Where Do Designers Buy the Latest Trends?

Do you often find yourself wondering how designers learn about the latest trends? Where do they find furniture?

For many designers out there, Highpoint Market is the answer. Highpoint Market is held two times a year in Highpoint, North Carolina – once in the spring and once in the fall. The spring event just wrapped up on April 22nd.

The majority of the big name manufacturers and many  smaller names show off brand new products and trends. Store owners, managers, buyers, sales representatives and visual merchandisers come from all over the country. It is a very long, jam-packed, stressful week, but it’s well worth it in the end.

The show presents new products, addresses new technologies, showcases trends and determines which products are being discontinued. Can you imagine walking into a 40,000 square foot showroom of all new products, accessories, wall art and fabrics? It’s absolutely amazing!

Many Continuing Education seminars and presentations are held throughout the week. We always hope that someone attending the event will bring back information for us! Many manufacturers ask a local representative to give presentations for all of those that could not attend. It can still be amazing, but it’s not quite the same as seeing it in person, touching or sitting in the latest upholstery.

Networking is also a big part of the event. Dinners, luncheons and golf outings are often held to give the furniture industry  professionals a chance to reconnect, meet new people and discuss current trends.

Stores place their orders at Highpoint Market and begin to see the product flow into their showrooms by mid-summer. One thing to keep in mind if you live near North Carolina is that many of the showrooms have sales before the event to clear old products off the floor. Some also have big sales afterward to clear out the new products and make room for next season.

If these dates don’t work for you, there are also many mini-market manufacturer showrooms you might be able to visit and purchase what you need.

Have you ever attended a market like Highpoint Market? What do you think about this type of experience?

About Social Media Marketing: The DesignSherpa Perspective

We believe that the core of a powerful social media program is content. The development of targeted content that is consistent with your brand story, which is distributed through social media platforms that align with your customers and prospects preferences, will generate measurable results in your business performance.

Social media marketing requires expertise and management, and at DesignSherpa our mission is to do the heavy lifting associated with building content and managing the distribution through social networks and increased Google recognition. This work doesn’t remove you or your marketing team from the process: it enhances your resources and focuses you and your team on the work of identifying and engaging high-quality prospects and staying connected with your current customers.

Our Chairman & CEO, Dan McCarthy, has been an early adopter of social media as an internet marketing strategy. In his personal blog, ViralHousingFix, Dan has shared many of his observations about the application of social media to marketing and has articulated some foundation principles.

To better understand our approach to social media marketing and to gain additional perspective, you may want to read Dan’s following posts:

Migrating a brand strategy from marketing to content: A case study

My two principals of social media marketing

Online content isn’t just consumed…it can be transformed

An organizational shift to social media: Project Massive Network

Social media can be a marketing platform: It starts with brand evangelism

What to Expect as a DesignSherpa Customer

We retain more than 50 acclaimed Design Industry journalists and photographers across the country to provide a unique content advantage that allows your business to develop a social media footprint that is supported by the highest quality underlying content.

In addition to the Content Advantage, when you become a client of DesignSherpa through any of our programs you will benefit from the expertise and focus of an experienced team of account management, customer service, and social media implementation professionals.  Your primary point of contact will be your DesignSherpa Account Manager.

The Account Manager will be intimately involved in the creation and implementation of your social media marketing campaign. From working with you to develop your business blog’s look and feel, to pinpointing the right kind of content to drive your content marketing strategy, to coordinating the introduction and creation of your social networking presence, your Account Manager will ensure that you don’t have to sweat the small details and will be able to focus on the important issues of running your business and overall marketing plan.

Supporting your Account Manager and managing the daily tasks associated with your DesignSherpa account is an experienced team made up of Social Media Coordinators, Content Managers, Social Network Managers, Search Engine Optimization Specialists, Web Developers and Web Designers.

These individuals are members of the DigitalSherpa Operations Team, headquartered at NCI’s operations center in Lawrenceville, GA. As a DesignSherpa client, you benefit from the experience and expertise of a team that has worked on developing internet marketing solutions for thousands of companies in the home design, multi-family, real estate industries.

The DesignSherpa Customer Service Promise

We understand that our customers have busy and demanding professional lives. We also understand that a key to the success of a social media marketing program is engagement, focus and conversation.

Our promise to every customer is that we will make the process of managing a social media marketing campaign as painless and simple as possible.

To help accomplish this, we have a Customer Service Communications Program that helps you stay on top of the important details related to your account.

The program includes:

Weekly social marketing tips.

Weekly Content Idea Sheets, complete with reminders to update important information in your DesignSherpa blog, such as events, sales, products of the week, etc.

On-Demand Conversation Alerts, which are sent to your appointed contact whenever a question or sensitive topic is tracked on your blog or within your Business Social Network.

Monthly Marketing Consultations, which include a review of your DesignSherpa activity, including leads generated for your business, and a fine-tuning of the different elements of your Social Media Marketing Program.

What You Get

For a low monthly fee, Design Sherpa will develop and execute a complete social media Internet marketing program.  This is a fully integrated approach with a custom blog at the core.  Content management,   social newtork identities,   tools, SEO  and reporting analytics are all included.

