Fail to Plan = Plan to Fail

Interior design & social media are a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, there is a BIG difference between GOOD social media marketing and how most interior designers use social media to market their interior design business.

For today's expert article, social media marketing genius Emanuela Schneider is here to help interior designers level up their social media marketing & grow their businesses.

Emanuela Schneider is a Social Media Manager for Interior Designers (I will need a brief bio here focused on your work with interior designers)

Let's get started:

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Social media platforms like Instagram, Pinterest & Facebook are filled with interior designers posting pictures of their latest projects. What are your big-picture thoughts on social media marketing for interior designers? Is social media marketing a good idea for interior designers?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Yes! When implemented with the right marketing strategies for their business, these platforms can be great tools to build brand awareness, build authority as industry leaders and build relationships with ideal clients. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Most interior design businesses are micro-sized and as such, have micro-sized marketing & advertising budgets. Is it possible for an interior designer to market their business on social media without breaking the bank?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  For sure! In general, small businesses should invest between 5-10% of their revenue in marketing. But it is an investment - without marketing, your business isn’t likely to reach as many potential clients. I have clients who got many clients through Instagram in just the first couple of months! Your return on investment in social media marketing is likely to be worth it. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  On a personal level, most of us use social media randomly...without any sort of plan or strategy. Sadly, I think most interior design businesses use social media the same way...without any sort of plan. Do you agree?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  I 100% agree. It’s frustrating to see because it means those interior designers are wasting their time, money and energy. And it IS easy to spot when they don’t have a plan or strategy: They post inconsistently, don’t use the ideal target hashtags, don’t use captions in a way that would convert, just share pins on Pinterest but never make their own, have a messy feed, etc. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  How important is a social media marketing plan or strategy for interior designers?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Very! A social media marketing plan is what helps convert their audience into clients. It’s what creates brand awareness, what uses their uniqueness as a selling point. If you’re not doing any of that, you’re wasting your time. Instead, designers could be using the time and energy to be with their family, have self-care moments or actually stepping into the CEO role of their company and making decisions that would grow the biz! 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  What makes a good social media marketing strategy? (goals, metrics, audience, competition, etc)

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: Having an intention behind every decision! And you can’t do that without  defining your ideal clients, your unique selling point, brand voice, analyzing the competition, and more! Once you do that, you know that every post, every hashtag, every pin has an intention meant to grow your business. For example, one caption builds up your authority as an industry leader, another helps your ideal clients relate to you. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  What should I post? How often should I post? When should I post? 

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: It’s less about how often and more about consistency and QUALITY. You can post every day on Instagram, but if you miss a day, the algorithm notices and your post won’t get as much reach! That’s why I normally encourage designers to post 3xweek. They can stick to a schedule that will allow them to create good-quality content. Remember: if you just post every day for the sake of it, you’re not creating content that will convert. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Do I need a different strategy for different social media platforms?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Yes! Every platform is different. Each platform has its own algorithm, own updates and features. But behind every pin on Pinterest and every post on Instagram has to be intentional. You have to know what you’re doing and why. Otherwise, it’s time going down the drain. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  How do I get people to respond to my posts? I want new clients...how do I use social media to get people to want to work with me?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: You start with a marketing strategy! I work with 3 types of content: educational, objectionable and personal. If you want people to respond to your posts, create engaging content. And if you want new clients, consistently post these 3 types of content. It’s the know,like & trust factor. Your new client has to like you as a person, trust you can do your job and of course...know about you!

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  If I was a brand-new interior designer thinking about using social media to market their new biz, what advice would you share about social media marketing? 

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: Good question! Define your ideal clients. And I don’t just mean who you want to work with in general. I mean their location, what platforms they use, what they do as a hobby, what opinions they have, their income, etc. The more you can define your ideal client, the better and easier it is to target your content to them. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto: If I was an existing interior designer who is already using social media to market their new biz, what advice would you share? 

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: Have a plan! Like you’ve pointed out, many designers use social media as a marketing tool but don’t have a proper strategy. A strategy goes a long, LONG way!

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Is it possible for an interior designer to correct all the mistakes they have made marketing their business on social media?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Yes. Like business in general, a lot of social media marketing is learning and pivoting. If an interior designer was just posting for the sake of it, stop and start a plan. If they were writing captions that just didn’t resonate with their audience, analyze and learn. Same goes with everything. The biggest part of social media marketing is analyzing, learning and building a strategy.

