Influencer marketing

Attracting Authentic and Profitable Brand Partnerships

It’s not new information, but many consumers distrust online brand messaging. Today over 25% of US internet users are currently blocking ads on their devices—and that number is only going to go up. So, who do they trust? Anyone?

Increasingly, that trusted voice is that coming from social media influencers and their brand partnerships. People are intrigued and inspired by these talented creators who share their style and stories. What influencers wear, how they style their homes, and who they partner with can get the attention of their engaged audience who is invested in their daily lives and the stories they tell. Smart brands are looking for opportunities to connect with potential customers by working with influencers to get their products in front of the influencers’ followers. But how do brands and influencers find each other? And how do they know it will be a good fit?

Pictured friend of SmithHönig, Tiffany Brown. You may know her from her inspiring Insta, My Eclectic Nest.

“We look for influencers with a strong sense of self and a sophisticated and perhaps unexpected use of color and pattern,” said Melanie Hönig, co-founder of home brand SmithHönig. “We’re a young brand and our maximalist and colorful aesthetic is not for everyone, so when someone is a match, we nurture and celebrate them, whether it directly relates to our products or not.”

The alignment of brand aesthetic and influencer is key for SmithHönig. One of their favorite influencers fell in love with a product and they worked with her to help launch a collection. She didn’t have the biggest audience, but she was passionate about the brand. And that mattered more than her audience size.

“We want to know if they really connect with our products,” said Hönig. “And does their audience really care about them and their aesthetic? Does their audience want to learn from them?”

Many influencers also increasingly aspire to collaborate with brands as real partners, not simply as a for-hire (and easily replaced) executor who delivers the upstream part of a company’s brand strategy.

Pictured Polycor, Inc. partner, Ariel Garneau of PMQ for Two

“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 have heard great things from consumers or fellow bloggers,”siad Ariel Garneau, PMQ for Two. “Aesthetic fit and corporate culture also play into my decisions.”

Smart brands recognize that these social media influencers should be treated with the same respect as any brand ambassador or partner rather than as just another advertising outlet. As trusted voices in the digital space, influencers are giving brands something nearly invaluable—their credibility.

Download our book, 11 keys to a good influencer relationship, with tips from the influencers themselves.

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“I always try to work with brands that relate to the content or subject matter I’m creating,” said Sanda Hadzisabic, creator of Design Playbook. “I always ask myself if the brand aligns with my mission/goals/reason for why I have the account. If it’s questionable, then I don’t do it.”

Influencers always appreciate it when they are taken seriously by the brand, both their style and voice as well as their audience insights. This kind of open communication is a process, and one where the brand and influencer get to know, trust and value each other long-term.

Influencers who partner with SmithHönig, for example, can impact on product development, and have commission opportunities. When influencers tell Hönig or company co-owner Kellie Smith that they see an opportunity or a challenge ahead, they’re heard. The brand is working on additional virtual events in which they brainstorm and socialize with our influencer team.

Melanie Hönig (far left) and designers and bloggers on the High Point Market fall 2019 Design Bloggers Tour.

“We think of our influencers as part of our extended design family,” said Hönig. “We’re actively engaged with them and we love when they’re engaged with each other, too. We’re friends for life.”

And as an influencer, isn’t that the ultimate goal? To move from someone with an engaged audience to someone with staying power? To become someone who a brand would love to work with long-term? It’s like unicorns and rainbows. Both are amazing, but they’re even better together.

To learn more about brand partnerships, watch ultraviolet’s presentation “Attracting Authentic and Profitable Brand Partnerships” from the Designers On Social Summit. The program ran from Jan. 27-29, 2021 and featured over 20 other design influencers & social media experts who provided presentations, masterclasses, and Q&As to help you grow your design business.

Talking Soulful Glamour and Influencer Marketing with Jewel Marlowe of Jeweled Interiors

Whether you’re working toward becoming an influential designer or just starting out your career in the space, there’s always something to learn from the top designers making it happen. We sat down with prolific designer Jewel Marlowe of Jeweled Interiors to talk about her unique, adventurous style, as well as how she’s jumped life’s many hurdles (like moving three times in three years) to define it.

Here’s what Jewel had to say about creating a virtual world of playful inspiration for her followers, collaborating with other artists, and always staying true to her own vision— above all else.

