If Instagram is your online resume, do you want to have what essentially is someone else’s job on it? Time to think if that’s the message you want to send to potential clients.
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Are you selling yourself short by not selling and marketing your interior design business? It’s time to rethink your relationship with selling because as Robert Louis Stevenson said, everybody lives by selling something.
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You probably have a lot of questions about how to share your interior design projects online. How much to share online? What to share? How much is too much? What do people want to see? Where to share? How best to share? What’s the strategy or overall plan to share design projects? This article will clear things up for you.
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Your interior design business may not be growing because there are 5 areas that you are neglecting. I go into each area, however, these should be thought about as a rebalancing of your time, not about adding more to your already long to-do list. By incorporating these areas into your business you will be more productive and feel more balanced.
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If your business is struggling you probably need to be doing a better job at marketing. And even when you are busy you can’t let up on your marketing efforts. In other words, you always need to be marketing because when you stop clients stop.
If you’ve never created a marketing plan now is the time. You may have been marketing and not realized it (and if you’ve had clients this is probably the case) but if you want to get more ideal clients, now is the time to focus on your marketing efforts.
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1. Have a Specialty
When you're known for something, people will come to you to get it. When the keywords and text on your website is what your potential clients Google, more clients will find you. When you try to appeal to everyone, it makes marketing much harder. But someone looking for New England meets Palm Beach will certainly find Meggie H Interiors. A client wanting to decorate their kids room in Massachusetts? They'll find Boo and Rook. You'll book more clients if you have exactly what they're looking for.
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Most interior designers keep their portfolio on their website. There may be a little information about their services, but mainly interior design websites are put up to display designer's work and contact information. Some interior designers even have a blog. Although, I'd suspect that if those designers are reading this article, their blog probably hasn't been updated in awhile.
While interior design websites have a way for clients to contact the designer, they usually haven't created a way for the interior designer to contact clients. This is where an email list is useful to your business. Despite the spread of social media, email is still one of the best ways to be in contact with your potential clients and past clients - the ones that you don't talk to regularly.
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Pinterest has become one of the biggest search engines online and it's still growing. Now as I mentioned in last week's post on growing your Instagram following, social media is not one of my strengths. But I've been working on it recently and I'm going to share with you what I've learned. If you have tips, be sure to share them in the comments!
Pin It Button
Make it easy for website visitors to pin your images with a Pin It Button on your website. Beware of copyright infringement implications.
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For the past month, I've been putting some energy into social media. Social media is such a great tool and I've seen it make businesses - through followers, connections, and brands. It is not something that comes natural to me, in fact it feels very unnatural and revealing, but I am working on it. No matter where on the scale of social media comfort you are, the following tips are sure to help you get more eyes on your business.
I know this because the person I asked to give me her tips on growing your Instagram following amassed over 10,000 followers in about a year. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of them came in the last six months. Her name is Meg Hosler from Meggie H Interiors. Meg told me that with little to no money to spend on marketing and advertising Instagram has become invaluable to getting her name out there. She said, "The Instagram community within design and architecture is very supportive and interactive. I have met a number of my Instafriends in person and have made some great friends. It has also been the number one way my clients find me. Instagram is also how I was discovered by The Glam Pad blog which has been invaluable to launching my career." Below are Meg's tips on how to grow your followers:
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I met Lisa Mowry several years ago when I lived in Atlanta and she helped me get published. She is a great person to ask about getting published because she works with multiple magazines. In the 27 years she has worked for home & garden magazines, Lisa has produced more than 1,000 features for national and local magazines.
She is the Atlanta editor for such well-known publications as Better Homes & Gardens, Traditional Home and Decor, as well as a dozen more of BH&G’s special interest magazines...titles such as Cottage Style, Elegant Homes and Beautiful Kitchens & Baths. Lisa also serves as the homes editor for Atlanta Magazine’s HOME and has been a contributing writer for Atlanta Magazine for 20 years.
Her many other writing credits include Southern Living, Woman’s Day, Styleblueprint, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and Metropolitan Home. So you can understand why I asked her to help answer your "how to get published" questions.
When should a designer submit projects?
In theory, nobody is ever really done with a house, but editors do need
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This week I am speaking with Kat Alves, a talented freelance interiors and architectural photographer for both commercial and residential spaces. I was first introduced to Kat when I did Amy Aswell's Real Designer feature since she photographs all of Amy's work.
Kat is a California native with a degree in Photography and Design Studies from San Francisco State University. She followed that up with a Certificate in Interior Design from UC Berkeley. So she knows a bit about photographing interiors. Her photography showcases modern, fresh design with natural light. Her work has been featured in numerous publications including Dwell Magazine and Luxury Home Magazine.
Below, Kat shares with us the inside scoop on working with a professional photographer:
What is the benefit of hiring a professional photographer to photograph interiors?
To make your project shine and be able to present your work to the world in its best light. Since most homes are private, it is very difficult for prospective clients and others to view all the hard work of interior design. Photos are the key to getting
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When I first started my business phones had just begun to come with cameras. There wasn't a way to document your life and share it like there is now. It was a much slower time. There wasn't the pressure that there is today to create magazine-worthy images for your life and your business.
C'est la vie.
So what are you supposed to do now that your photography skills haven't developed as quickly as technology?
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