design

How to Get Your Design and Remodeling Business Noticed on Instagram

With an eye for design and a steady stream of likable images, architects, remodelers and home builders have emerged as strong players on Instagram, using the platform to drive traffic to their websites and create a buzz where they live and work.

“My own growth was exponential because of Instagram because I was able to reach a broader audience,” said Jen Laurens, the Philly based designer behind Tiny Anchor Studios.

Though Laurens primarily works in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, one of her current clients is in Chicago. The client was a referral but the contractor, the cabinet maker, and even the guy making the floating shelves, came from social media connections. “The whole job could be dialed back to Instagram. When I got the job I followed a contractor in Chicago and he followed me and I said, ‘Think we can make this work?'” And together they have been doing an entire condo reno together.

Laurens says one of the things she loves about Instagram is that it gives her a platform to show her process and speak to her audience authentically, more than platforms like Houzz which she notes are two dimensional.

“It’s more insightful. I don’t talk a lot on Instagram, it’s mostly pictures of tiles and designs, but when I do, I speak from the heart, and when I meet people they say, ‘You’re exactly how I thought you be,'” she said. “So when I go to their home they already know my style. They know how I work. They know what they’re getting, which just helps my cause.”

“Instagram is the best online resume you could ask for,” said Laurens.

Building that online resume isn’t intuitive for everyone, but there are some simple guidelines and best practices that any designer or remodeler can apply to their business.

If you’re on Insta and want to use it to drive more business, read on because today we’re going to cover how to get noticed on the platform.

In our work for building product brands, we’ve found that the most successful business accounts follow these six best practices on Instagram.

They each:

Engage with the audience and create a culture around their company or personal brand
Focus on their target audience, not their company
Stay consistent by staying true to their message
Use professional photography and video when possible
Have a hashtag strategy
Review Instagram insights and pivot when needed

House Seven Design (a UV influencer partner) is on a steady rise in Indianapolis where the husband and wife design and remodel team live and work, often using their home and their IG as a lab for product partnerships.

Optimize your profile for your audience

Before they become fans and followers, users will check out your profile as a litmus test of your relevance to their needs.

You can set yourself apart from competitors with three points of distinction:

Geography
Style
Expertise and awards

See this example from Bob Borson, an architect and influencer. He’s hits all the points: Dallas, modern and Young Architect of the Year. And because he’s Bob, the magic point 4: humor. If being cheeky fits your personality and your brand, go for it.

Keep your feed lively and relevant

Posting beautiful pictures is important to generate a following, but it’s not the only driver of followers and engagement. We’ve found a direct correlation between a company’s engagement and their ability to capture and share images of their own work. Even pretty pictures can feel sterile when there isn’t an authentic connection to your work, your team or your community.

Our favorite architect, builder and designer accounts all:

Cultivate a connection to their location
Showcase their points of difference from competitors
Get personal
Have a sense of humor
Feature their skills and expertise
Give a behind-the-scenes look into the work and process

A few examples:

Patterson Custom Homes in Newport Beach, California uses their images to connect with history, locale and style.

Polycor, a quarrier of natural stone for countertops, works with designers like Holly Hollingsworth of The English Room to showcase how its products hold up in real life.

Architect Bob Borson gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse that’s both artful and indicative of a hard working office with big projects.

Blogger and design-build professional Sarah Gibson has created a personable voice for her account Room For Tuesday by regularly sharing her handsome pets. Even if your audience is full of cat people, they’ll love the (occasional) cameo from your good dog.

The husband and wife duo behind The Handmade Home are humble and approachable, and that endears them to their audience. Who wouldn’t want to hire a design-build team that’s both talented and grateful?

Jen Laurens from Tiny Anchor Studios uses her account to highlight her design process and the work of her expert contractors who bring it to life – even (and especially) when the job doesn’t go as planned. (I think you can guess which shoes belong to Laurens.)

Craft a consistent look on your feed

Think of your feed as a series of 12 panel art installations. Each post should stand on its own for attractiveness and relevance, AND it should be part of a cohesive look.

Check out Tiny House Basics’ feed. It features a consistent palette of colors – soft blue, green and earth tones – and a nice mix of installation and people images.

The simplest way to do this is to plan your posts a month out. You can Rubik’s Cube the images around in your gallery until you’ve created a layout that’s balanced (we suggest the Preview app). And if you’re using a filter, stick to one for consistency.

But what about those not-so-pretty process pics? That’s where Instagram Stories come in.

