When it comes to digital marketing, understanding your target audience is key for crafting a great strategy that brings in tons of leads. However, many building materials companies forget that they have a key ally in their corner—interior designers.
This key pairing is a good way to ensure your product is the first solution they think of when they’re looking to add innovation and beauty to a specific project. But, if you aren’t working to reach them, there’s no way they’ll even know you exist.
Keep reading to learn why marketing to interior designers is important for building materials companies and the best ways to do so.
Why Should You Market to Interior Designers?
Marketing to interior designers is just one vital facet of a well-rounded online advertising strategy. Not only are these individuals a key link between you and the end user, but they also get paid to express their opinions about specific building materials and their respective brands. Not making an attempt to at least show up on their radar would be a huge mistake.
Instead, you should craft a section of your company’s online presence to specifically target professionals in the interior design business. From there, they can then present your product line to their potential clients, which is great for your business in the long run. Can you see why this is such a great idea?
How to Market to Interior Designers
If you aren’t sure where to start with marketing to these individuals, we’ve got you covered. Here are a few key marketing strategies you can use to target interior designers.
Blog Posts
Content marketing as a whole is a great way to reach interior decorators and designers. When thinking of an idea for your latest blog posts, consider any pain points they might have and how your product might be used in an actual home or business.
Are they in need of a new surround for a customer’s fireplace? What about a cool and innovative new railing material for a stairway? These are just a few of the topics you can cover to help give these creative thinkers a new option when it comes to coming up with the perfect space for their clients.
Email Marketing
If you already routinely work with interior designers, consider adding them to your email marketing list. This is an excellent way to stay in touch and keep them informed about any new products you have available, while also reminding them that your company exists.
You can also send out monthly look books or other digital guides to give them inspiration as to how to use your building materials in a new or innovative way. After all, you never know when creativity is going to strike, and they’ll want to use the idea in their next client project.
Social Media
Of course, social media marketing is always a good idea when it comes to targeting designers. However, you might have to do a bit more than just add a few aesthetically pleasing images and descriptive text.
Instead, consider taking the time to build a relationship with individual designers via social media. For example, you could reach out via their Instagram profile by continually liking their posts, adding comments, and then sending a direct message. Most designers are more than happy to start up a virtual conversation with a building materials company that could eventually improve their designs, so this shouldn’t be too difficult of a strategy to use.
Pay-per-Click (PPC) Ads
When it comes to marketing your building materials company online, pay-per-click (PPC) ads are a must-have strategy. Why? When an interior designer looks up a specific solution or type of material on Google, you want to ensure your company is at the top of the results list instead of the competition.
While paid advertising methods like PPC do require an upfront cost, they’re a good way to ensure the right people are seeing your company name at the right time. It can also be an excellent method for offering discounts, special promotions, and other incentives just for interior designers.
Printed Marketing Materials
While this list is primarily aimed at digital marketing methods, don’t be afraid to use printed marketing materials as a way to attract interest from interior designers. Printed look books, catalogs, and other similar mailers are all good ideas when it comes to getting exposure for your building materials brand.
Likewise, you can always opt to include a QR code on the printed mailer that makes it easier for the designer to see additional options online, access product use videos, and so much more. This strategy is a great one to merge digital advertising with a traditional mailer campaign or when you’re attending a trade show.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
We can’t talk about digital marketing for building materials brands without also discussing search engine optimization (SEO). Just like PPC ads, you want to ensure your website is high up in the SERPs when an interior designer is searching for a particular solution to a pain point.
How do you do this? Well, by including engaging and informative content on your website that features plenty of target keywords that match what a designer would type into Google. A key method for making this happen is creating a FAQ section specifically curated to speak to interior designers.
Video Marketing
For building materials companies, trying to convey how great your product is to a client can be somewhat difficult without showing them directly. The good news is that video marketing is an excellent way to offer a virtual product demonstration that speaks to the needs of designers and their clients.
You can post all kinds of videos to social media or your website that showcase excellent uses of your products, talk about how to install a particular item, or just simply explain the benefits of selecting your product over that of a competitor. Then share this media via the various channels we’ve talked about in this guide.
Interactive Content
Finally, you can help catch the attention of designers by offering interactive content. What is this? Consider things like quizzes to find the ideal color of paint, downloadable guides or look books, slideshows with product benefits, and more.
Essentially, your interactive content should give away plenty of information about why your building materials are the best and how you can make their next design project their best yet. By using an interactive format versus just text or a simple video, your company can really stand out from the competition.
Wrap-Up: Why Marketing to Interior Designers Is Important
For a building materials company, it can sometimes be difficult to convey how great your product is within a B2B environment. However, working to directly market to interior designers is a good way to pique their interest and encourage them to utilize your brand within their next project.
Are you ready to implement some of the ideas we’ve included in this blog post? Please contact our experienced digital advertising team at ER Marketing for more information.