UV: We’ve read that you’ve spent a good part of your life traveling the country and world, especially to places like England, where you spent some time restoring furniture as an antique dealer. How would you say this has defined your style?

Jewel: I would define my style as soulful, eclectic, and glamorous. As a military spouse, I’ve lived all over the US and Europe, moving 13 times in 19 years. I find influences from these experiences, and then sneak them into my design.

UV: With so many unique sources of inspiration, and using such a versatile and bright color palette (like that amazing peel and stick wallpaper from SmithHönig) how do you stay focused? Who do you have in mind when you design a space? What’s your process like when designing spaces in your own home?

Jewel: I try to think of the people who will use the space when contemplating my designs. Sometimes, however, when designing a space for my own home (currently a 1990’s Northern Virginia colonial) I like to involve my followers. I’ll narrow my design choices down to my favorite two options, and let my followers vote. Not only is it more fun this way, but I also find that people tend to feel more invested in something they helped to create.

UV: Speaking of involving your followers, what do you do to ensure your content is in-line with your audience and their expectations? How did you perfect this process to attract and build the audience you have today?

Jewel: I am constantly approached with offers from companies, but to keep true to my brand, I try to only accept collabs with companies and products that I sincerely like— and focus on ones that I actually want to use in my home or designs.

UV: I know you’ve moved around a lot as part of your husband’s military career. What have been some of your biggest challenges creating curated spaces while also changing house? How have you overcome them?

Jewel: The trickiest part about being a maximalist military spouse has been the need to stay under the predetermined weight limit for every move. In the last move, I felt like we sold a large part of our household goods just to make the cut. So while this was a challenge, I also think it helped me edit, and pare down my collection.

UV: Sounds like it’s been a long journey of perfecting the process. With all of these different challenges in mind, what’s your best advice for someone interested in becoming a design influencer like yourself?

Jewel: LOL, it’s been a lot of work. Luckily it doesn’t feel that way, because it’s something I’m so passionate about. But when considering if you’d like to become an influencer, I think it’s important to determine your purpose from the outset. Is your goal to make money, get exposure, rack-up magazine features, help others, finish your own home, or build a brand? Picking a goal helps determine how to focus your time. It also helps to gauge your success.

Are you looking for even more tips on building your brand and becoming a household name in the industry? We’re here to help. At ultraviolet we help design professionals, luxury home brands, and digital influencers take their business to the next level. Sound interesting? Here’s how we make it happen.

Webinar Recap: Understanding The Mindshift in Media Relations + Expanding Your Virtual Community

Between the new work-from-home lifestyle and continuation of stay-at-home directives, businesses and brands are being challenged to execute a major pivot to stay in business. The pressure’s on. Those of us who are going to succeed are developing new ways to deliver products or services to clients and customers.

More than ever, how we tell our story and represent our brand is crucial to our success: It’s important to identify ways we can shift our approach – sooner rather than later.

That’s why, on May 13, ultraviolet’s founder and Creative Director Jennifer Smiga partnered with Mary Leigh Howell, PR consultant, to present the webinar, “Renovating The Design Industry: Media Relations + Digital Strategies In The New Normal,” Together, with an audience of designers, brands and manufacturers, we dug into 4 key topics:

Understanding the mind shift of the media to help you communicate with them
Creating relevant, helpful, and story-driven content that engages audiences
Building strategic partnerships between your brand, influencers, and the media
Leveraging smart social and digital strategies to make your business thrive

One point we made early on? Reaching people where they are right now and expanding your virtual community – this isn’t a dilemma, it’s an opportunity. The customer is online, and the way you behave now will have an enormous impact on your business’ future. It’s essential to consider how you can pivot and adjust now to provide solutions that meet your clients’ and customers’ changing needs.

Get the entire (free!) webinar

These are just a few of the topics and insights we covered in the session. Whether you were there and just want a quick review or you missed it (we missed you!) and need to see it all, view it here and start leveraging all the best-practices we shared to make sure you don’t lose your audience.

None of us wants to get left behind during this tumultuous time.

No time to watch the entire video right now? No problem. Here’s a recap of the key takeaways.

Understand the media’s mind shift

Even before the pandemic, media in the home space was in the grip of drastic change. Magazines folded, mastheads shrank and newspapers completely dropped Home sections. The bright spot, here, is that while there are fewer print publications and fewer editors, there are more digital outlets looking for more content than ever before.