If you’re onsite for demo day, you’ve got a great opportunity to let your audience go behind-the-scenes of one of your projects. Audiences love getting a glimpse behind the curtain to see the wizard at work. But those images of busted sheetrock and ugly before kitchens don’t look awesome on a feed.

Let IG Stories be your home for everything from demo to install days and all the trials and triumphs along the way.

For more insta-inspiration, check out our post: Behind the Scenes with ultraviolet Influencer Ariel Garneau of PMQ for Two.

Atlanta’s SmithHönig Is High Point Market Bound (and so are we!)

High Point Market isn’t just the largest furnishings industry trade show in the world. It’s where serious retail home buyers, interior designers, architects, bloggers, thought-leaders and trend-setters gather to discover innovative new products hitting the market. And color-us-ecstatic to announce that our client, Atlanta-based home decor and textile companySmithHönig, is bringing their vision of global nomad glam to market for the first time.

The ultraviolet team will be right there, providing on-site support and quickly opening bottles of Prosecco (an important skill to have for this particular event).

SmithHönig is founded by visual artist and travel connoisseur Melanie Hönig and award-winning interior designer Kellie Smith.

Founded by visual artist and travel connoisseur Melanie Hönig and award-winning interior designer Kellie Smith, SmithHönig is a home décor and furnishings company creating custom art, patterns and imagery inspired by the design duo’s wanderlust and world travels. We love how everything in their collections tell a story — a luxurious, cross-cultural layering of color, cultures and patterns from around the globe. Collections include hand-embroidered pillows and camel tassels from Bedouin villages in the Negev Desert, luxurious jacquard shams from Morocco and vintage suzannis, obis and ikats made into colorful pillows and accessories. Every detail reflects a jet-set mindset, all created for someone who is ready for any adventure and packs her travel bag lightly, leaving room for all the treasures she’s sure to return home with.

When you step through the folds of the SmithHönig tent at High Point Market, we’ll be there alongside Kellie and Melanie to welcome you into the luxe world of the global design nomad. You can lounge on pillows inspired by English hedgerows, experience the rich possibilities of layering with Japanese shibori-style fabrics, and discover tassels handmade in India in custom SmithHönig colors.

The SmithHönig tent is a visual representation of the duo’s ethos to Stay Wild.

The designers will also unveil Ravenswood, a new free-spirited collection inspired by the eccentric elements found in English country houses. The stylistic evolution of these ancestral homes — featuring a constantly growing collection of treasures brought back from myriad adventures — speaks directly to the SmithHönig ethos of Well-bred But Wild. Ravenswood evokes the fearless travels of their global nomad, someone who would set up a tent in the deer park of a grand old home, with matches to light a bonfire in one hand and a guitar in the other.

A sneak peak at two of the color ways that are part of the Ravenswood collection.

Team UV is joining in the fun as a literal hands-on extension of the digital marketing and media relations support we already provide for this design duo. From updating their social media in real-time to crafting press releases to popping bottles of bubbly at 4 p.m. daily in their tent, we are thrilled to be going to High Point with them, helping partner them with new brand ambassadors, bloggers and buyers.

To see everywhere our High Point adventure takes us follow us on Instagram – and make sure to follow SmithHönig on Instagram, too.

Visit the SmithHönig showroom 183 (C3) at 108-110 S. Elm Street, in collaboration with Los Angeles art house Zoe Bios Creative, during High Point Market October 19-23.

BTS with ultraviolet Influencer Ariel Garneau of PMQ for Two

Brand and influencer partnerships may seem magical, but the picture-perfect sponsored posts you see on Insta are the result of careful planning, creativity, hard work, and analytics. And they begin with pairing the right influencer with the right brand.

With an incomparable eye for color, pattern and whimsy you might get the misguided impression that Ariel Garneau is a carefree content creator. But this Canadian based blogger and designer is a business owner with a strategic mind who built her brand through authentic partnerships and premium content.

Garneau started decor and style blog PMQ for Two to showcase the functional-meets-fun solutions she created to personalize the Private Military/Married Quarters (aka PMQ), temporary housing provided to members of the military and their families, that she and her husband found themselves in. Garneau is now putting her time and talent toward a brand-new challenge: renovating a 1960s fixer-upper. This is the first home she and her husband have purchased, and she’s determined to keep as much of the kitsch retro charm as possible while still having some of the fun she wasn’t able to have as a renter: namely, demo.

