Prioritizing Editorial and Brand Exposure with Dering Hall
In a modern world where the print medium is fading, it’s so important, now more than ever, to prioritize your digital presence. With platforms like Dering Hall, interior designers have a space to share their brand story and be included in world-class editorial. Dering Hall discusses their content syndication strategy, embracing technology, and the importance of photography and editorial for interior designers.
For those who are unfamiliar, how does Dering Hall work exactly?
You have few quality outlets through which to consistently tell your brand’s whole story, from the breadth of your projects to the full range of your products. Our system was created to provide you with an easy way to digitally publish your story and the entire breadth of your work, and to have your imagery included in world-class editorial that is shared daily across deringhall.com and other websites. In turn, the content that we create (our editorial team is led by Michael Boodro, former Editor-in-Chief of Elle Décor, and Dennis Sarlo, former Site Director for Architectural Digest), drives our high-end trade and sophisticated consumer audience to connect with your story and with you. Everything we do is measurable using easy analytics tools, allowing you to continue to evolve your story to garner additional engagement.
As an interior designer, how does maintaining a Dering Hall profile give you credible and relevant exposure to the industry at large?
It’s all about brand exposure that leads to opportunity. Interior designers use our daily editorial calendar and submissions process to promote latest projects, books, new product launches, and their expertise. And unlike a print article or a print ad, our syndicated content serves as a permanently searchable front door to the rich interactive experience of your story.
Design by Kimberley Harrison Interiors, Photo by David Duncan Livingston
Why would an interior designer want to source products through Dering Hall, rather than directly through a vendor?
We are not an e-commerce company. We just want to make product sourcing easier. Establishing relationships with manufacturers and brands enables us to publish a robust and easily searchable product directory that makes it easier for our members to find the right product for their projects. In essence, we do for brands what we do for interior designers, we make it easier for them to publish the breadth of their products and we create world-class editorial featuring those products.
What are Dering Hall’s most popular categories and products?
Our most popular product categories have been what you would expect – furniture, lighting, rugs and accessories. Every day, we work to continue to unearth those incredibly crafted and new products that will inspire your work.
Design by Art Home Garden
Dering Hall maintains incredible media partnerships with the likes of Elle Décor, Cottages & Homes, and more. In what way does Dering Hall work with these partners and do you have other collaborative projects in the works?
These relationships, and others like them, are part of our content syndication strategy. It’s not about our audience necessarily visiting deringhall.com to see our content, but rather our content getting in front of our audience regardless of where they’re spending time. We are in conversations with a host of additional audience appropriate websites and look forward to many more.
Based on your knowledge of the direction of the industry, why should interior designers embrace modern technology?
How much time do you have? From our publishing and marketing vantage point, it seems like many in our community haven’t yet been properly educated on how to use the Internet to their business’s benefit (and the benefits are real). Sure, everyone at this point is comfortable with email and Amazon, but ask someone about their web presence or about SEO (search engine optimization) and you might as well be speaking a foreign language. So, they delay their involvement or convince themselves that only millenials are using the Internet. Or, they try to harness the power of the Internet but quickly get frustrated that those likes and shares they get at 3am aren’t resulting in business. What we’re trying to do is educate the marketplace regarding digital while at the same point making it super easy for the industry to succeed on the Internet.
Design by Jen Talbot Design, Photo by Dustin Halleck
Why do you think it’s important for interior designers to utilize digital tools such as Ivy to bring their operations online?
It’s all about time and efficiency. On the marketing side, why debate with yourself whether to use Facebook or Instagram? Isn’t your marketing time better spent understanding and articulating your brand, and then finding one or two trusted partners to disseminate your message? The same can be said of the billing and other tools out there. You can spend all of your time on bills and timesheets and receipts and the things you despise rather than spending your time on your creativity. Be creative and let companies like Ivy take care of the rest.
In your opinion, why should interior designers invest in good photography for their portfolio?
You live a visual life. Many of your clients live a visual life and make choices based on those visual impressions. In the digital world, your photography is your business card. And good photography is worth a million words.
Design and Photo by Centered by Design
Why are editorial opportunities so important for interior designers?
Editorial allows you to tell your story and put context around what you do. While the image is worth a thousand words, why you chose those products and why you positioned those elements the way you did conveys an understanding of you and your aesthetic. It is that understanding that creates interest and success. And as we suggested before, it’s getting harder and harder to get published as the print industry consolidates.
How does Dering Hall prepare for the holiday season?
We enjoy our friends and families. We work in a company where the mission is the design industry’s growth. Being part of a mission creates a real focus to what we can accomplish.
Design and Photo by M and M Interior Design
What’s Dering Hall’s focus for 2018?
Accelerate how we help grow the design industry by adding product features, services and editorial offerings that position the interior designer as the expert in the world of design.
Design and Photo by Greenblott Design
Here at Ivy, we’re more than just an interior design software. Our mission is to provide interior designers with the community, resources and tools needed to manage your business beautifully. Are you searching for a business management tool to help streamline your workflow as an interior designer?
