3 Ways Interior Designers Fail at Personal Branding

Creating a personal brand is essential for interior designers.

If your clients are going to work with you, they need to understand who you and that value that you bring.

I’ve seen too many of interior designers fall short,  by either ignoring your personal brand or not executing it correctly.

I’ve spent many years studying personal branding and working with interior designers to develop successful brands and businesses.

Here are the top 3 ways interior designers fail at personal branding and how you can avoid making the same mistakes:

1. Assuming your clients already know what your brand is

Did you know that your personal brand isn’t what you say it is; it’s what your clients say about you when you leave the room?

You need to get a clear handle on how you want to be perceived by your clients.  A good way to start this process is to ask your clients…

Try reaching out to a few clients…. A simple exercise is to ask them what are the first three words that come to mind when they think of you.

2.  Failing to clearly express your brand

Many designers avoid telling their personal story about why they do what they do.  They erroneously think that people will intuitively get what they do and why they do it.

Take the time to share your personal story.  Your clients will either assume wrongly  (“I guess she got bored, so that’s why she started the business”) or they won’t even bother to figure it out.

Telling your own story connects you with your clients — don’t leave it to them to tell your story for you.

3.  Not being consistent with your brand

Your personal brand doesn’t just begin and end with your look and feel on your website, business card or office.

It’s the combination of:

• What people find when they google you
• Your social media presence
• The kind of content you create and share

It’s important that you present your brand the same across all platforms and it takes work.  Truthfully you need to be living out your brand consistently on all platforms every day.

You need to make sure that every thing you  is aligned with how you’d like your brand to be seen.  Unfortunately lots of people are not willing to make this kind of an effort.

But if you want to stand out and get noticed as as an interior designer, you must write blog posts about trends you see in the industry, Network with groups of people  and start sharing your vision.

When people see you consistently living out your brand, that’s when it will really stick.

Having a strong personal brand will ultimately help your interior design business.   Avoiding the 3 ways interior designers fail at personal branding will help your clients better understand what you and make you stand out.