“All of my designs had been based around renter-friendly options,” says Garneau. “Being able to actually rip cupboards off the wall, add new flooring, and choose new countertops has been life changing.”

This newfound freedom to renovate inspired Garneau to participate in the Spring 2019 One Room Challenge, a twice yearly event in which participants share the process of transforming a room in just six weeks. And in typical Garneau style, she went big and bold, creating a retro glam kitchen renovation full of her signature colors, bold pattern mixing, and eclectic decor. Anyone who’s renovated a kitchen knows it’s not a small undertaking, which makes it even more noteworthy that Garneau was six-months pregnant when the challenge ended.

“I’ve been participating for three years now, sometimes twice a year, and love the time crunch,” says Garneau. “I use it as a challenge to complete a space that might otherwise lag or take forever to complete.”

From early on, Garneau knew she wanted marble in her renovated kitchen: even though marble is very on-trend right now, it is an equally timeless choice. Plus, marble would help put the “glam” in her retro glam vision. As one of ultraviolet’s strategic partners, we connected Garneau with Polycor, the world’s leading natural stone quarrier, for countertops and a full height backsplash in the company’s White Cherokee marble. The marble countertops pair nicely with her sponsors and choices: Rifle Paper Co. x Hygge & West wallpaper Peonies in Copper and satin brass Myles Lever door handles with Modern Rectangular Rosette and Jasper cabinet and drawer pulls, all from Emtek.

She had first heard of Polycor when she saw interior designer Holly Phillips’ renovated kitchen, which also features Polycor’s White Cherokee marble. But Garneau didn’t just say yes to White Cherokee sight unseen: she removed the samples from the books they came in and moved them around the room to see how they’d look in different lights and in different spaces, like under the cupboards or as a backsplash.

“I approach brand partnerships a few ways: either I’ve used the product before, in my own time, and want to make an official partnership to promote the product, or I want to try to product and have heard great things from consumers or fellow bloggers,” says Garneau. “Aesthetic fit and corporate culture play into my decisions of who to approach, and beyond that, willingness to meet my sponsored content rate and product requirements are also quite important.”

Her devoted fanbase loves the smart solutions and delightful DIYs, not to mention the signature visual style that Garneau has delivered over the years. And the stats reflect that adoration: an ever-growing list of thousands of followers and subscribers, and a monthly reach in the millions.

When brands like Polycor decide to work with Garneau, they’re doing so for her channels’ reach, her audience engagement, and the quality of content she produces.

“I do create freely for myself without sponsorship, but when a brand and I are collaborating they compensate me for the exposure and reach my channels provide,” says Garneau. “After years of working as a business owner, I’ve come to appreciate the value of a tightly negotiated contract — especially when both sides need specific things.”

Looking to partner your brand with influencers? UV can help. See our work.

One of the needs Garneau frequently needs to address is her brand partner’s requests for social media promotion. She takes each social media channel’s formatting and audience preferences into consideration when creating content, whether its sponsored content or not. And other than Instagram stories, none of it is impromptu.

“The world of social media and the algorithms that dictate the content distribution, require planning,” says Garneau. “You can’t just post any old pic and expect to get strong engagement or likes. You have to cater to your audience, and that means creating content within certain guidelines.”

For example, none of her Instagram photos are taken with her phone, and all of them meet her criteria for color, lighting, and scale before being considered. Garneau offers advice for growing your audience — her impressive numbers are all 100% organic — as well as insight into what tools to use, how to develop partnerships and create content through paid mastermind groups and classes she conducts.

“I’ve spent years building up credibility and authority with my audience through genuine content and partnerships,” says Garneau.

Even though Garneau is very open with her home and life online, it’s clear that she fully understands the line between her personal life and her brand — as she’s fond of noting; it’s not personal, it’s business.

“Yes, there are tons of people willing to work for ‘exposure’ and for free, or product, but those people ultimately devalue their own channels, and potentially your brand,” says Garneau.

Managing a website, creating engaging content, and building mutually beneficial brand partnerships sounds like it’s at least three jobs, but for Garneau it’s one perfect fit.

“I love every minute of it,” says Garneau. “Even if that means working for myself what feels like 24/7.”

Are you a brand or an influencer? Learn more about our partnership programs.

How to Max Out Client Happiness with Partnerships Built on Great Food and Good Design

It’s a good day when you can bring your favorite clients together for lunch. It’s an even better day when they’re the ones making the farm-to-table eats and the marble countertop where it’s served. Good eats + good design = happiness all around.