Widen your “most wanted” list
Know their audience
Be proactive and patient

Create relevant content that engages audiences

By creating stories that work in our lives right now and into the future, whether they are pandemic-friendly or a welcome distraction, make it easy for editors to place you. If you have images or story ideas, now is the time to reach out to your favorite editors and media outlets to collaborate.

Build strategic partnerships

The right partnerships can turn your work-from-home life into an opportunity for your business to evolve and grow. If you have any of these three, you have a compelling reason to kick start a partnership now:

Stunning professional photography
A large network
New products to launch

The numbers tell the story: 71% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals while 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know.

Leverage smart social and digital strategies

By working with the right partner—someone authentic and with a relevant audience—interior designers, influencers and manufacturers have been able to shift their focuses, offers, content, and promotions to accommodate the current state of the world.

During the webinar, we presented case studies on how globally-inspired home décor brand SmithHönig, international tile leader Island Stone, and quarrier Polycor have all leveraged partnerships during this time to continue meaningful, online conversations with their customers and fans. With very different business models and partnerships, each of these brands leveraged fresh, authentic content to gain new sales opportunities and brand awareness within their ideal audiences.

It’s clear that in this new climate we need to adapt and evolve our digital strategies to stay visible and engaged. We also need to adapt and evolve our messaging to connect with the new perspectives and needs of our audience. That’s where we can help.

Schedule a 45-minute session with either Jennifer or Mary Leigh. We’ll discuss your goals, how to adjust your current strategy, and where we may be able to help with execution.

The Design Blogger’s Tips for Creating a Killer Personal Brand

Being a design influencer looks like so much fun. Being a photogenic person existing in a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind space, where the light hits you just so, and casually posting photos and blogs and watching the likes and fawning comments roll in. The reality is getting that perfect photo takes backbreaking work, more than simply standing in the perfect lighting. It involves sourcing, staging, writing, research and creativity. To get to the comfortable, profitable place you need to produce consistent, quality content. It may look effortless, but a lot of work goes into developing a killer personal brand.

Being a design influencer is part art, part science, and all hard work. Luckily for you, some of the design influencers we partner with have shared their tips for success.

True to you

Let’s talk about Joanna Hawley, the Seattle-based blogger behind Jojotastic. Hawley, a product designer and trend scout for companies like Anthropologie, was invited to join Pinterest before it was open to everyone. She started her blog to leverage the popularity of her Pinterest and to give companies interested in working with her a way to contact her. She landed her first sponsorship deal within three months of starting her blog.

And when Hawley began looking to buy a home, she let companies know that she was about to take on a home décor and renovation project—and that she had 3.7 million Pinterest followers. Companies including Decoist, Sherwin Williams, Rejuvenation, The Mine, CB2, All Modern, Pottery Barn, Parachute Home and Barn and Willow, happily jumped on the opportunity to partner with her, and ended up paying for a huge part of her remodel and helped furnish her tiny house.

And while you may think her giant audience is the moral of the story, there’s a lot more to her success than that. When Hawley was laid off, she got into the world of blogging by reaching out to Joy Cho from Oh Joy! on a whim. Cho brought her on to contribute to biweekly round-ups, giving Hawley the opportunity to learn from one of the best in the biz.

Hawley was at the forefront of the tiny house trend and has built her brand on providing small space tips, home tours, and inspiration for choosing to live small. She’s also been open about the less-then-photo-ready side of her life, sharing what her home looks like when it’s not staged to divine perfection.

So, the real takeaway is, as an aspiring influencer, you need to know your brand inside and out: Hawley utilized her education in industrial design and photography to define her visual brand, her honed job skills of cataloging and categorizing to curate her boards, built relationships with other bloggers and brands, and followed her heart and instinct to invest in a tiny house. What she had is the one thing you can’t fake as an influencer: authenticity.

If you want to be a successful influencer, you have to be real, honest, original and true to you. Being authentic will help you increase your engagement rate, generate organic traffic to your website, and increase visibility—and help you gain new followers. And it’s not just to gain followers: Brands prefer collaborating with an influencer who can generate authentic stories for their brand.

