5 Ways to Get People to Talk About your Interior Design Business
Having your own business not only means you are an expert in what you are offering, but it also means you need to be an expert in promoting yourself and your services.
Basically, you always need to be talking to people and having people talk about you.
Even at times when your agenda is full, and especially when you need to get more clients, you must continuously be promoting and get the word out about your interior design business.
Here are five tactics to drive attention to your business regularly.
Get published in local and national publications
Having a strong Public Relations strategy is vital to get known as an expert in your field and be seen by new people and potential customers. Once you start getting published, you will see immediate results of people reaching out, asking for quotes, and referring to you.
Public Relations is an excellent marketing tool because you are not selling yourself directly to your target market. An article about your company written by an editor in a well-known magazine has a lot of influence because it comes from a trusted source. Readers let their guards down and will be much more likely to believe the information they are reading and to be interested in learning more.
Getting published in your targeted media is not that hard. Editors and journalists need content, and they are looking for you. With simple tools and a strong strategy, an agency like A Design Partnership supports you to build a strong PR campaign, to know who to pitch your projects to, to make sure it matches your target clientele, to optimize when to send your ideas based on the editorial calendar of the magazines and to help you organize your content to best share your message.
Take your Public Relations strategy to the next level with A Design Partnership.
Set your marketing on autopilot
Batching tasks helps you save time, money, hassle, stress, and it enables you to gain productivity.
Use this technique for your marketing campaigns as well. Dedicate one day every other week for your marketing: create all your content in advance and schedule it ahead. Not only will it save you time, but it will also help you avoid posting content last minute at a less engaged time, for example.
Creating the content ahead helps you to strategize the message you are sending. It helps you to see the bigger picture and make sure your content is on the point of your branding, your mission, what is currently happening in the world as well as in your company.
It will free your day from worrying about not posting enough, and it gives you time to check for errors instead of having to rush things to meet the end of the day deadline.
- Social Media
Optimize your social media by creating a calendar two months in advance by using tools like Buffer. Do it once for the whole month, and Buffer will automatically post your content when you schedule it.
- Blog posts
Spend a creative afternoon to write your blog posts in advance and use your website platform such as Square Space to schedule the blogs to go online on the date and time you put it in.
Use your blog content as inspiration for your social media, too. Since you will have your planning scheduled ahead of time, you can also make sure to promote your blog posts on your social media and drive traffic to your website.
- Newsletters
Your newsletter is a great way to connect with current and potential clients. Your list is made of people who are one way or another aware of your business, which makes it much easier to share your message. By creating a monthly newsletter and having a clear schedule for the following two months, you make sure to share the right message at the right time to your audience. Schedule your monthly newsletter ahead of time using your website platform such as Square Space or an email service provider like MailChimp.
Book 3-5 coffee meetings each week
In-person meetings are still very efficient, even more in our overly digital world. Take the time to meet with realtors, architects, and builders in your area every week. Create relationships with these persons, so they remember you when they need to refer interior designers to their clients.
Buy the $5 fancy cup of coffee, treat them to a little cute promo gift that they can give to their clients when promoting your services. The gift could be a branded small bag that has your business card, postcard, one sheet, and a little essential oil with a fresh linen fragrance or a fragrance that helps their client sell their home faster.
Leave a good impression and make sure to send them a thank you email for their time as well as doing regular follow-ups.
Donate $500 gift certificates to private school auctions in your area
Donate $500 gift certificates to as many local private school auctions in your area for Interior Design Services. Make little custom candles with your logo on it, attach your business card, and leave 25-50 of them on the table as a bit of giveaway for all the moms and dads.
It is an excellent incentive to promote your services locally and be top of mind for people who may need interior design services at some point.
Presentations at realtors weekly sales meetings
Do 2 to 4 presentations a month at realtors offices during their weekly sales meetings and share your business cards and a one-sheet on your business services for staging homes or interior design services. Offer them gift certificates to give to all of their clients when they go on listing appointments with new potential clients.
If you are a high-end interior designer, make it a point to be best friends with the top 5-10 highest realtors in your area. If you don't know who they are, look at realtor.com and search for the most expensive listing in the finest neighborhood in your city.
It's a numbers game! Be seen by people, meet, interact, leave a good impression, and make sure to follow up. It takes more than one initiative to be remembered. By adding all these tactics together, you are increasing your chances for your name to be seen and heard in different places at different times and to stay top of mind.