5 Influencer Marketing Best Practices All Home Brands Need to Know

Social media has changed the way people shop, and it’s a decades-long trend we’ve seen across all industries — including home decor and furnishings. Less frequently are home brands taking out expensive ads. Instead, they’re reaching out to influencers to do the promoting for them.

If this is an approach your brand is considering, there are a few best practices you should be aware of. 

Each part of this series will take home brands through the ins and outs of influencer marketing, including: 

1. Influencer marketing best practices all home brands needs to know
2. 3 home brands with effective influencer marketing strategies
3. Everything brands need to know about interior design influencers 

Let’s get to work.

1. Build a brand ambassador program.

Whether you’re selling mattresses or luxe window treatments, home and interior brands usually offer high-consideration products — which means you need a long-term game plan to win over customers. A brand ambassador program is the perfect solution, as long-term partnerships with creators can establish repeated exposure to your audience that lead to purchases down the line. 

Build deeper relationships with creators by turning them into long-term partners. Give them perks such as early access to new launches or even an exclusive co-branded product collection. This kind of brand-creator investment builds trust with consumers and overall strengthens the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. 

2. Take part in holidays and seasonal events to encourage shopping.

It’s not just the end-of-the-year holidays that are a big moneymaker. In partnering with social media influencers, brands should also consider: 

• Valentine’s Day, Mother’s/Father’s Day, and other holidays
• Special sporting events like Super Bowl Sunday
• Seasonal events like summer vacation and back-to-school season

While you might not get as much use out of this content as you would with evergreen material, partnering with influencers for time-sensitive occasions packs an extra special punch. You’re taking high-traffic events that are already getting tons of attention online and essentially riding their coattails.

Want to add even more incentive for people to shop with your home brand? This would be a great time to provide influencers with affiliate links or coupon codes to share with their audience.

3. Work with a wide variety of influencers

You’re likely selling items like mattresses, rugs, and appliances — stuff everyone needs. Your approach is going to look different here, because your target audience is much bigger. It’s basically everyone with a pulse. So, work with creators of all kinds, whether they’re interior design experts, or a mom who just wants to make her home more kid-friendly. 

Something else to consider? You’re going to need to get creative in making the ordinary look extraordinary. If you’re selling mattresses, a post that says, “Hey, here’s our mattress,” isn’t going to suffice.  

Instead, focus on storytelling. A good rule to live by is to market the experience, not the product. People don’t buy mattresses. They buy better sleep, comfort, and support. 

4. Don’t neglect Pinterest.

While most brands plan to prioritize Instagram and TikTok for their influencer marketing initiatives in 2024, Pinterest shouldn’t be overlooked. Research shows that Pinterest can create impressive full-funnel impact for brands:

• Awareness: 80% of Pinterest users have discovered a new brand or product on the platform.
• Engagement: 85% of Pinterest users use the platform when starting a new project 
• Conversions: 83% of weekly Pinterest users report making a purchase based on content they encountered from brands on the platform.

Pinterest is particularly powerful for home brands, as consumers turn to the platform for everything from DIY home renovation ideas to interior design inspiration. And unlike content on other social media platforms, content on Pinterest has a long shelf life, populating on users’ feeds for up to 4 months. This means that a great piece of content on Pinterest can go a long way. 

So, start working with bloggers and UGC creators who produce eye-catching home content — ranging from stunning interior design imagery to engaging short-form video content. These creators don’t necessarily have to have a huge presence on Pinterest, as the platform’s algorithm promotes content based on user interests rather than who they follow. What matters most is the quality of their content. 

If you want to take it a step further, create Pinterests ads featuring some of the influencer-generated content (IGC). According to this study, Pinterest ads are 2.3x more efficient cost-per-conversion than ads on competing social media platforms.

5. Focus on authentic video content.

Speaking of engaging content, 73% of consumers prefer to watch short-form videos when searching for products and services. This means you need to work with creators who are experts at producing socially-optimized short-form video content — but not overly produced, perfectly manicured videos. 

As consumers focus more on authenticity, we’re seeing a return to “lo-fi” content that makes you feel like you’re on FaceTime with a friend. For home and interior brands, this entails videos such as:

• DIY tutorials and how-to videos (i.e. “how to make your small bedroom feel bigger”) 
• Before-and-after home renovation 
• Small budget makeovers
• Home tours 
• Product reviews and unboxing videos
• And more

Then, repurpose this high-converting content across all of your marketing channels, including paid ads, website, email, and more. 

Sometimes, it helps to have an example. Check out Part 2, where we’ll go over 3 home brands who are running amazing influencer marketing campaigns.