Design Influencer Conference 2020 - Actionable Tips (plus how to define your Ideal Client)
I just came back from the Design Influencer Conference 2020 in San Francisco. It’s a gathering of interior designers, design influencers and home decor brands from all over the country. I was on the fence about going because a) I just started this little blog o’ mine, and b) I’m not an interior designer (landscape designer by trade). After checking out the lineup of speakers though and more importantly, the topics covered, I decided to make the investment (plus San Francisco is only an hour from Napa, so no corona-virus petri-dish flight involved). So I got my boys sorted for the time I’d be away and bought my ticket.
They put together a great lineup of speakers including the one and only Nate Berkus, (interior designer extraordinaire - everything from TV to Target) supermodel turned furniture and beauty entrepreneur Miranda Kerr, and NYC based interior designer Alexa Hampton. (Alexa was so funny and irreverent, plus we’re both twin-boy mamas.)
My grainy shot of Nate Berkus discussing using your interior design references to inspire and produce new work
Michel Smith Boyd discussing his video strategy for his YouTube series “How To Luxury”
I quickly decided I had made the right decision to attend, and not just because we were plied with some very good wine and bubbles throughout the conference! (Design Influencer Conference founder Adam Japko was formerly a wine blogger and clearly still has passion for wine and a network to match!)
Seriously though, there was a wealth of insight and knowledge shared by industry experts on current topics relevant not only to design influencers, but any interior (or landscape!) designer and design brand looking to expand business in an industry that has changed radically in the last decade-plus due to the rise of social media and the ever-evolving way we learn about, interact with, and consume design. Design Influencers Conference was celebrating their 10 year anniversary, (formerly the Design Bloggers Conference) so they’ve been on the forefront.
Liquid breakfast of champions rolled out by friendly Hyatt staff at Design Influencers Conference 2020
Latte, bubbles, and steel cut oats (A first-time combo for me and zero complaints!)
Online strategy sessions - small round tables with key design influencers. Intimate access to key design influencers. I was thrilled to spend a portion of my lunch picking the mind of Laurel Bern, founder of wildly successful interior design blog Laurel Bern Interiors, I participated in a small round table discussion getting personalized blogging advice from Carla Aston of Carla Aston Designed, Deborah Von Donap of DVD Interior Design was kind enough to share with me her favorite social media content editing apps during an outing to DZine, and I and met and talked with other bloggers who are making their living online. As a newbie home and garden blogger, this was really helpful and encouraging.
Design Influencer Conference (DIC) 2020 key takeaways
As a relative newcomer to online business and interior + landscape design blogging in particular, I’m always looking for insight from others who have carved out success for themselves. As I navigate blogging, I’m still in the process of “figuring it out.” Not the tech side so much - my background in Squarespace web design has prepared me reasonably well for that, but navigating what topics to cover, how to produce those posts (sanctioned access to quality images being key here) and then how best to “cross pollinate” my content across key social media platforms so I’m working smarter, not harder.
With that in mind, I’m guessing there are others out there with similar struggles, so I thought I’d share a few key takeaways for me from the Design Influencers Conference 2020. I hope they will be helpful for you too.
General Design Biz & Influencer Takeaways
Shoot your projects immediately upon completion, even if it’s on iphone. You never know what it’s going to look like next time you have a chance. (sooo true with web design too)
When working with a photographer, don’t be afraid to art direct the photographer; be intentional with what you want to get from the shoot. Your vision and the photographer’s might not be the same.
Hire an interior design photographer. Not a wedding, real estate, or event photographer etc.
Be proactive - don’t be afraid to reach out to potential collaborators and brands. Get a media kit together and let them know you exist! Just because you’re not on their radar doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be interested. You might have a small but very engaged following that’s a good fit for a particular brand. Worst case scenario - they say thanks but no thanks (for now anyway).
Develop an email list. Your email list, website, and digital products are owned by you and not subject to whims (algorithms) of mercurial social media platforms
Grow your email list with a strong opt-in freebie and nurture your email leads with an automated email sequence. Businesses who nurture leads make 50% more sales at 33% less cost than non-nurtured leads.
