Building an Interiors Online Retail Giant and the Amara Blog Awards with Karen Waddiliove

Welcome back to another episode of the Interior Style Hunter Podcast! Today on the show we have the lovely Karen Waddilove. Karen is the Head of Events and Corporate Partnerships at Amara, the online destination for luxury home brands such as Missoni Home, Mulberry Home, Ralph Lauren Home and Versace Home. She has been with Amara for almost a decade and during her time she has had many exhilarating experiences acquiring new brands such as Ralph Lauren. Amara has also been involved in the online interior blogging scene for quite some time with their Amara Interior Blog Awards. On today’s show we discuss Amara, what they do, how they were founded and when the decision was made to capture the interior blogging sector the way they have. Keep listening to find out more! Key Points From This Episode: Amara’s journey from being an idea to where it is today. The growth of the company within 14 years. What makes Amara Interior Blog Awards different. Dividing blogs into different categories and niche’s. How the blog awards have had a positive effect on Amara as a company. Bringing micro communities together and building relationships. Amara’s connection with different bloggers and the importance of networking. Integrity: staying original, true to your brand and true to yourself. Where Karen draws her ideas and inspirations from. Challenges faced while growing the company. The reversal of opportunity, from approaching brands to having brands approach them. Ensuring the customer has the best and most efficient experience online. The challenging task of editing brands, what to do and what not to do. What to look forward to from Amara in the near future - Christmas Season. And much more! Tweetables: “We’re a really strong, creative, caring company.” — @kjwaddilove [0:10:13.1] “As a PR team we’re about relationship building, we don’t spend a lot of money as a company on advertising.” — @kjwaddilove [0:11:10.1] “Don’t try and dilute your brand and be everything to everyone, you just can’t.” — @kjwaddilove [0:14:57.1] Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode: Amara Amara Interior Blog Awards Karen on Twitter Karen on LinkedIn Pride and Prejudice Book Animals are Innocent Book