Authenticity is a word that gets thrown around a lot, when we say it we mean: No one likes being lied to or mislead. Can you clear the clutter before you take a photo? Yes, please do! But don’t be disingenuous or promote products you don’t love. Only partner with brands that fit with your personal brand, otherwise, the partnership could have a negative impact on the brand as well as on you. Followers can smell phoniness a mile away.

Read why partnering with the right influencer matters.

Get social with your audience

This sounds easy enough, and it will be at first, because you won’t have a big following. Like and respond to every comment, follow people back, make sure that you are making moves to form a much-needed connection with your followers.

One of the worst mistakes you can make on social media is having zero interaction and personality. No one likes someone who just talks about themselves. The same is true of influencers. This is the age of transparency and people want to get to know you and your brand on a more personal level. And that means they expect you to want to know them, too.

When you see something you like in other people’s content, don’t just like it or share it, also reply with a comment to start a conversation. Other tips include:

Always @mention people you reference in your posts
Reply when people @mention you or share your content
When someone asks a question, answer it

Kate Pearce of Kate Pearce Vintage has found a unique way to engage with her audience, while driving weekly traffic to her Instagram stories and blog. She turned her followers’ questions about how to grow an Instagram following into a series of blog posts. Every Sunday she posts a question box in her Instagram stories where readers can drop in questions for her, and then every Monday she shares her answers to her questions on the blog.

When it comes to numbers, it’s easy to obsess over your follower count, and while there is value in increasing the number of followers you have, other metrics are just as important. Basically, having fewer followers who regularly engage with you and your content is infinitely more valuable than having 100,000 followers that ignore you.

Ask yourself:

What percentage of your followers are active and engaged with your page and content?
What’s your average number of likes or shares?

Once you have a handle on what your statistics are, you can begin to analyze what content is resonating the most with your audience.

Ask yourself:

Do specific types of posts have more likes, comments and shares than others?
Do you see a lift in new followers when you share a specific kind of post or use a specific platform?

Pearce’s journey from vintage dealer to full-time Instagram/blogger was driven by focusing on what was working and adjusting her content to reflect that learning. Her first year was focused on selling vintage furniture and finds on Etsy and dabbling in Instagram. After being contacted by Apartment Therapy for a feature on her home, Pearce changed direction and focused on selling vintage and Instagram. And not long after, she refined her vision again and went full force into blogging and Instagram, leaving the world of vintage sales behind. Does Pearce still have a passion for vintage furniture? Of course, but that doesn’t mean focusing on it is the right fit for her brand right now.

Content is queen

Whether it’s videos or blogs or Instagram posts, the most important thing an influencer must do is to keep creating content. Create an editorial calendar, schedule posts, find a system that works for you and stick to it. Make sure what you are posting is useful, informative, engaging, and helpful to your followers. This will help you position yourself as an authority and reliable resource.

Creating content should be how you’re going to spend most of your time— your content is your brand, after all. Make sure you are investing your time and talent where it matters. And that includes promoting that amazing content.

Dare to be different

If every photo on your feed features versions of the same rattan bookcase, is your photo of yet another rattan bookcase going to stand out? Probably not. Home design trends are important to know about, but they aren’t as important to follow. Instead, get real with yourself. If the whole world is going gaga for glamour and your style is more simple and sleek, show that. Don’t be another voice in a chorus. Say what is true to you.

Time is on your side

Hawley started pinning years before she started her blog—which she launched in 2012., Kate Pearce launched what is now her blogging business in 2015. You’re not going to become an internet design sensation overnight. But follow the path of these successful design bloggers and you might be one someday.

Think you’ve got this personal branding under control? Now, let’s help you kickstart your partnerships with brands on a positive, professional note.

UV Keys to a Good Influencer Relationship

Pinterest is Her Jam: A Q&A with Kyla Herbes of House of Hipsters

The role of a digital marketing agency is to stay one step ahead—knowing and understanding new social trends and platforms. Although Pinterest was created nearly a decade ago, brands, bloggers and designers are still learning how they can benefit from using the platform in their marketing. And today, it’s more relevant than ever.

As a visual search engine, many qualities set Pinterest apart from Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even the latest and greatest, TikTok. These same qualities can help grow website traffic through your Pinterest page. At the 2020 Design Influencers Conference, the ultraviolet team got to meet and speak with Kyla Herbes of House of Hipsters, a home decor and lifestyle blog, that has become a top interior design resource. There Kyla gave a super insightful presentation featuring her best practices for marketing on Pinterest. If you weren’t able to catch Kyla’s presentation, don’t worry—we have helpful hints and pointers straight from her on how you can tell your story on Pinterest today.

