Notes On Influencer Marketing
INFLUENCER MARKETING
Influencer marketing is such a hot topic these days and because I recently participated in Adam Japko’s Design Influencers Conference - the first one out of the past 10 to be held virtually [ which I thoroughly enjoyed], I thought I would share some thoughts on influencer marketing and what it has meant both for me, personally, and to my career.
For my career, it has brought me national visibility and credibility - and with that, the ability to help the clients of my company, Savour Partnership, achieve their own goals - faster.
But here’s what it really does for me, personally.
To be recognized by both my peers and outside entities as a Top Influencer In Interior Design brings me JOY, especially this past year, when I haven’t been able to travel for speaking engagements or to attend tradeshows where I can see my friends, who are scattered all over North America and Europe, many of whom are on these lists of top influencers in interior design or are quoted alongside me.
JOY has been sorely needed in my life during these past 15 months and these blips of national recognition for my work in this area have truly made it all bearable.
See more of FIXR’s Top Influencers In Interior Design on FIXR, here.
If you are reading this and want to become involved in influencer marketing, meaning brands pay you, give you product or give you intense media exposure [sometimes all 3] to talk about or write about their products, the biggest influencer marketing platform for interior designers, #DesignHounds, is owned by my long time and good friend, Veronika Eagleson.
Although I pioneered the use of influencer marketing in the interior design and furniture industry with my early work on two major multi-brand influencer marketing initiatives for Cargill’s BiOH Polyols division, one involving BiOH, Century Furniture, Savannah College of Art and Design and Ultrasuede Interiors called PROJECT U DESIGN [ I have a wonderful picture of Veronika attending this event ] and the other involving Room and Board and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, called BE IN THE KnOH, Veronika took the concept of influencer marketing and ran with it…through both her Modenus and Design Hounds platforms - and I have been the beneficiary of her intelligence and mad organizing skills ever since.
I invite you, if you are interested in becoming an influencer and being paid for it, to sign up here, for her #DESIGNHOUNDS platform.
It is by being a part of this that I have been able to partake of the many wonderful opportunities that Veronika has made available for me - and for all of us that are part of this - including the wonderful trip out to Napa Valley in 2019. where Veronika invited me to speak to the assembled Design Hounds at SKS Appliances’ Experience Center about how to maximize their ability to generate 24/7 income from their websites and blogs.
[ My thanks to my fellow #DesignHound, interior designer and podcast host, Joanne Kandrac of Kandrac and Kole for taking this shot of me while speaking there and sharing it to her Instagram STORY ].
That trip to Napa was a once in a lifetime fabulous experience that I was recently reminiscing about on my personal Facebook profile. I sure do miss seeing my friends in real life!
Below is a shot that Ohio based interior designer Patti Johnson took of all of us that were on this trip, while enjoying a delicious lunch cooked for us by chefs studying at the Culinary Institute of America.
And here’s a blog post that Patricia Davis Brown of Dig This Design wrote about this event, which will give you a flavor of the entire experience. [ Patricia just launched her brand new website, too, this past week - congratulations, Patricia! ]
Recently, Veronika held another fabulous event, but this time a virtual one - also with SKS Appliances, called #SKSxDesignHounds, where 50 of us [ it was first come first serve re: signing up for this ] were sent a sous vide wand, packaged beautifully with all kinds of delicious foodstuffs for making limoncello.
I had a lot of fun practicing my flatlay photography skills for this virtual event, as you can see in this image I managed to capture, below, but the best part was being on a 50 person ZOOM call while making the limoncello cocktail with all of my friends, in real time!
None of us wanted it to end - it was so much fun! This is why you need to join up for #DesignHounds, now!
And, as most of you know, I also still - but very occasionally these days - set up influencer marketing events for my own clients, which I recently did for the magazine division of my client Seasonal Living, North America’s leading, award winning modern resource for quality indoor/outdoor furniture, lighting and decorative accessories.
A collaboration between 15 sponsoring brands [ Signature Kitchen Suite was one ] and 11 nationally known interior designers, Seasonal Living Magazine’s Luxury Virtual Designer Showhouse was a resounding success, resulting in many national visibility opportunities for the participating designers and a profound ROI for the participating brands.
It is the first luxury virtual showhouse in the world to be developed entirely and only in the virtual world and that also includes augmented reality, meaning the Showhouse’s viewers can see some of the sponsor’s products in their own homes, using the augmented reality application on their phones.
A co-principal of this with Gary Pettitt, CEO of Seasonal Living, the Showhouse’s owner and copyright holder, and the publisher of Seasonal Living Magazine, it was my joy to work on this for and with Gary - especially during the long year of 2020 when the pandemic started.
It took almost a thousand hours of work on my part, but it was 100% worth it as it kept my mind completely occupied during that hard year.
