The days of compiling high-quality photos into a lookbook and carrying around a bag of sketches quickly fade as we continue deeper into an era of digital solutions.
Interior designers are now shifting towards showcasing their hard work online.
Unfortunately, a typical run-of-the-mill website doesn’t quite cut it these days. It takes a high-level, professionally developed website to make an impact truly.
In this blog, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best practices that interior designers can implement into their website to scale their business digitally and increase their online presence.
1. Tell Your Story: “The 5 C’s”
Every story needs to be thoughtfully told and shared in the right places. Best of all, you can do this through content marketing and expand your reach digitally.
Including the 5 C’s into your story will help develop it thoroughly: Circumstance, Curiosity, Characters, Conversations, and Conflict.
- Circumstance: Lay out the groundwork of your story. It will help your audience understand the starting point of your interior design career.
- Curiosity: Adding the element of curiosity will rouse your audience and keep them engaged.
- Characters: Introducing characters goes hand-in-hand with keeping the story relatable and realistic.
- Conversation: Integrating dialogue doesn’t hurt; it helps keep the story engaging and interesting.
- Conflict: What’s a story without a little (or a lot!) of conflict? Of course, a happily-ever-after story is nice, but elaborating on your conflicts and struggles can help your audience gain valuable insight into your story and help them learn from your experiences.
… In addition:
Knowing where to tell your story is essential. A common mistake is assuming your website users will dig deep enough to find the necessary information. We highly recommend adding an “about” page or “proposition statement” page for your audience to discover you, your team (if applicable) quickly and your business story.
Interested in hiring an agency to help your with your architecture website?
Our team has got you covered.
DISCOVER2. Define Your Aesthetic
As interior designers, you probably have various design solutions based on different client needs.
One important aspect to remember on a website is to narrow your solutions down to allow your business to stand out against the competition.
Asking yourself the important questions of:
- Who do you design for?
- What general style do you gravitate towards?
- Where do you design?
- Commercial
- Hospitality
- Residential
These answers will help you build an aesthetic profile for your website.
3. Communicate Your Brand
Your brand encompasses your business’ personality. Branding is one of the most influential aspects of purchasing decisions.
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READ MOREAs an interior designer, it is important to take your story, your target audience, and the collective personalities of you and your business combined, to form a strong brand.
Once your brand is solidified, you will need to work it into your website consistently.
Some aspects to focus on to ensure your brand is being communicated appropriately include:
- Font pairings should stay consistent across all pages
- Maintaining the same color palettes across all pages
- Tone and voice should be defined and implemented in all content
- Using your logo on your website and all platforms
- Implement consistent image/icon styles
4. Quality Over Quantity
Images play a powerful role in gaining the trust of your target audience. It’s not just about the quantity but more so about the quality of the images, especially within the design industry. Choosing to showcase the best quality images plays an influential factor to speak to your target audience effectively.
In terms of who you are trying to convert, ask yourself what your target audience would be looking for in an ideal portfolio. It’s always best to choose a select few, top-quality images from your previous projects to showcase instead of overwhelming your audience with too many mediocre-quality photos.
5. A Balanced “Feeling”
We say “feeling” because that is exactly what it is. When it comes to websites, it’s important to ensure the fonts portray the right message and the images reflect your brand and style.
Our Favorite Interior Design Websites.
Find inspiration with these well put together websites for interior designers.
VIEWWhen in doubt, hire an experienced web designer to help lay out your vision. Using their knowledge of web design will help maintain a balanced, intuitive “feeling.” Consistency is key!
We hope these best practices helped form a path that you, as an interior designer, can implement into your website to help communicate your business more efficiently.
Ready to hire an agency to transform your website vision into a reality? Request our media kit below.