Ultraviolet is an agency of publicists and storytellers. We’re always looking for ways to help our clients, both within their industries and with each other, by utilizing our connections and relationships. Good people can do even better things together. And we knew the potential for a beneficial relationship existed when we introduced two of our clients: Richard and Chantelle Corbo of RBC Hospitality Group and Steve Schrenk, brand manager at Polycor.

Bell Works, the place we call home, is an Eero Saarinen adaptive reuse building that has been repurposed into a one-of-a-kind destination for business and culture.

Creating connections is in our DNA, so much so that the building we call home, Bell Works, has a storied heritage of it. No matter what kind of device you are reading this on – phone, laptop, tablet – chances are it wouldn’t exist in its current form without the inventions developed and perfected at Bell Labs (the former Bell Works). In its heyday, the Eero Saarinen designed Bell Labs building was home to some of the greatest advancements in communication technology. Innovation and communication are the building blocks of this space, which after a long (vine-covered) vacancy, was repurposed by developer Ralph Zucker into a one-of-a-kind destination for business and culture called Bell Works.

When Bell Works was still in its infancy, we were tasked with launching the social presence for RBC Hospitality Group — which stands for Run By Chefs. At the time, it was a pop-up eatery with a big vision: to become a European style food hall serving a variety of local options to the soon-to-be booming Bell Works population. Dreamed up by husband-and-wife team Richard and Chantelle Corbo, and their partners Chad Spencer and Jeff Systma, Bell Market is the restaurant group that’s the result of that vision.

Bell Market is a European style food hall serving a variety of local options.Photo by Lapeg Photo.

With a proposed collaborative five-concept plan, RBC’s Bell Market was a big undertaking, and with that came a big budget. Designing a 6,000 square-foot space that includes five distinct food stations — Corbo & Sons pizza; Jōzu sushi, ramen and robata; Bubz Deli, Broadfork greens and grains; and Honeybell bakery, plus a bar — meant a lot of counter space. And when the original design concept came in at double the budget RBC was hoping for, they started looking for alternate ideas. And that’s when ultraviolet stepped in with a solution.

Another one of our clients, Polycor, is a North American stone quarrier with an extensive natural stone portfolio that includes marble, granite, limestone and soapstone (personal fave, I have to say). We thought that Polycor might have the answer that Richard and Chantelle were looking for, so we introduced them to Polycor brand manager Steve Schrenk.

Creating connections is in Jen and Shannon’s DNA. And who wouldn’t want to enjoy eating lunch daily in the space where they created that synergy?

Steve passed onto the couple a sample of Polycor’s Solar Grey marble from Georgia. The American marble would deliver the same wow factor as the original overseas marble they had initially chosen for the six large countertops, but with a considerable savings. Richard knew right away that he had found his countertops.

“To see a sample of something beautiful that was a fraction of the cost, plus that was local and abundant, it was an easy choice,” Richard said. He loved the marble so much that he actually ordered two additional slabs of it for his home kitchen.

The Bell Market space is a surprising homecoming for both Corbo’s: not only does Richard have memories of visiting his dad who was a sign maker and engraver at Bell Labs, but as a kid Chantelle played near Polycor’s quarry in Tate, GA, making the marble counters a little piece of her Georgia home literally here in New Jersey.

“It’s one of my favorite elements of the design of the space,” Chantelle said. “And the fact that it’s from Georgia, that it’s from the U.S., it just made sense.”

To further leverage this homegrown partnership, we coordinated a photo and video shoot that helped our clients attract press, grow followers and gain credibility. We worked with local filmmaker Michael Altino of Silver Style Pictures and photographer Lapeg Photo to create visuals that featured both clients. Soon after, Bell Market and their Polycor countertops were featured in Architectural Digest and The New York Times.

The video (really a short, lustrous film in Altino’s capable hands) is part of the SPACES series, which showcases the passion of the designers creating their own personal spaces for home and work.

The Polycor marble anchors the Bell Market space. Photo by Lapeg Photo.

The Polycor marble anchors the Bell Market space much in the same way the food hall is an anchor tenant for Bell Works: It’s at the center of everything – the building and the community that has grown around it. We’re glad to be a part of that community in a building that inspires us on the daily.

And let’s be honest, when we host the Polycor folks from Quebec, we’re pretty glad to be eating salmon tartines at a honed marble countertop instead of chewing stale almonds at our desks. There are perks to creating client synergies.

Learn more about our work with Polycor, check out the UV case study.