DesignSherpa provides the following services for an affordable, fixed monthly fee:

Content Management

• Blog hosting and maintenance for your single location business, or a network of blogs for regional and national businesses with multiple locations.  
• Ongoing content creation and management; regular blog posts with content written specifically about your products, events, promotions, projects, and business highlights.  Also relevant content created by our award winning home design journalists along with additional sources we identify and source for you
• NCI supplied content is selected and developed to establish community engagement around the design sensibility, budgets, and project scope of your target prospect and existing customer;
• Emphasis on photo presentations to define your business’ unique design perspective;
• Interactive content;
• Helpful design resources, tools, and answers to FAQs;
• Content that you want to share about personal local favorites, tips, and favorites that define you, your community, or your business.

Social Network Development Maintenance

• Creation of social identities for your business on Facebook and Twitter
• Development and publishing of content for your social identities
• Recruiting and development of your social network connections among your clients and prospects
• Monitoring of your social network activity for problematic or sensitive issues and dialogue

Internet Tool Development / Search Engine Optimization

• Periodic enhancement and upgrade of social media tools, such as blog platforms, interactive widgets, etc.
• Analysis and refinement of Search Engine Optimization performance for your professional business blog in search engines such as Google,  to increase traffic and raise your business and personal brand’s profile.

Reporting Analytics

Monthly reporting and analysis will include:

• Measurement of how many members of your network interacted with your program
• Report on traffic and leads
• Referal activity measurement
• Measure business activity among customers who are participants in your social network vs. non-participants

Getting Started

Three unique programs available

All three programs develop and execute a full-service social media marketing plan for  your business.  All three provide customized content tailored to the voice and image you wish to communicate to your market.  There are slight differences in content presentation based on whether you are primarily a service and project oriented business, a product or showroom oriented business , or a multi-location business.

I. Design Professional Program

Recommeneded for all styles of design professional:  builders, architects, interior designers, landscape architects, remodelers, etc.   In this program, we recognize the importance of showcasing projects as well as educating, informing and entertaining your prospect community with relevant news and information.

Using an extensive interview process, we will work with you to hand select categories of content to populate your blog and social media.  Content for your program is overseen by experienced home design professionals who draw from NCI  home design brands as well as from carefully selected online resources.

A few examples of content categories you can select

-         New and archived projects / before and afters

-         Home design news and trends

-         Helpful tips and resources

-         Local events and insights

-         Inspirations and ideas

-         Green living

What you get:

Content management: hosting, creation, distribution
Social network development: identity creation, content population, audience development, activity monitoring
Tool development:  Search engine optimization, system and platform upgrades, performance analysis
Reporting Analytics: traffic, audience interaction, leads and referrals

Pricing:  There is a monthly maintenance fee and fulfillment begins on the contract start date.  Program will be up and running within 45 days.  Program continues for 13 months from the contract start date.

II. Shop / Showroom Program

Recommeneded for stores and showrooms that feature primarily products and that hold inventory of some kind.  In this program, we recognize the importance of showcasing products as well as educating, informing and entertaining your prospect community with relevant news and information.   Also included is an e-commerce option allowing you to list products with pricing for online selling direct to consumers.

Using an extensive interview process, we will work with you to hand select categories of content to populate your blog and social media network.  Content for your program is overseen by experienced home design professionals who draw from NCI  home design brands as well as from carefully selected online resources.

A few examples of content categories you can select

-         In Store Promotions

-         Design Trends

-         Helpful tips and resources

-         Local events and insights

-         Inspirations and ideas

-         Design tips

What you get:

Content management: hosting, creation, distribution
Social network development: identity creation, content population, audience development, activity monitoring
Tool development:  Search engine optimization, system and platform upgrades, performance analysis
Reporting Analytics: traffic, audience interaction, leads and referrals

Pricing:  There is a monthly maintenance fee and fulfillment begins on the contract start date.  Program will be up and running within 45 days.  Program continues for 13 months from the contract start date.

III. Multi Location Program

The Multi Location program is available for a minimum of 10 locations.

With the Multi Location program, you are able to customize the basic template and design of your DesignSherpa Blogs to match your business’ design sensibilities. In addition, each DesignSherpa Blog will have a custom-designed header and marketing web pages.  (You may submit pre-designed pages for these elements, if you desire.)

As a Multi Location client, you will have the opportunity to customize the functionality of your blog. Your Account Manager will detail the various functions that can be added into your blog, including interactivity with your customers and prospects, enhanced photo galleries, integration with your social network platforms and video.

As a Multi Location client, you will have a central marketing resource at your company, who will be the key point of contact for developing the Social Media Marketing plan. In addition, you will appoint a contact person at each local dealer or location who will interact with the DesignSherpa Operations Team on a weekly basis in order to supply key content and handle engagement with the users of your program. Each month, the central marketing contact at the Company will receive a report detailing the performance of the program.

Pricing:
For more information, contact:

Adam Japko
President, DesignSherpa
ajapko@nci.com

-or-

contact your local NCI Home Design magazine and social media sales professional

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Boston Design Community Gathers for Social Media Primer

NCI’s Chairman and CEO recently gave a presentation about social media outside Boston to a group of design professionals.  The event was sponsored by New England Home and Kitchen Views.  Here is a link to Dan’s really compelling and eye opening presenation on ways to think about harnessing social media as a new internet marketing tool for the design industry.