How Your Brand Identity Can Attract the Right Audience

In the age of HGTV, Arch Digest, and DIY content creators, standing out as an interior designer is more important than ever.

Especially if you’re in it for the long haul.

To get in the game and stay in the game, you have to get noticed for the kind of work that’s unique to you and your team. You want to attract like-minded clients that align with your purpose and aesthetic so you can be fulfilled AND put food on the table.

If figuring out how to build a rep that draws in green-flag clientele is giving you a headache, we’ve got the solution you’ve been looking for.

The key to making a name for yourself is to build a brand identity that engages your audience, makes them feel seen, and can stand the test of time. 

Partnered with a killer strategy, your brand identity attracts the kind of people you want to work with—IF you do the work upfront to make sure the message you’re sending to clients isn’t lost in translation.

Get the kind of attention you’re craving in these 6 easy steps!

Start With Your Brand

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Your brand is what your audience forms a connection with first.

Before they read a lick of your copy or start a convo in the DMs, they’ll see your branding and THAT will drive them to either dive deeper or move on to the next. Which means your branding plays a major role in the success of your business, so make it count! (Branding includes your portfolio, yes—but it’s so much more than that. Read about that here.)

Make sure everyyything about your brand is designed to connect with the problems, dreams, and motivations of the clients you’re itching to work with. 

For instance, if you’re appealing to traditional styled clients, a clean and minimal feeling brand would be the best fit. Or if your work is a bit punchier, a brand that’s more dramatic and bold would be the way to go. 

No matter what branding decisions you make, start by asking yourself what your dream client would resonate with most.

Get to Know Your Competition

Don’t forget to take a peek at what the big names and up-and-comers are doing in your field. 

Staying on top of current trends, industry issues, and best practices can help you nail down *exactly* what your brand identity could benefit from. You can get an idea of what certain demographics respond to or resonate with. You can even figure out what’s missing in the design industry that you can come up with a solution for. Remember that it’s YOUR business to design.

Once you know who the heavy-hitters are and what they did to get their businesses to where they are at today, you can tweak your branding choices based on the info you found, until they fit your dream client, design aesthetic, and biz goals like a glove!

Speak Directly to Future Clients

Brand visuals are ALWAYS meant to communicate something.

Throughout the design process, you should always be thinking about what design choices send which type of message. Your colors, type, and logos all have something to say about your brand. They’re the deciding factor of how your brand is perceived by your audience.

For instance, softer colors appear more feminine while more saturated colors appear more bold and assertive.

And serif fonts appear more stable and traditional while sans serif fonts are more modern and sleek.

As you progress in the design process, ask yourself…

“How do my brand vibe, colors, and portfolio images, speak to my clients?”

“What feelings do I want to inspire in my audience when they look at the branding visuals of my company?”

“What can I use in my branding that expresses the type of personality that my dream clients are on the hunt for?”

Allow the answers to help you create a brand that’s more aligned with who you are at your core.

You can also create moodboards complete with colors and inspo images to show different personalities your business could have, including a more classic buttoned-up feel or a more casual, inviting approach.

Highlight your Unique Selling Point

Your unique selling point is your secret sauce or superpower that no one else has but you!

Your USP could be the types of materials you tend to incorporate into your work, a process or service your biz has become known for, or even the signature design package you just started introducing to clients.

Whatever it is you’ve got going for you is something you should make a point to bring up to your audience.

If the other designers in your same lane *aren’t* offering what you’re offering, there are more opportunities for you to snag the attention of clients with problems that haven’t been addressed yet. (Which is one way to attract your dream clients. More on that here!)

Trust us, your USP WILL open doors for you. Especially if you know how to convey the value you add to the lives of the people that sign on to work with you.

Make Your Client Experience a Priority

Another way you can become sooo much more attractive to the right audience is to make your client experience priority numero uno.

You can produce drop dead gorgeous work on a consistent basis, but if your client experience is anything but rave-worthy, you can’t tap into your full earning potential. In other words, if people like the work you do but don’t enjoy the process of collaborating with you, you may miss out on word of mouth marketing opportunities that could have changed the game for your biz.

By making sure your client experience is smooth, convenient, and easy peasy in every way, you can make dang sure your brand is set up for success on every front.

Do yourself a favor and build a reputation for client experience worth remembering for good reasons.

And avoid anything that muddies your client experience like the plague!

More on the power of social proof here.

Be Consistent to Stay Visible

Now that all that’s taken care of, the last thing you need to do is to keep! Showing! Up!

To stand out, you HAVE to keep putting yourself out there—no matter how daunting, exhausting, or discouraging it can be when you aren’t getting the response you’ve been crossing your fingers for.

If you continue to show up on your social accounts, to your email list, and in whatever forums make sense for your biz, you can start to build momentum that snowballs over time… Just remember that you don’t have to be everywhere. You just need to be where your people are and stay connected to ‘em!

Then, you can sit back and watch green flag clients come running to YOU.

Remember that your brand is an extension of you and your personality.

Putting your personality out there to attract people who ‘get’ you does amazing things for your design business and can help you scale your company at a muuuuch faster rate.

So be unapologetic about who you are, flaunt what you do best, and make sure there’s brand consistency on ALL fronts so nobody has to wonder about what makes you different from the rest.

Not ready to tackle building your brand identity solo?

Lucky for you, branding interior design businesses? Is our JAM.

Connect with W&J today and we’ll help you flesh out a brand identity that makes your dream clients’ knees go weak!