LOOK HERE: Tips for Designing A Digital Product Lookbook That Gets Views

The ebook is an effective (though basic) lead nurturing offer. It delivers valuable info to contacts and is great for search authority. It’s also a bit of a yawn. So many words.

For our clients in design build we find that the ebook’s younger, better looking cousin, the lookbook gets more attention (and more lead captures). Designing one is easy, and a great way to repurpose those images you spent so much money on for your product catalog and website.

A product lookbook is a collection of images and copy put together to showcase a company’s product, whether it be in the form of a inspiration guide or case study.

Before you design it, map it

First things first: write the copy and choose the photos — then, lay it all out. A simple way to come up with your lookbook layout is to create a mock-up in PowerPoint or Google Slides. Spend absolutely no time on making it look pretty — your designer can focus on that later. This is just a helpful way to develop the concept and figure out placement. (It’s also the best way to see what you’re missing.)

Here is an example of a mock-up for a case study lookbook created in Google Slides.

Use high quality photos only

High quality photos are of the utmost importance when it comes to a digital product lookbook — after all, they are the center of attention. One blurry photo will make your brand look like an amateur. So what constitutes a high quality photo?

Higher resolution photography means higher image quality. The sharpness, definition and detail go up alongside the photo resolution. The more pixels, the better the photo resolution. Lighting and a correct exposure are also other factors that make a high quality photo. You can always adjust lighting and color with photography software, such as Photoshop or Lightroom.

Here are three reasons why you need clear, well-focused images at a high resolution.

If your photos appear blurry or pixelated, you won’t be showing the best version of your product.
If you need to use an entire photo for one page or spread it across two pages the enlargement won’t create a drop in quality.
The same concept goes for zooming and cropping. If you need to focus on one specific part of a photo, a high resolution photo gives your a little playroom and the photo quality will remain the same.

This is a high quality photo (4851 x 3435 pixels, 96 dpi)

Zoomed and cropped, this is what it looks like (still crisp and clear).

When the image size is lowered to 800 x 566 pixels, this is what it looks like when zoomed and cropped (blurry and pixelated).

Consult the brand guidelines

A company’s brand guidelines are essentially the visual DNA of its branding. The information found in these guidelines include the specifications for use of the logo, colors, sub colors, color palette, typography and icons.

While designing, consult the guidelines in order to keep a consistent look with the branding. Here’s our branding. Isn’t it pretty?

Judge the book by it’s cover

People will most definitely be judging your lookbook by its cover, so keep that in mind when designing. It should be visually appealing, while coinciding with your brand guidelines.

Here are some lookbook cover design essentials.

Make the title easy to read, and relevant to ebook.
Keep it simple by limiting text.
Feature a relevant image.
Include branding elements: logo, tagline, colors and font.

We designed the ebook above to tell the relocation story of a tech company who is now a tenant of the metroburb Bell Works (also our agency’s home). Partly a case study of their decision to move here and partly a lookbook of WorkWave’s swank offices and gorgeous surroundings, we chose to call it a Relocation Storyboard. Click here to download it.

On this cover you see the brand’s logo, the signature overlapping circles in one of the brand’s color palettes, an easy-to-read title in the header font and a relevant image.

Consider a strong focal point that will help your viewers’ eyes naturally settle on the important pieces of the design first.

For example, the focal point of this inspiration guide cover, designed for the natural stone supplier Swenson Granite Works, is the flame of the fireplace. It has been placed centrally, drawing attention toward the glow and the surrounding stone, then the fading image directs the eye down toward more information. The image is an appropriate representation of what this product lookbook is all about — fireplaces and fire pits. Click here to see it for yourself.

Be clear about what you’re offering

This case study / lookbook cover, designed for the natural stone quarrier Polycor, takes advantage of the open space on the left of the page to place the title. The pillar’s point on the top right acts as a focal point, directing the viewers’ eyes to the title next to it.

The headline and subhead follow a simple formula for communicating to the reader what the offer is (and who it’s for). Subject + simple description + offer type. The subject includes the product’s name: Saint Clair. The description in the subhead includes an explanation of the product: American limestone. The offer type – case study – makes it clear that the reader is going to get an in-depth look at a project (versus a catalog, spec sheet, etc.) Click here to see the case study.

If you find yourself struggling to come up with a creative title, go instead with something clear and obvious. Sometimes when we fall in love with our own snappy titles we forget that the reader has no idea what we’re selling. If it’s a lookbook about flush mount lighting fixtures, it’s ok to say just that.

