Blogging For Lead Generation

Start a blog now and each month of blogging will exponentially increase visitors to your website, and by result, sales for your interior design firm. Write blogs that answer the most common questions you are asked by new clients. Research questions people ask on online marketing platforms like Houzz. Write with the goal of attracting new prospects, converting them to leads and making them clients. Current marketing trends indicate that blogging is the most valuable marketing tactic you can employ. We've seen a 1200% increase in visitors to our website in one year of blogging and we have a client whose twice a week blog took them from 120 visitors per month to 22,000 in three years. Current trends favor businesses that rely on photography, personal brand and visual style – just like your interior design business. Post your blog's photography and graphic design elements to visual social media platforms like Pinterest and Twitter marketing, link back to your website from theses posts and grow your business with a visual marketing initiatives.

It's has been proven that website content increases website visitors. Having informative blog articles that target your audience and answer their questions are more likely to generate leads. Here's an example... "10 Commercial Interior Design Trends Influencing Residential Homes."

Interior design firms have a lot of subjects that they can cover, from "How to Choose the Best Color for a Guest Bedroom That Will Help People Sleep In" or a List such as "The Top Ten Mid-Century Modern Sofa Manufacturers" you have seen recently. The key to this part is to incorporate some of your personality into the articles so that the audience can feel like they have known you for a long time.

Automated Email Marketing

“Approximately 32% of survey respondents whose companies identify as primarily outbound (advertising driven) organizations called paid advertising the most overrated marketing tactic”

— Hubspot Survey 2015

The ‘must have’ marketing tool is email marketing automation. We use Hatchbuck. The way it works is this. When someone contacts you through your website, a series of pre-timed marketing emails are automatically sent. The key to using automated email is to ensure that what you're sending has value for the prospect and to help you better understand what your audience values receiving from you. The ‘set it and forget it’ email marketing we often see is nothing more than above average spam. As an example, I purchased a sweater for my wife at J. Crew last Christmas. The sales person asked for and was provided my email, and I provided it. For months, J. Crew sent me emails offering discounts on women's sweaters and remarketing across the web offered women's sweaters with banner adds. Not only was the information they sent me mostly irrelevant, but they had my name, and I often visit their site to buy Men's clothes. Through website tracking, which they were obviously doing based on the retargeting banner ads, and watching which emails get opened they could have determined my want's and sent relevant information. I avoid now avoid J. Crew. They use marketing techniques that are disrespectful. The lesson? Subject prospects to overly "salesy", untargeted email and marketing automation will backfire on you.

Using inbound marketing techniques, such as social media and blogging, has proven to be far more effective in terms of generating leads and sales.

Write as if you are having a conversation with someone in the room with you

Being delightful but intentional is a key sales tactic. Just because your first meeting is through a sign-up form and automated email doesn’t mean that you can’t maintain that same personal touch. Keep your client persona in mind. It will help you focus on the personal as opposed to seeing your messaging as going to a large faceless audience. Talk to prospects as if they are human, without interior design specific jargon. Run your marketing past someone outside the interior design business and see that they can understand what you are trying to convey to them. A reader will quickly abandon your design firm if they feel they are being talked down or come away confused by jargon.

As long as you can keep that personality and brand voice unique and consistent you will gain the trust of your potential customers – and they will convert into clients.

Visual Marketing Sells

Okay, maybe just 600 words. That's the average length of a quality blog article but do not forget to add pictures of trending interior design ideas. Nothing speaks better to a prospect than great photography. Showing AND writing about design trends helps your interior design firm get found online. (Google only reads words, so far) Remember, you should always add keywords to your titles and descriptions of any image you put on your website. No one has ever searched online for image number DCS15309 on your website, but "Image of Bath Renovation with Waterworks Fixtures" not helps search optimization, but it allows visually impaired people understand your website. Use high-quality pictures of recently completed projects or share the work of architects or design-build firms you collaborate with. Hire a professional photographer to document the spaces you've created before the become to "lived in." Show off your design style and the quality of your work and it will help build trust between you and your potential clients.

Use Visual Social Media

Interior designers are lucky that there are two excellent social media platforms out there that support this type of marketing: Pinterest and Houzz. If you don't have business accounts on these great social media platforms, then stop reading right now and open an account on each.

Houzz is of particular interest as it is designed for people in the interior design industry, and potential clients can connect with you by searching for keywords that if done will cause your profile and your portfolio to come up. Be specific and use long tail keywords like "mid-century modern kitchen design" or "Venetian Plaster Wall Treatment for the Bath."

So next time you are looking to increase your client list, take advantage of the highly visual and aesthetically driven marketing trends that are ideal for interior design firms. It's right up your alley.

About Michael Conway

I'm the owner and strategist at Means-of-Production. My firm builds Squarespace websites, Houzz profiles, and content marketing and advertising solutions for architects, interior designers, design-build contractors and landscape design firms. Our all-in-one marketing tactics attract the right clients with exceptional architectural photography and brand messaging that sets you apart from the competition.