Your email list is a potentially salable asset of your online business
Design Influencers Conference 2020 seating area by interior designer Kim Salmela for Norwalk Furniture
Interior + Landscape Design Influencer Branding
In an over-saturated market, developing brand clarity is key. (And btw, styling and logos are only 5% of brand definition according to DIC speaker and leadership coach Rachael Bozsik )
Who are you and who do your serve? What are the types of clients/projects you go after?
What is your project price-point?
Define your Ideal Client. Your Ideal Client is a profile of the kind of client that you most want to work with. Getting super-specific on who your ideal client is, what defines them and their life, what their particular pain-points are as they relate to your business, is key to figuring out who you serve and how best to serve them. Then hone your marketing efforts accordingly.
For an exercise on figuring out who your Ideal Client is, check out my Ideal Client Avatar exercise.
Raise a problem you know your Ideal Client has and how your product or service helps with that problem. Trying thinking about it and filling in the following:
“XYZ Design Co. works with _____ to help them _____” This can be helpful internally and can also be used as a header on a website for instance.
Here’s another variation: “Our (unique adjective) (service or product) (what client will get, starting with a strong verb) so you can (describe how this would change client’s life).
Example: “Greenhouse Studio blog gives readers ideas and tools to to bring the outdoors in and indoors out wherever they’re living and on whatever budget, so they can make their home a haven.” (I would never say this is the most concise brand bio statement, but you get the drift.)
Example (better): “Our fair-trade sourced furniture and accessories will look and feel beautiful in your space so you can sustainably make your house a home.”
DZINE Gallery’s European modern & contemporary showroom in San Francisco’s design district.
Online Business and Social Media Tips & Strategy
Pinterest drives traffic for your site through pinning your original content, Instagram is for connecting to potential clients and reaching out to brands - a more personal connection.
This clarification was helpful to me. While I’m clear on how powerful Pinterest is for driving traffic to a blog, I’ve been kind of confused on how to approach Instagram for my business. Including whether or not I should even spend much time on it at all now as conventional wisdom says it’s better to do one platform well than multiple platforms poorly. So hearing this differentiation was helpful in mentally “decoding” Instagram as it might apply to the Greenhouse Studio blog and thinking about how to potentially work with it.
In general broad-brush terms, a client based business would focus more on Instagram and blog-driven business would prioritize Pinterest
Pinterest is a search engine, not a social media platform, so SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is everything. Incorporate keywords as much as possible into your profile and posts to make yourself searchable.
If you’re doing a seasonal blog post, produce it 2-3 months before the actual season/holiday for Pinterest.
It takes two weeks for posts to gain traction on Pinterest anyway, plus viewers are looking for ideas well ahead of time.
Set up a Pinterest business account and claim your website. This prevents anyone from using your portfolio images to create “Shop the Look” pins with salable items they would earn commission from.
Video is worth the effort - it’s favored by many platforms right now including Pinterest, plus it’s eye-catching when people are searching on Instagram. Michel Smith Boyd gave a great talk on how he uses YouTube to convey his design biz narrative.
Tik Tok? - not many home decor influencers have a presence there right now, so it’s relatively easy to gain followers
Finally, all this online stuff is great, but getting out, attending events and connecting with real live people in person is key. Your network = your net worth! (I should tattoo this on my forehead.)
Everyone mixing and mingling at DZINE gallery’s Sips & Bites event (a fun way to network!)
Well that was a broad-brush rundown of some talking points that caught my attention during the 3 days of speakers.
After the closing speaker, we had (wait for it) more wine and field trips with California Home + Design magazine to DZINE and the Purcell-Murray showrooms where a good time was had by all.
So there you have it, some actionable take-homes from my first design influencer-blogging conference. I know I have many goals and punch-list items to accomplish in my business this year as a new home and garden blogger. What are some of your design business goals?
Enjoy the post? Pin it for later!
