Audience Development
The audience expanded while the content itself became more intentional about who the brand needed to reach next. Growth was tied to a broader shift in the firm’s public positioning.
National Full-Service Interior Design Firm*
From portfolio presence to audience-led visibility.
As the business expanded into larger projects and new markets, its public presence needed to evolve with it. ETL reshaped the social strategy around the audiences, visibility and content needed to support the firm’s next stage of growth.
01 / The Business Challenge
The business was growing faster than its public presence.
When ETL began working with the firm, the quality of the design work was already established. Its public presence, however, still reflected an earlier stage of the business.
Social media primarily functioned as a place to showcase completed projects. At the same time, the firm’s work was expanding beyond its original project mix, reaching new markets and moving toward larger residential, commercial and development opportunities.
The CEO had also built the brand with the work at the center and preferred to remain behind it. Video and more personal forms of visibility were outside of how the company traditionally showed up.
The opportunity was to build a public presence that could grow alongside the business. One that made the work easier to discover, communicated the direction of the firm and created stronger pathways into the brand.
02 / Who Had to Move
Growth required a broader audience strategy.
ETL started with the business direction rather than the content calendar.
We identified four priority audience groups connected to the firm’s continued growth and mapped the different roles those audiences could play across discovery, consideration, collaboration and future opportunity.
Rather than asking every piece of content to speak to everyone at once, the strategy created room to build relevance with those audiences over time. Different messages, formats and stories could serve different purposes while still contributing to one cohesive brand presence.
That shifted the role of social media from documenting completed work to helping the right people discover the firm, understand its perspective and stay connected to where the business was going.
03 / From Strategy to Activation
The strategy became an ongoing social activation.
ETL translated the audience strategy into an ongoing social media activation centered on Instagram.
The work included content strategy and planning, channel management, project storytelling, short-form video, social copy, CEO visibility and ongoing performance analysis.
As the business evolved, the content evolved with it. The public-facing project mix gradually shifted to reflect the type and scale of work the firm wanted to be known for next, rather than relying only on what had historically filled the portfolio.
We also began testing a more visible role for the CEO. Early CEO-led content consistently traveled beyond the size of the existing audience, a clear signal that people were interested in hearing from the person behind the work. That response helped inform the next phase of the strategy and gave the CEO greater confidence in formats that had previously felt uncomfortable.
The approach continued to evolve through response. Launch, observe, learn and refine.
Selected Work
A look at how the strategy showed up in practice.
Project-led video and editorial storytelling gave the firm multiple ways to show the work, communicate perspective and stay visible to the audiences connected to its growth.
04 / What Changed
The public presence began moving with the business.
The engagement created movement across audience growth, discovery, engagement and executive visibility.
- 600%+ audience growth from the original Instagram base over the relationship.
- 400%+ increase in viewer activity during a recent 90-day reporting period.
- 250%+ increase in external-link activity during the same recent reporting period.
- 3×+ the average Reel views reported for small-brand accounts in current benchmark data.
Greater Discovery
Short-form video became the strongest discovery format, helping the work travel beyond the people already connected to the account and bringing new audiences into the brand.
More Movement Beyond the Feed
External-link activity increased substantially, giving the firm stronger evidence that people were moving from content consumption toward deeper exploration of the business.
CEO Visibility
The CEO moved from preferring to stay off camera to participating in video and longer-form visibility, including podcasting. That created another way for audiences to understand the expertise behind the work.
A Broader Visibility Ecosystem
The firm’s visibility now extends beyond owned social channels through media, publication and podcast opportunities. Social media serves as the consistent public record that gives new attention somewhere meaningful to land.
Scope of Work
Building a public presence that needs to catch up with where your business is going?
Start a Conversation*Client name and identifying company details have been withheld to preserve confidentiality. Selected performance results are expressed as percentage growth, relative change and benchmark comparisons rather than raw account data. Media shown is used to illustrate ETL’s work. Credits are listed with each piece.