Attract Interior Design Clients with the Power of LinkedIn
When we look to social media to attract residential interior design clients, the first port of call is commonly Instagram. For the reason that its image-based ethos appeals to the visual nature of those in our industry. But that doesn’t mean that’s where our social media should end. We need to spread our net wider to ensure we attract interior design clients.
Needless to say, interior designers have used LinkedIn to appeal to commercial clients for a long time. Notably, corporate clients. Particularly those in need of office design services. But now there is a rise of a new type of client wanting our services. Professional people. Those with ‘good jobs’ and careers. Furthermore, they hang out on LinkedIn.
Instagrammers and LinkedIn Users Compared
Often the relevance of a social media platform is based upon the number of active users. In 2021 this amounted to 1,074 million globally for Insta and 771 million for LinkedIn. This headline suggests that we are about 30% more likely to find our potential client on Insta than LinkedIn. On the other hand, take UK user numbers and overlay age and gender factors and a very different picture emerges.
So, consider UK women aged between 25 and 50 years old. They’re over 30% more likely to be using LinkedIn than Insta. This difference grows even more, if we consider all UK users between the ages of 25 and 50. To over 50%.
Not only will our potential client be more likely to be spending time on LinkedIn. It’s easier to find them on LinkedIn than Insta too!
Finding Potential Clients on LinkedIn
No complex hashtag strategies required. Simply enter job title and location details into a LinkedIn search to find your potential clients. Then send them a connection request. If accepted, you can see everything they do on the platform, and vice versa. Unlike an Instagram follow, a connection on LinkedIn is a two-way street.
With LinkedIn the bigger your network, the more potential clients you’re likely to find. Due to when you search on LinkedIn the engine will first go through your connections (1st degree). And then their connections (2nd degree). Lastly, your connections’ connections (3rd degree). As a consequence, the bigger your search network, the more likely you are to find clients.
However, this doesn’t mean you should fire out thousands of connection requests. Not least, LinkedIn won’t allow you to. The maximum number of connection requests varies based on a number of top-secret factors. To use a rule of thumb, assume 70 per week. As a result of these limits on invitations, you need a connection strategy.
How to Build a LinkedIn Connection Strategy
You don’t need to spend money to create a LinkedIn connection strategy. At least not a first. Because you can build your own using 3 simple concepts:
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To being with suitability. Is this connection likely to become a client? Glean common client information: gender, age, and earnings from profile name, pic, and job title. Job titles, using obvious information (Junior Engineer vs. Director) combined with job listings and company review sites such as Glassdoor, provide age and earnings insight.
Next, familiarity. Concentrate on one large company near to you at a time. Even if your services are online. Because the nearness of your location to where people work or live creates a link. In addition, most people’s connections are with colleagues and friends. And a connection request comes with a list of shared contacts. As such the person you’ve invited to connect may think they recognise you. For the reason you both know Tina in Accounts.
Finally, activity. Although obvious, the person you’re sending the connection request to needs to be using LinkedIn to see it. My acceptance rate doubled once I spent a few seconds to gauge someone’s activity before sending the request. Click on ‘See all activity’ about halfway down their profile page. And assess if they’re on the platform regularly from their like, comment and post history.
One final tip. When starting your connection strategy, aim to connect with business salespeople and recruitment consultants supplying the company you’re targeting. Even though they’re may not be a potential client. As they have many more connections than most. So, their addition to your network greatly increases your search area. In the same vein, send a connection request to the CEO!
How to Attract Interior Design Clients Using LinkedIn
Great news! Engaging LinkedIn connections is the same as engaging Instagram followers. That’s to say, educate and entertain. Post frequently. But there's no need to do so daily. Regularly share informative posts, mainly written by others. Include short ‘how to’ posts. Such as, ‘How to make that old wardrobe a central feature’. Also, showcase your completed projects. Note: also, not only.
No one enjoys being sold to. Whether they’re Instagrammers or LinkedIn users. So never sell. Yes, your services should be available to buy. For example, include ‘if you want to discuss transforming your home, please get in touch’, in a showcase project post. Similarly, put the idea of interior design services in your audiences’ minds. For instance, ‘Struggling to find the right Valentine / Birthday / Wedding Anniversary / Christmas gift? An interior design consultation can make the perfect present.’ And say why. Without overtly selling.
Is Instagram more visual? Maybe. Instead, I express it in a different way. Instagram is less wordy. We can publish imagery on LinkedIn in a very similar way as on Instagram. Albeit we need to use video to create an image carousel. The real difference: people almost always read LinkedIn post text. Whereas on Insta, captions often go unnoticed.
Do people search for interior designers on Instagram? Yes. But in marketing-speak people looking for an interior designer are in the ‘action phase of the sales funnel’. And those in this phase are a mere 3% of your potential clients. The other 97% are elsewhere. Unaware that interior design can satisfy their want or need, or solve their problem. Indeed, they might not even know they have a want, need or problem. This business success blog discusses sales funnels, and their importance to interior designers.
If You Want to Attract Residential Interior Design Clients, Don’t Ignore LinkedIn
Because that’s where we’ll find professional people earning good salaries. Put another way, our potential interior design clients. As our social media analysis shows, we’re likely to find people who match interior design client characteristics on LinkedIn. Often more likely than on Insta.
As we can use the built-in search capability, finding clients is easier on LinkedIn. Unlike Insta where we must instead rely on a hashtag strategy to draw followers in. After we’ve found our potential clients, we already know how to relate to them. In so much as engagement norms, educate and entertain, are the same on both LinkedIn and Insta.
Equally, don’t ignore Instagram. Not least, people expect to find you there.
Do You Want to Attract More Interior Design Clients?
YourCoachApproach is a business coach specifically for interior design professionals. I am Andrew Brown, an accredited Coach who can help you take your interior design practice in a new direction. One towards further growth and fulfilment.
Book a FREE 30-minute chat to take the first step to interior design business success. And let’s see what we can do together.