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Which are the best social media platforms for marketing an interior design business?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  I say Instagram and Pinterest. Interior design is a visual business. And these are very visual platforms! Instagram is perfect to build a relationship with your ideal client and Pinterest is perfect to increase your SEO traffic and direct people to your website. Using both of these platforms together is an ideal strategy for a design business. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Would you lump email marketing into the social media category...vs advertising or print marketing?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Yes! Email marketing is essential. It's an ideal part of your sales funnel since it reminds both potential and past clients of your work, AND gets them to take action (send you an email or look at your website). 

Advertising is also very important, but it’s not in the social media category. And since you mentioned print, I think getting your interior design name in publications builds authority, which is something I even help my clients with through social media! You’d be surprised how much we can use Instagram to create these useful connections. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  How important is it to "properly" set up our social media accounts? 

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Very. Social media optimization helps grab the attention of your ideal clients and also helps with SEO. If you have a great bio and username on Instagram, you’re more likely to be found in the search option. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  If I search for info on social media marketing online, I find lots of examples of award-winning campaigns designed by big marketing companies for their big corporate clients. Do these type of marketing campaigns make any sense for an interior designer with 1 or 2 employees? Or should they focus on a smaller scale, more personal, more local, more guerilla form of social media marketing?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: Definitely smaller scale! The great thing about a small design firm is that it’s more personal. A client can feel more comfortable knowing who’s hands their design is in. So run with that! That’s why creating these personal connections with ideal clients is so important. A big design firm doesn’t have much time or even the need to do that. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  I've read a lot about social media calendars BUT the more I read, the more confused I get...what is a social media calendar, do I need one, how do I build one, etc???

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  There’s just so many out there! They are very useful for content ideas and keeping you on track. But some have ideas for every day of the month, and as I’ve said before quality is better than quantity. Maybe take those ideas and create your own social media calendar that works FOR YOU. That’s what I do for my clients! I create one with Google Docs to plan the posts ahead of time and keep everything organized. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto: What kind of content should make up my social media marketing efforts? images from recent jobs, behind the scenes stuff, motivational messages, etc?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: All of the above! Recent projects, behind the scenes, before and afters, fun quotes and don’t forget… your face! People want to know who the face is behind the design firm. People connect with people, not brands. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  What response do I want to get from my social media marketing? brand awareness, likes, shares, website clicks, etc?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  Yep. Website clicks, shares, likes & saves. Each response means something different. Which is why I work with 3 types of content and each content has one intention. Some posts are made for ideal clients to check out your site. Others are made for them to like you as a person and keep you in mind (which is where shares and saves come in). Each post will be different and should get different responses. But in general, these responses should mean brand awareness and connection with ideal clients. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  How much time, effort & money should I spend on maintaining my new social media marketing plan?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  It depends on your revenue and the plan you’re going for. As for effort, if you hire a social media manager, you won’t have to do anything :)

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  Is there software, apps, websites that would help a DIY approach to social media marketing?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers:  So many! For website resources, I love Neil Patel. He’s a marketing genius. For apps and software, you can use Later, Planoly, Tailwind, Plann, you pick! But you’d still have to create the content, these just help you with organization and some tips. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  If I follow all of your great advice in this article, will I be able to create, implement & maintain an effective social media marketing plan?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: You’d have a better idea for sure! If you plan on going the DIY route with your social media marketing, these will help. But you will have to do more research, spend some time and energy on it! Some people can handle it, others prefer to outsource. 

Douglas Robb - Interior Design Toronto:  I stink at social media marketing. Can you explain your process...how would you help me grow my business with social media marketing? What would I have to do? What would you do for me? How long would it take to get my new plan into action? What about maintenance...can you help with that? And the big question...how much would it cost?

Emanuela Schneider - Social Media Manager for Interior Designers: First, I’d get all the information from you:

• your ideal clients,

• your past clients,

• pictures of you and your projects,

• your brand colors,

• brand voice, etc.

Then, I would create a workspace to organize all this info in.

Then, I would create a google doc with personal questions about you and questions on your projects. This would already turn into content!

If you were to give me all this info in a day, the new plan would be ready in 2 weeks for us to implement. But most designers don’t respond to everything in a day since they’re very busy! As for cost, it depends on my packages. They can vary from $359 to $999.

You can look at my website for more info: https://www.manuschneider.com/services.

Hope this helps! 

About Emanuela Schneider

Emanuela Schneider is a social media manager for interior designers. She has a background in journalism and copywriting, but found her passion in helping designers with social media marketing. She now specializes in Instagram and Pinterest management. She also helps designers generate leads and build a real relationship with their ideal clients

Website: www.manuschneider.com

Email: emanuschn@gmail.com

Instagram: @marketinginteriordesigners

Facebook: @emanuela.schneider

LinkedIn: @emanuela-schneider-110a9178