Do you want to increase your interior decorator leads? Well, you better prepare yourself since this is quite a difficult ride. Interior designers can face some of the most difficult tasks when it comes to generating leads not only because of the competitors but also how prospects reach out to them or how they let themselves be swayed over by some photos and popular designers.
In other words, if you aren’t outstanding and know how to differentiate yourself, there’s no way you will be able to generate those sales-qualified leads for your business or services.
Now, there are many things you need to think about when growing your business, especially the number of ways available to generate the leads you need.
Several lead generation strategies must be implemented, but before you even start your plan to know how to approach your goal, you will need to choose the best out of the available ones to ensure your efforts aren’t in vain.
With this in mind, do you care if we take the time to recommend you a few? We are confident about our knowledge and experience, so you better take notes to start generating more high-quality leads for your interior décor business.
Word of Mouth Before Anything Else
Referrals from interior designers can be the lifeblood of an interior design company. Although they may happen naturally, there are many things you can do to ensure they occur regularly and likely.
One of the best ways to get started is by asking your current clients to refer you to their loved ones and people they know if they are happy with you.
First, if you’re already working with the client and appreciate your talents, ask them. Tell your clients that you are open to working with them and even offer some type of discount for the trouble of referring you.
Ask them to share their appreciation of their interior design with their friends, family, and colleagues.
As with any marketing campaign to generate leads, it is all about the client. Tell them how wonderful it is to work together and how you enjoy working with other clients like them.
You can also increase your efforts to get more leads by setting up a referral program to help clients who are already in your network.
Although most clients don’t want gifts, it’s a good way to say thank you. Gifts can be used to motivate clients to return and can also be used as a referral tool.
The key to generating referrals via word of mouth is to ask. It shouldn’t be done desperately or unnecessarily.
After the project is completed, ensure that they continue to enjoy the time you have created with them. Reaffirm your love for working with them. Small gifts, Christmas cards, and reminders about new products are all great ideas.
Utilize Facebook for More Leads
Facebook offers so much for lead generation that you are definitely wasting your time if you decide not to utilize it properly.
For starters, Facebook advertising is an effective medium for interior designers to attract new clients since it is more targeted, and the platform allows you to show exactly what prospects could be looking for.
Now, if you want your lead generation process to go smoothly, you better consider adding all these options to your Facebook strategy:
- Develop a marketing strategy for it.
A plan and budget are the first steps in any marketing campaign. Consider why you are marketing your interior design services and how you can do it more efficiently on the platform.
Do you want to grow your customer base? Or keep loyal customers? Do you promote a request?
Facebook allows you to create an advertising campaign that’s relevant to your marketing goals. You can start small and discover which promotions work best for you with customizable pricing and easily-findable stats on your business page.
- Upgrade your existing Facebook page (or create one).
You must create a company page for your internal design company before you can make the most of Facebook’s fast-growing marketing strategy; especially before you launch your paid advertising campaign, make sure your page is as appealing as possible.
- Understand your target audience.
Understanding your target audience is key to maximizing your Facebook marketing strategy. Are there any average ages for your customers? Is it a young couple purchasing their first home? Demographics can be used to target advertising and Facebook marketing.
They will ensure that your ads are seen by the right people.
If you have any input, it will help ensure that your payment promotion has a positive outcome.
- When to promote.
Your Facebook marketing strategy should consider time. Your ads should be promoted when your target audience is online.
Your interior design business can also be affected by seasonality. In fact, Facebook’s ‘Insights’ will monitor user activities and show when your followers are online.
- Analysis after promotion.
Facebook marketing has the advantage of allowing you to start your own small business and create your ads.
Try different photos and posts if your first attempt fails to generate the interest you desire. Compare the results of each ad campaign by analyzing your stats.
- Engage your audience.
Facebook can be used to market your interior design company, in addition to paid advertising.
People who “like” your page are already interested in learning more. Tell them what you should do.
Blogs can be used to discuss new trends, share before-and-after photos, or offer decorating tips. Engaging your audience and encouraging feedback can help you increase your reach to potential customers.
You want your interior design to be unique and beautiful. This passion will allow you to find new customers and fans by combining it with your Facebook marketing strategy.
Google & SEO Are Key
SEO (search engine optimization) is probably the most important strategy when it comes to organic (free) interior decorator leads.