Let’s jump in!

uv: How has Pinterest impacted your brand?

kh: Pinterest has pretty much touched every part of my business. Not only is it one of my biggest traffic drivers, but Pinterest, the business itself, found me on Pinterest.

They reached out in an email asking if I was interested in doing some graphic design work. At first I thought I was being “punked” by a friend and deleted it. My husband said, “maybe you should take another look at that email”. I wound up working freelance for a few years, creating promoted pins for Pinterest’s brand partners. That experience really taught me how to market my own brand.

Pinterest also collaborated with me on their Pintervention with BravoTV. One lucky winner received a bedroom makeover designed by me. Also, I spoke about best practices at In The Making, Pinterest’s first conference for creators.

uv: How do you use Pinterest differently from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? How do your audiences differ on each?

kh: Unlike the other platforms, Pinterest is not used socially. When you think about it, how many times have you commented on a pin? In that rare occurrence you did comment, did you receive a response? Probably not. Pinterest is a place for discovery. A place to share and find inspiration for yourself. I pin and save content that is primarily not owned by me.

When it comes to Facebook, I’m sharing links I think my community will find interesting and content I’ve published on my blog. Instagram is primarily my interior design work or vintage pieces that were purchased from my brick and mortar in Barrington, IL. Every once in a while, I will feature or regram a space I love (with proper credit of course).

I love Facebook and Instagram because that is where I can converse with my little HOH community directly. That doesn’t happen on Pinterest.

I’m not very active on Twitter. I found it quite entertaining the night Sharknado first aired and I’ll check it during the MTV Awards for snarky tweets, but for the most part, Twitter is not my jam.

uv: Why is putting the content from your blogs on Pinterest important?

kh: If you don’t pin your content, who will? The first thing you should do after pressing publish on a blog post is pin it. Share it everywhere. I’ll admit, it took me a couple years to figure that concept out. I thought it was a bit narcissistic to pin my own work. But it’s really just another form of sharing, discovering and helping.

That concept is key. Channel the word helpfulness to create a soft sell on your brand. Add a little call to action in the description or text overlay to lead that user back to your blog. You’d be amazed what adding, “for more info click over to…” will do to add traffic to your site.

uv: Why do you think it’s necessary to share other people’s content on your Pinterest?

kh: You do not want to scream, “follow me” on Pinterest. Pinners are using the platform to discover ideas, not you. Again, channel helpfulness.

uv: Spill about Pinterest group boards. Are they effective for you?

kh: When you pin to a group board, you are sharing your content with the group board owner’s followers. It’s a whole new audience and reach.

Can’t find a group board? Create your own and invite other like-minded pinners to join. If you’re a brand and you know interior designers and content creators out there that use your products in their designs, invite them to your group board. If you’re a blogger, invite your blogger friends to share their content.

See how you’re channeling the word helpfulness without really trying to sell anything? It’s kinda magical.

See Kyla’s skills & style for yourself on her Pinterest.

uv: Why are keywords important when you are naming your account, boards, and pins?

kh: You really have to think of Pinterest as a search engine. By adding keywords your content is becoming searchable. Make it easy for pinners to find you.

uv: Why is resharing older pins no longer a best practice?

kh: Repinning is not necessarily bad practice, but pinning new content is highly encouraged. If you think of it from Pinterest’s perspective, they want to have the latest and greatest ideas and trends searchable on their platform. They don’t want the same pins from 2015 pinned and repinned again. Pinterest wants to stay current.

uv: What is your advice to a brand/designer who is not using Pinterest?

kh: What are you waiting for? Get on it now and start pinning for your business. It’s not too late. If you don’t have time, find someone like me who does social media consulting as a business. I do everything from setting up your account properly to keywording to creating pins and maintaining your Pinterest account. I’ll even sit down and just teach you the basics if you’re feeling overwhelmed but still want to do it yourself.

Pinterest is a powerful marketing platform that brands are just starting to figure out. Get on it and start pinning.

Pinterest allows brands to have fun and get creative. It can also help them elevate their brand visibility and bring traffic to their site.