During home improvement projects in today’s world, when visits to websites far outpace visits to the hardware store, homeowners and renters are looking for inspiration and guidance online – while also keeping an eye out for products that can make their lives less complicated and their spaces more stylish and functional.
If you’re an interior design firm or a retailer, you have to get your own house in order before helping customers tackle their plans.
Just as we scramble to ready our guest room for that visit from the in-laws, you want to to make sure everything’s in place when weekend warriors storm your site with traffic generated from search queries about window treatments and area rugs, let alone when architects, contractors, property managers, business execs, and the super-rich staging their mansions in preparation to list them on the market come looking for partners.
Your content – the ideas, advice, and observations you can give away – will work shoulder to shoulder with the product or service you’re selling.
Everybody in your profession has testimonials, portfolios, and beautiful photography, with good reason: They’re important elements of your website. But not everybody has original content. And there’s no good reason for this, because blogs generate business. People looking for help will find you, and once you’ve established yourself as an authority, you will convert them into customers.
[Tweet “We have a project for interior designers & retailers to help them help customers with theirs.”]10 Interior Design Blog Ideas
So, here’s our big reveal: 10 interior design blog ideas to get your efforts off of the ground. Many of these can be refreshed time and time again as trends emerge and tastes evolve. Our keywords for search engine optimization are in red. Hey, you make home improvement projects easier for people like us, so we want to make improving your website easier for people like you.
Give us a good one we might have forgotten in the comments, and give us a call for hundreds more, ’cause we just can’t stop researching this stuff!
1. Roll Out Some Advice and See What Sticks
Title Idea: Wallpapering Tips for the Adventurous Homeowner
Suggested Call to Action: “Four walls, limitless possibilities: Let us help you narrow them down.”
Farrow & Ball doesn’t just have cool wallpaper – they have cool ways to use the wallpaper, along with other practical examples that show their products in action.
2. When Pink and Blue Are Too Boring
Title Idea: Unique Girl Nursery Ideas for New Parents
Suggested Call to Action: “Your baby will be one of a kind – her room should be, too. We have some ideas to get you started.”
The Land of Nod sells baby-related products and their blog features the best and boldest new product designers for specific segments of design needs, including Lay Baby Lay. They use different products from their online store to create baby room themes and inspire blog visitors to buy those products. Finding niche customers – like justifiably neurotic expecting parents, for instance – can go a long way in generating business through your blog.
3. If You Can’t Grow It, Don’t Show It
Title Idea: The Best Plants for Office Sprucing
Suggested Call to Action: “Plants provide aesthetics and oxygen – both important. Here’s how to pick the right ones for the workplace.”
Intelligent Interiors is a high end furniture dealer and lives up to its name with a smart, well-designed, super-impressive blog that’s content rich with ideas for decorating your home with their furniture (and beyond). When you achieve that, you don’t have to sellsellsell with every post. You can provide peripheral – but still relevant and useful – pointers on things like office plants.
4. Give Them a Place to Call Their Own
Title Idea: How to Make a Man Cave That Makes You Feel at Home
Suggested Call to Action: “Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but you don’t have to go far away to get some space. Check out these thoughts on building your clubhouse.”
Man caves might be passé for some, but this item on the list applies to all extra and multipurpose rooms: People appreciate a little guidance – and guidelines – when taking on a big project. Companies like California Closets do a great job of complementing their product with strong content that inspires a visitor to purchase their products.
5. Be Transparent With Educational How-To’s
Title Idea: 10 Contemporary Window Treatments That Won’t Be a Pain
Suggested Call to Action: “Do your window treatments need a new look? Let’s see what we can do with these 10 suggestions.”
Share your knowledge! Customers want to know they’re hiring an expert, and that your general tastes align. Designing Home does just that with posts like this one, on a topic that generates a ton of interest among homeowners and renters year-round. Also a good example of evergreen content that can be continually updated.
6. Go On Campus to Help Students Stretch a Dollar
Title Idea: Freshman Orientation: Dorm Room Design Solutions
Suggested Call to Action: “College is expensive enough, but designing your dorm room doesn’t have to be with these new items.”
As you probably know, IKEA sells trendy, modern furniture. With contributions from customers, IKEA’s Share Space is a lot more accessible than their at times byzantine website and stores, and it drills down to practical topics like this one. Want to sell more dorm-based products? Blog about dorm styles and use your products in them!
7. Provide Some Cautionary Tales
Title Idea: 5 Interior Design Mistakes to Learn From
Suggested Call to Action: “Before you get started on your next home improvement project, here are lessons from ones that didn’t go so well. Give us a call if you’d like a little more help.”
I don’t know about you, but when an accomplished and decorated interior designer like Pepe Calderin shares some “don’ts,” I pay attention. Customers like to know that a pro is looking out for them, not preying on their inexperience.
8. Tie Together Trends and Products
Title Idea: Modern Dining Room Lighting: Your Latest Options
Suggested Call to Action: “Family dinners, meetings, and science project prep all take place in the dining room. We’re sharing some ways to keep it bright but still stylish.”
The Pottery Barn’s timeless appeal sustains itself by deftly blending inventory with the latest fashion, which they highlight in their blog. Your product sets the tone, but your content can amplify it.
9. Help Them Look Cool in Front of Company
Title Idea: Displaying Collections With Style and Restraint
Suggested Call to Action: “Antique tea service, yes; Precious Moments figurines, no: How to show off your stuff without being too stuffy.”
Urban Elements Interior Space converts visitors into customers by supplying decorating primers like this one, full of humor and sage wisdom.
10. Inspire Them … to Spend Some Money
Title Idea: Quick and Simple Home Accent Ideas to Update Your Space
Suggested Call to Action: “A throw pillow, a painting, or a few pieces of hardware can make a room feel new again: Try these and be sure to send us your pics!”
We’re big fans of Schoolhouse Electric & Supply Co., who skillfully mix product and promotion on their blog. They use their wide inventory of products to create actionable design tips for those looking to spruce up different rooms.
These interior design blog ideas could help start a renaissance for your company’s website, and reshape your business outlook in the years to come. Content can help you identify potential clients, while at the same time helping convince them to hire you.
If that sounds like hyperbole, keep in mind that BuzzFarmers clients get 70% or more of their leads through their blogs, and that 97% of our clients have acquired a new client or customer through their blog in the first month of producing content! Our clients increase leads through their blog by 1,900% on average, as opposed to before they began blogging.
Put these ideas to the test, and let us know if you need a hand in the future!
