5 Marketing Resolutions for your Interior Design Business in 2012

The new year seems to be off to a good start for the design community.  Closing 2011 with a busy client load for most designers and then kicking-off 2012 with the anticipation of the San Francisco Showcase House, there is definitely a buzz in the air about this upcoming year.  With that in mind, here is a life-hacker (a la interior design) version of your 2012 marketing goals that will allow your business to flow in the coming year.   

Make your 2012 shine with these 5 marketing resolutions

Kathryn Macdonald photography  Interiors by Grant K. Gibson

1.  Photograph your projects with a professional interiors photographer.  I know, your photographer friend does a trade for you for photos.  But if you want to compete, or endeavor to be like the bigger firms you need to present yourself in the manner that they do.  And with that in mind, you need a professional interior photographer.  Hire a good one and your projects start to adopt a photographed "look," that in turn becomes your visual brand.  A good photographer can give you tips on styling for the camera and will shoot a project, and in turn, projects with consistency.  The images can be used for your portfolio, contest submissions that require magazine-ready photos, ad campaigns (Decorator Showcase Catalogue and The Fall Antique Show Catalogue should be on your short list), website, and general marketing collateral.  My tip is to set aside a minimum of $2500 from each project for photography.  If you do a mark-up on goods, use the mark-up profit and set it aside in savings ear-marked for photography. Right as your project wraps, choose a day where you won't be under foot and get the project shot. Expect 5-10 photos for a days worth of work.  One of my favorite interior photographers to work with is Kathryn MacDonald, you can find her contract and fee structure here and a portfolio of her work at www.macdonaldphoto.com.        

2. Visually organize your projects in a dropbox folder for easy pitches to magazine editors. 

Free marketing and PR in the form of editorial is always at the top of the list for designers.  Make it easy on you and your staff and organize the images you just had your professional photographer take into folders organized by project.  In each project folder should be a brief project biography that explains the project, any unique features, design solutions, or collections that emerged during the design process.  List the clients names, whether or not they want to be anonymous if their home is published, or if they want to be listed.  If the client opts to be featured detail any family story that makes them unique that the reader would want to know about.  For example, were there any design requirements the client imposed on the process -- all green products, child friendly, or thematic in nature?  Are there any design elements you incorporated that were special to the clients -- collections from travel, smart design based on client's profession, etc.  These biographies coupled with images are your go-to elements to pull from for editor requests.  Most requests come in with a time crunch attached so having everything at your fingertips ensures that you breathe easy when compiling your submission.  Sign up for dropbox at www.dropbox.com. 

3. Get on the social media bandwagon and post consistently.   One of the easiest ways to drive up your visibility in search engines is to link your business website to social media websites and post on them frequently.  Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, & Pinterest should all be listed on your company website.  If you do client testimonials like some designers do, having your clients post through Yelp is the most effective way to add value to those references.  Again, make sure that Yelp! links to your website.  Meta sites and aggregator sites are also important for your search visibility.  These are sites that list your company among other designers in your industry like Houzz.com, Gilthome.com, & the Elle Decor Designer Registry.  On these sites you can register and create your own listing for your company, add your contact information and brief biography as well as portfolio images.  Because these sites change their content frequently, they are registered higher in the Google searches, increasing the likelihood your business is easily found when searched for.  Again make sure that any external sites that contain your company information are linked to your business website for easy and more efficient search-ability.     

SFDC Design San Francisco

4.  Make time to network.  I mean in person.  Go to industry sponsored events, lecture series and openings for showrooms, product launches, trunk shows, showcase houses and industry sponsored fundraisers.  The SFDC's Design San Francisco is coming up in February, and that could be the first networking event of the year you can commit to doing.  Other events and networking opportunities I recommend are  becoming a member of the Dining by Design Steering Committee (fabulous group of people to work with), The Decorator Showcase opening Gala, The Fall Antique Show opening Gala, and the Dining by Design Table Hop n' Taste to name a few.  If you subscribe to the SFDC's Designwire, you will get an email sent directly to your inbox of all seminars, lectures, trade shows and other design-related happenings at the design center.  Being present increases your visibility and I've seen referrals happen as frequently through industry connections as they do through client referrals. With more clients doing some of the shopping on their own, you never know who they might run into that eventually leads to a referral to you.

San Francisco Decorator Showcase

5.  Participate in industry events that allow your designs access to a larger audience.  Any showcase house or large-scale industry design event (think Dining by Design), opens up opportunity for increased firm visibility for up to a year after the event.  That means increased editorial features on your room design, increased editorial features on your firm, opportunities to be discovered by design bloggers, and general design community awareness by virtue of name recognition in conjunction with the event. Of all the clients I work with in the design community, the ones that have participated in these types of events are recognized by showrooms and vendors I work with almost immediately compared with the designers who have never been featured in an event.  The name recognition has historically made it easier to get items on loan, get items in a shorter turn-around time, or allowed access to inventory for other design events and photo shoots for the recognized designer.       

Feel like you have these top five under your belt?  Send me an email and I'll send you numbers 6-10 marketing musts for the new year.  krista@couparconsulting.com.

Questions on the top five or marketing related?  I'll answer those too.  

Here's to a wonderful 2012!

 

      

www.dropbox.com