Debuting on Dec. 3rd, 2020, during a fun and spectacular online launch party moderated by Luann Nigara, [ over 500 attended and over 2500 signed up to attend! ] , the Showhouse now lives as a permanently viewable link inside a Special Showhouse Edition of Seasonal Living Magazine, a shoppable, digital magazine that my company designs and writes for Seasonal Living.
To tour the Showhouse now, go to https://bit.ly/TourTheVirtualShowhouse. The Showhouse is free to tour, open 24/7, and no email is required to view it.
If you need any help learning how to navigate it, or use the virtual reality or augmented reality features, watch the 3 embedded videos on page 23 of the Special Showhouse Edition.
This is a new video, recently completed by nationally certified professional building designer, Annilee Waterman, who worked with Jenna Gaidusek’s eDesignTribe team [ the official modeling and rendering partner for Seasonal Living Magazine’s Showhouse ] showing the exterior of the Showhouse at different times of the day. Annilee created the exterior and interior architecture from a brief given to the eDesignTribe team by Gary.
It’s quite beautiful - as is the music Annilee chose. Don’t miss this!
Part of what made Seasonal Living’s Showhouse a success for the designers was how they were featured on many of the social channels of the participating brands, further raising their visibility and credibility.
Learning how to use your participation in influencer marketing events to bring you new clients and new opportunities is part of what makes it all worthwhile, especially when you’re devoting many hours of time to a particular event.
In the case of this event, where I was the lead strategist, I asked all of the participating designers to curate their favorite Seasonal Living products from Seasonal Living’s collections, and this curation now lives as a permanent top navigation drop down link on Seasonal Living’s website, [ see it under INSPIRATION] - with links to their Instagram feeds and to their websites, driving Seasonal Living’s consumer traffic, permanently, to them.
Each designer has their own curation link to share, as well, meaning they can choose to use this link in whatever they want to further their own national credibility with other brands who might want to work with them, and, of course, this helps Seasonal Living, my client, further the word about their award winning indoor/outdoor furniture, lighting and decorative accessories collections - a true win/win for both parties.
See their DESIGNER CURATIONS here: https://seasonalliving.com/designers.
Their participation in the curation was voluntary and 9 of the 11 chose to participate, shown below. You will soon see a blog post on Seasonal Living’s website about their curations, as well, which I will come back and add to this post as soon as it’s completed.
TOP TIP IF YOU WANT TO BECOME AN INFLUENCER - DEVELOP A ONE PAGE MEDIA KIT
If you want to work as an influencer with brands, putting together a one page media kit really helps them get to know who you are, at a glance.
As some of you know, Laura Muller, principal of Los Angeles based Four Point Design Build, will be debuting her first licensed collection for Seasonal Living this year [ hopefully at June’s #HPMKT! ] and this is her one page media kit.
Laura designed this herself, and you can, too, using Canva. It’s easy to do and as you can SEE, it makes it fast for a brand to understand, quickly, if you might be a good fit for them, and gives them a quick idea of your aesthetic and visual style.
If you’re a member of my Facebook Group for interior designers, #DesignWealth, I will be inviting you to put your own media kits in my Group, soon, so we can all get to know you, quickly.
If you’re not a member yet, and you are a full time working professional interior designer and would like to be a member, please send me a Request To Join here:
https://www./facebook.com/groups/designwealth.
Please note: you must have a professional website to be a member of my Group.
One last note: the world of influencer marketing is a fun one, but remember [as I do], it often doesn’t pay well..or much..and even if it does pay well, it is one time income and someone else controls it.
Use it as part of your mix, but don’t forget to focus on what builds your ability to bring in 24/7 income, long term, and that gives you the ability to control your destiny, on your time frame: your email list, your blog, your ebooks, design downloads and ezines, programmatic ads on your site, and affiliate links [although affiliate links are the last thing I would focus on as you get started.]
This is exactly why, for myself, I am launching my own lifestyle blog this Spring:
https://www.designhappyliving.com.
Some of you have seen me talking for a long time about Design Happy Living, and I’m finally ready now to take this step, as I have to take the time to do it in tandem with my work for my clients, and my life, which up until now have both been all consuming.
But I do invite you to follow my Instagram feed for #designhappyliving now at:
https://www.instagram.com/designhappyliving, and to enJOY what you see there, that I have curated over the past few years.
Thank you for being alongside me for my career journey that has taken me on such a circular path…as a strategist for brands, as an influencer, and also, now, as the co-editor of a national consumer facing magazine, Seasonal Living Magazine.
Speaking again of that….
This was the SPRING 2019 cover of Seasonal Living Magazine [ my personal favorite cover ] and I can’t wait to share with you the SPRING 2021 edition, coming out March 20th! Stay tuned - you won’t want to miss it -especially one fabulous feature that I’m so excited to share with you!