Get viewers to take action

With a call to action (CTA), you will prompt your viewers to take action after they’ve read your lookbook. Consider including a CTA on the last page if appropriate.

Here are some some tips for creating that last page that gets viewers to take action.

Include either a simple headline and button, or a headline, message and button.
Make it clear what will happen when the viewer clicks on the CTA button. Rather than saying “click here” say “speak to a rep” or “talk to us today.”
The button design is just as important as the words — choose a color that contrasts the background color (light button with a dark background, dark button with a light background). It should be a color from the brand’s color palette.

The Polycor case study ebook includes a CTA on the last page that prompts viewers to speak with a company representative if they are interested in working with Polycor on their own projects. If the viewers were interested in reading about this one specific project that Polycor was involved with, it makes sense that they might want to see how the company can work with them as well. Polycor has a specific audience in mind and this message and CTA are designed to prompt them to take action.

Speaking of CTAs…;-)

See how we used influencers and custom content to turn soapstone into a top seller.

Interior Designers, Bloggers Get Honest About Tech at #WNWN

We were curious, too, which is why we sat in during the What’s Next in Tech panel. Hosted in the Odegard Carpets suite, the discussion was one of dozens offered throughout the day during the New York Design Center’s 9th annual What’s New What’s Next event.

The session was sponsored by Dering Hall. DH’s Executive Editor, Dennis Sarlo, moderated a panel of design luminaries, including: Katie Curtis, Kati Curtis Design, Paloma Contreras, Patrick Dragonette, Dragonette Ltd, and Joe Human of designs by human — all of whom laughed and groaned the entire way through their panel.

Here’s the hot list of what they shared (we heard):

Instagram is the preferred platform for interior designers, especially now that there are so many enhanced features that support enhanced storytelling, especially behind-the-scenes of their design choices and installation. Designers also use Instagram to connect with each other and as a way to get to know colleagues.

It’s always a thrill to meet in person at events like these after ‘getting to know’ each other on Instagram. — Paloma Contreras, Founder of La Dolce Vita Blog

Pinterest is growing in popularity — quickly. Designers are loving the ability to browse and see what other designers are doing with materials. They’re also using the app to research how people are sharing and saving their own work. Plus to see how design-minded users are loving and sharing with each other. Contreras and Curtis use the app to “give clients homework”. They ask clients to make boards on Pinterest to help better identify their likes and dislikes and help guide design choices.
None of the designers felt like they spend enough time or attention on their social platforms. All expressed trepidation about adding more social media work to their plate.

Designers prefer to get better at using what’s already working for them than adopt new social channels.

Designers use social media to spot trends and see how products and buyer tastes are developing. However, panel members cautioned against “jumping on trends” and posting content about trends, “just because you think people are looking for that”.

If I told you I didn’t care about trends…didn’t know them, I’d by lying. But we need to be authentic, always, and stick to posting about things we truly care about.– Kati Curtis

The panel’s favorite tech tools to stay on top of project management and improve team communication are: Asana, dapulse, Slack, Google Docs.
Everyone on the panel groaned and agreed the number one pain point for them regarding tech is finding a system that makes keeping track of hours, easy. Everyone agreed it’s one of the most time consuming tasks, no one had a tool that worked brilliantly, and they (themselves) all do it badly!
Blogging is critical, and almost no one feels they commit enough time to do it as well as they’d like, or post as regularly as they’d like.
Websites are less and less important vis-a-vis building audience for products and services, but they’re still a “nice” place to direct people to once you’ve connected with them online.

As the media strategist for design product brands like Polycor natural stone and Vetrazzo recycled glass, we experience some of the same pains and observations these designer do (hello time tracking…), and we’ve got a few takeaways from our experience with design industry clients:

Company websites will continue to be critical for doing business, but it’s conversation and relationship that grow a business. Making connections with clients, suppliers, brands and professionals on social media is where companies will see the most business growth in the next few years.

Social media requires a strategic approach that incorporates relationship building, lead generation and press relations. The designers and brands that see the most revenue growth are those invest in professional social media marketing (and save their energy for creative design).

Not all social channels are necessary for a company to have an effective social media presence. That designers tend to stick to those that are working makes sense. So long as they have analytics to prove it. When we analyze a company’s website referral traffic to see which channel gives the most powerful referrals, we uncover new opportunities to grow leads and customers.

If you’re looking to grow your brand’s reach (and revenue) consider influencer marketing. Download our guide to brand ambassadors.