Since 2012, Philadelphia-based Henck Design has worked with a range of clients, from high-level executives to professional athletes to empty nesters. For owner and founder Christina Henck, Pinterest has become a key tool for communicating with those clients, generating new leads and curating interior design styles. We caught up with Henck to learn more about how she makes the platform work for her business and what tips she would offer others in the industry.
Furniture, Lighting & Decor: What are the primary ways you use Pinterest?
Christina Henck: At Henck Design, we create a Pinterest board for every new client that we take on and use that as a tool to create what I call our “Design Direction” for the client and collaborate with the client. We work on the board together so that we can share visual references with one another before pulling the actual items via our design research from vendor websites.
FLD: How has your business benefited from Pinterest?
CH: At Henck Design in just under two years, we have developed a following of 229,000 monthly viewers and counting. We have converted many Pinterest users into viewers of our website, Henckdesign.com.
We have over 120 boards that focus on different interior design styles, rooms, approaches to style elements like animal prints, modern art, and indoor plants and many more topics. We design each board to be cohesive, visually balanced and offer a range of opportunities in the direction of each subject/design principle.
For Henck Design, I’ve spearheaded multiple campaigns in order to reach a larger audience through Pinterest. We resize our photos that are professionally shot by a local photographer to fit the Pinterest format. Then we write detailed descriptions with keywords for search-ability on the platform.
When we create pins, we link to different pages on our website, and our social media channels in order to drive traffic directly for web conversions. This is the real benefit of using Pinterest.
FLD: What tips would you offer other designers for how to best utilize Pinterest?
CH: Create your own Pins to get found! This is an excellent SEO tool. We are able to reach a larger audience through Pinterest, especially now that people are at home so much more!
For all local and national press that Henck Design receives, articles and blogs that I publish, images of myself with other reputable people in the Philadelphia area, and nationally recognized interior designers, we have a board called “Out and About” that captures images of me mingling with the best and the brightest.
Henck Design also has a board called “World of Henck Design” which features many photos from our portfolio, press pieces, links to our video interviews and more. We are in the habit of creating so much content, that this board is a great tool to feature a whole host and variety of it!
There are so many different ways you can structure your Pinterest boards, where they link to, and how you save them. Get creative and have fun with it. Just remember, the more content you can crank out, the better, and don’t forget to write great descriptions for each Pin and each board!
FLD: What Pinterest “don’ts” would you offer?
CH: Don’t spend time trying to engage huge accounts like Vogue Living, etc. I really don’t think anyone is sitting around looking at much more than their overview of monthly analytics, much less, engaging their audience per click. We track out monthly engagements and make sure our numbers always are trending upwards.
FLD: Are there any drawbacks to Pinterest that you think other social media platforms are better for?
CH: There are absolutely drawbacks to Pinterest in terms of how the engagement and traffic flows as it compares to other platforms. You simply cannot treat Pinterest the same way as any other social media outlet, although you can certainly link your Pins to those platforms and visa versa. It’s all about your approach to Pinterest as a tool.
Follow these links to see three of Henck Design's top trending Pinterest boards: “A Day at the Beach,” “Modern Farmhouse Flair,” and “Nurseries + Nests.”
