Reach out to Potential Design Clients
How to Reach out to Potential Interior Design Clients
It doesn’t need repeating that without clients, a business has no future. However, finding new clients is an ongoing challenge in any industry. There are many ways to generate interest in your business. None are easy, of course, but some are easier than others.
Social Media
Every business needs social media in some form. Which platform you prefer is up to you, and some work better than others for some businesses. As you work in a visual industry, interior designers tend to prefer Instagram or Pinterest.
Choose one social media platform and focus most of your energy on it; use others as support. You won’t have the time or energy to be on all the platforms all the time. If you focus on one, try to show up every working day and consider using a content planner or scheduler. Also, remember it is social media. Aim to add value to attract your audience, don’t just promote yourself. Start with showing your own home, share design tips or highlight any new furniture store you love.
Social media can also be a great source of paid advertising.
Incentives and Rewards
These are a great way of generating interest. What’s more, there are many ways you can go about it. Discounts for a first order or optional extras, flash sales, rewards programmes and more can incentivise clients to come back. Newsletters are also a useful way of engaging and retaining a client base. There are two main reasons: firstly, you stick in the client’s mind for the next time they want to hire you; they’re less likely to look elsewhere. Secondly, you can use incentives to get them to appoint you – an eBook guide of quick tips to improve your interior décor, for example.
Public Relations
Your voice is one of the most important elements of your visibility. No longer can businesses, especially small businesses, thrive on reputation and internet marketing alone. Write articles for design magazines and local media which can provide you more visibility to design interested people. It is unlikely you’ll get into the largest magazines unless you are invited to submit a piece – these are mostly paid advertorials.
Also consider participating in industry discussions such as webinars. Add into that design events, or local workshops; education sessions are great for visibility too. It’s good public relations and while it can be time consuming, the potential rewards are high.
Referrals / Word of Mouth
This is one of the oldest methods available; what’s more, it’s cheaper and virtually effortless. Referrals need just one key habit from you – asking past clients to refer you to other people who might need your services.
However, don’t just sit back and wait for the clients to come flooding in on recommendations. Set up a system that allows this to happen. Your sales team might ask for a referral from satisfied client during the sales process and to go on your website. Also, don’t forget to ask your suppliers to refer you to any other clients.
Be professional and offer superior client service, and half the work is done for you.
Networking
Networking events are by and for industry professionals. The more people you know in the industry, the more work you are likely to get. It’s outdated to see other businesses in your industry as competition – they are potentially new sources of business, especially where you have non-overlapping interests.
Get used to recommending others to clients when you are too busy or don’t have the knowledge or expertise to do a certain job. Enter networking with a “how can I help other people in the industry?” rather than a “What can I get out of it?”
Networking is also a great way to find connections and partner with complementary businesses, for example delivery companies.
Website Relaunch
This is something to do every couple of years to keep up with customer expectation and the ways in which they engage with the web.
Today, both B2C and B2B find new businesses primarily through online searches. If your website isn’t up to date and using a modern attractive theme with all the features that they expect so that they may reach out to you, you are doing your visibility a disservice and losing out on work.
Ensure that the functionality, design, the content, and imagery, are in-line with those current expectations.
It may also be worth an SEO audit to ensure you are on the first page of the major search engines.
Interested in interior design? Find out more about studying interior design in your own time, at your own pace with the Professional Design Institute.
