(This is part two of a lil’ rant about an interior designer’s shady marketing. 
Click here to get the 360° on my bunched knickers.)

Quick setup:

If you went to an interior design company’s website and clicked through to their “Kitchen Inspiration” gallery, what would you expect to see there?

k, good.

Now, with no copy to indicate otherwise, would you believe that said designs were created by said design company?

Great. Right.

Spidey sense already prickling after this business owner’s increasingly hard sells and exponential sleazifying, I scoured his design company’s website for signs they was more legit than he indicating. 

(btw, when someone shows you who they are, believe them, Hayley — your gut knows.)

The kitchen photos were gorgeous, but for some reason, they felt too good to be true.

I plugged several of them into a reverse Google Image Search because I refuse to be catfished.

They. Were. Stock. Images.

I confronted him about this on our final call (yes, I even owned up to the fact that I did a reverse image search).

I even offered some potential language to replace what was currently on the page. Free marketing advice!

He word vomited a variety of excuses at me:

• “Our clients wouldn’t let us photograph their finished projects during COVID” (but…they let you and their contractors in their homes for weeks or months on end to do the actual projects?)
• “Midwest clients all want the same thing, and we wanted to show variety for our clients in other cities” (subtle shade at your prospect? really?)
• “Lots of design and construction companies use stock photos” (if a bunch of other companies were jumping off a cliff…?)

My brother in Christ: I don’t care if you use stock photos. 

It’s a choice, especially if you’re as proud of your work as you say you are. But it’s certainly his choice as a business owner.

I do care if you’ve made the choice to include them on your website with zero indication that they’re not your photos. (Yes, even if you paid to use them.)

On some sites, stock photos look corny and unoriginal at best.
On his site, stock photos look like deception.

If my work wife, Jena, redid her website and included Brené Brown and Anthropologie’s websites in her portfolio, people…would reasonably believe she did those sites. 

(She did redo her website, by the way, and it’s fire. You should hire her; we make a great team.)

What I really care about is transparency.

I felt like I was force-muted on a Zoom call, repeating over and over “JUST ADD A LINE OF TEXT THAT SAYS THIS IS BOTH YOUR WORK AND INSPIRATION FROM AROUND THE WEB!”

It wasn’t until I explained it to him via email, along with my final decision that we would not be working together, that he saw my meaning through those pee-colored glasses.

The language you use to represent your business is just one part of all this, Hayley. 

Yes, words matter. But it all matters. 

By the way, he wrote me back a day later saying he’d added some text to his website like I suggested. Better late than never, I guess, my guy.

Close enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