenting it with the majority of their clients now coming directly from Instagram. If it’s not your case yet, keep reading!

So why Instagram?

It’s essentially your portfolio and website all in one while adding a super important aspect: the social one!

People have closer access to you and can look through your work with much more ease. Clients who are considering working with you will check for your portfolio of work on your Instagram account after discovering your website, or they will first find you on Instagram and browse your site. Don’t choose one over the other. They are complementary!

Not to mention Instagram is a great way to nurture your pre-existing clients and maintain relationships.

INSTAGRAM MARKETING – THE GUIDE

 

1. NICHE, NICHE, NICHE!

It’s not random that this is the very first step. Before you start posting content, it’s crucial you define and understand who will be this content for.

Having a niche market is highly important on Instagram.

• Define your ideal client

“Sell to all – sell to none” This is a phrase we use often. If you’re creating content for everyone you’ll lose out on catching those people who you actually want to work with. Having an ideal client is important for all aspects of your business. So if you’re not sure yet who that is, check out how to define your ideal client.

• Get clear on what you want to offer

It’s not just about who you want to target, it’s also about what you want to talk about. Are you clear on your ideal offer? Do you know which expertise you want to highlight? You could have the same target audience as one of your competitors but a very different angle – maybe you focus on eco-friendly outdoor space design while they design modern kitchens.

Now that you gained clarity, you can begin to create content for that specific group of people, or the specific element of interior design you want to focus on. A high-end client who owns an inner-city apartment is going to want to see different content than a mother seeking to build a nursery in her countryside home.

Before posting content ask yourself if it’s aligned with your audience.

2. AESTHETICS

Instagram is a visual platform. In order to appeal to your target audience, you need a cohesive aesthetic. Meaning you need branding and a page that looks like it’s been carefully designed… FOR YOU!

Your Instagram feed is an extension of you.

People not only need to be attracted to your page instantly, within the first 2 or 3 seconds in fact, but they also need to understand through your branding who you are, your energy, and what you offer. Having distinct branding will also help you to be remembered more easily and recognized more quickly. This is going to help you raise your brand awareness!

Your branding includes the picture you will share, the colors and font you will use, the general style of your page.

Learn more about branding here.

3.     CONTENT CREATION

Once you know who you are desiring to work with and you’ve established the way you want it to look like, you can begin the fun part! Actually creating content!

A few questions to ask yourself before you start:

 

–        What do I want my ideal client to feel when they click on my profile?

–        What would attract them?

–        What sort of content would keep them on a profile?

–        What would excite them?

–        Is there any question I can answer? (think of the questions you get asked the most)

Answering these questions will give you great ideas for posts! We recommend you keep a list of topics that you want to explore. That way every time you think of something you can write it down for later.

 

When it comes to creation itself, ensure you’re using a combination of all types of media from professional photography, to videos, to behind-the-scenes footage, to testimonials.

Some content ideas include:

• How To’s

• Before/After’s

• Design Tips

• Sharing your design process

• What are the latest trends in your niche area?

• Business and personal life updates

• Your mission as a company

• Thinks you particularly pay attention to

• How do you like to inspire yourself

• Spotlight on previous work you’ve done

Experiment to see which formats your audience likes the most (and which one you like to create the most too!). Try some long and some short captions, too to see what works best. Grow your audience by actively connecting with people. Message new followers, research other designers in your field, and authentically engage with their work. Comment something insightful or encouraging that will get likes and replies, this will put your comment towards the top. People will be more likely to see the comment and click through to your profile and hopefully follow you.

For Instagram, and content inspiration check out our blog here

4. BE VULNERABLE

Being vulnerable doesn’t mean you have to share your childhood story on your account. What we want to invite you to do is to use your page to show who you are as a business owner, and as a person.

As an interior designer, people will end up working close to you. So getting to know who you are, how you work, what you stand for, the type of personality you have… all this information is going to help your potential customers to picture themselves working with you.

It’s also going to help attract customers you will want to work with! The more authentic your content is going to be, the more YOU it’s going to feel, and the more aligned to you your customers are going to be!

5. CAPTIONS AND HASHTAGS

Ensure your hashtags are relevant to what you’re posting! Research your hashtags to see what’s popular and what’s working. You’re allowed to use 30 hashtags per post, use them wisely. Aim to include a mixture of hashtags with 100,000 or more posts associated with them and those with 10,000 to 99,000 posts.

6. SCHEDULING – KNOW WHAT YOU WILL POST, AND WHEN! 

Decide how active you will be on your page. Whether you post once a week or once a day, ensure you’re consistent. Consistency will always win and helps to gain the trust of your audience. So it’s better to start small than trying to do it all at the same time and giving up faster.

Time management is key. If you post on a whim and sporadically, you’re likely to forget. To avoid this, create a posting schedule for yourself and add it to your calendar. Even better, schedule the content ahead of time in a platform such as Later, Buffer, or Creator Studio.

Consider the time of day that you are posting. Here there is no perfect formula. You have to understand your target audience. When are they going to be the most active? For example, if you’re targeting 9-5’ers, posting at 3 pm means you miss out on the 5 pm rush of people picking up their phones to scroll social media at the end of their working day. You can use Instagram Analytics to see when your current audience is the most active too.

7. INSTAGRAM IS A SOCIAL MEDIA. KEEP IT SOCIAL!

 As we said before your Instagram account and your website are complementary! That means they also have different goals. Your social media page is meant for you to be social.

People want to get to know the people behind the brands. Don’t be afraid to show your face, talk about your journey, or even share what you ate for lunch if that can help make you more relatable.

Sharing behind-the-scenes of your projects is also a great way to attract potential new clients. People love to know how things are created and it also adds some ‘humanness’ to your feed. You don’t just solely want high-quality magazine-worthy photography on there, give people what they want: raw and real!

It’s important that you find the perfect balance for you and feel comfortable about what you are sharing. If you’re anxious about showing up on social media, read our blog on how to reduce anxiety when posting.

8. NURTURE YOUR CURRENT AUDIENCE TO GROW YOUR OVERALL AUDIENCE!

Grow your audience by actively connecting with people. Message new followers, research other designers in your field, and authentically engage with their work. Comment something insightful or encouraging that will get likes and replies, this will put your comment towards the top. People will be more likely to see the comment and click through to your profile and hopefully follow you.

Connection is important, people connect with people and as you are a service-based business it’s important that people can get to know you.

Oftentimes, brands focus the bulk of their time and energy on visual in-feed content rather than talking to their community directly. Whilst content is a vital part of your brand as we have just seen, there is another key aspect to generating sales: engagement. Think of your content as the supporting act. Rather than posting a picture of your product, post a video of you using it, ask questions to your followers, interact with them and show off your product in real-time.

Learn how to grow your audience and turn your followers into clients here

9. Create your own link page

Once again, your Instagram and website are complementary so it’s important to include links to your website in your bio. It’s useful to create a branded page on your website for your bio link but you can also use apps such as Linktree and Milkshake. Place your best links or any blogs you’re referring to. Make it easy for people to land on the page they are looking for.

Are you ready to up your Instagram game? Don’t miss out on the opportunity to grow your business using this popular platform. If you feel a bit too overwhelmed and need support growing your business on Instagram, we’re here to help! Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation. We can’t wait to hear about your design business and your mission and grow it into something even bigger!