In fact, it has been described as a ‘special art not many understand’ by dozens, but you don’t need to be scared because of this.
Now, SEO can turn new leads into customers for your business. If you put in the effort, it can generate consistent 10, 50, 100, and 1.000+ leads per month. However, it is indeed complex.
This is why many articles cover different aspects of SEO, but most of them can be confusing for non-SEO experts.
Let’s start by saying that WordPress is the best platform to use for SEO in order to build your website.
Squarespace and Wix can be great tools for website building, but you must use WordPress if you want to get more clients from the optimization you will work in since Google, believe it or not, has a preference for those sites built with WordPress.
With this in mind, we will move on with something you must have heard about: Keyword research.
It is probably the first thing that you should do when it comes to SEO since this is the foundation of almost everything you do. It shows you which search terms are most likely to bring you more visitors to your site and ensure they are, somehow, converted into leads as well.
Most interior designers are local and serve a specific area. In this case, you need to make sure you’re optimizing your site and lead generation process based on your location.
For instance, if you are located in Miami, you should target keywords that point out your location. But what happens if you are remote or your interior decorator services can reach other places? The keywords must be a bit more general.
Your chances of ranking high for a keyword will improve if you include them in the core areas of a page. However, the idea isn’t to stuff your pages with keywords everywhere but rather focus on adding the exact amount of them. That being said, the main factors and parts you must consider are:
- Page Title.
- Meta Description.
- Headings (H1, 2,3,4 …).
- Copy for the Body.
- Image alt tags.
- Internal Links.
When you’re done with keywords, it’s now time to start building links since ranking in Google is not possible without links.
Although you don’t need thousands or hundreds of links to compete, keeping your links relevant to the design industry is important. These are some suggestions to help you get started.
- Ask suppliers to be featured on your site. Maybe give them a testimonial.
- Guest post on blogs of interior designers.
- Your local press loves a success story or new business story.
- Find contributors to your blog. Ask bloggers and brands for help.
Additionally, if you are an interior designer who is based locally, you must make sure that you have created your Google My Business page.
These are some quick tips to make the most of your Google My Business profile and increase your chances of being found for these searches.
- Complete your profile as fully as possible.
- Upload the best photos of you and your work.
- It is important to keep it current. If you move, change your address.
- Ask clients for reviews and to respond.
- To increase engagement, add posts and videos.
SEO is not a quick fix, and it takes time to see the benefits. However, you can reap serious rewards if you do it correctly.
Blogs Work for Interior Decorators
Businesses that use blogs in their content marketing mix receive 71% more leads compared to those that do not, and it is all thanks to the optimization of the content based on SEO once more.
A blog can help you to supercharge your interior design and make it more client-generating.
This gives you the chance to show off your talents and for it, make sure to use the imagery in your projects to make your work stand out, and be careful not to be too salesy in your blog posts since this can turn off your readers.
Instead, use your blog to establish yourself as an authority in the field, regardless of whether it is interior design in general or niche design in particular rooms.
Blogs are a great way for new connections. You can showcase other brands, designers, and bloggers, which can be a valuable source for new clients in the long term.
Many businesses make the mistake of writing articles blindly and expecting miracles with traffic and lead. You can beat your competitors with a little more preparation and the proper optimization.
Now, remember what we said about SEO? We have to point out another thing: Keywords.
However, this time, they are a bit different.
We’re now looking for keywords people might be searching for to help them solve a design problem.
Google is a great resource for this since you can go to Google and type in “how to decorate a bedroom” into the search box, and you will see all the options available. These are long-tail keywords that people have searched for and can use for your content.
It is important to have a compelling headline when blogging since a simple headline like “How To Decorate A Bedroom” is not going to make people want to read more but rather just consider it a general post.
But a headline such as “How To Decorate Your Home for $100” is better.
When working on this, and if you use WordPress, you should install Yoast’s SEO plugin. It is very easy to use and helps you to ensure that your blog posts are well-structured.
You simply need to enter the keyword that you want to target, and they will use a traffic light system for you to ensure your article is optimized.
Build Your Email List
Building an email list is the best investment you can make to land more clients, and although some people consider email is dead, it is quite the opposite.
In reality, it can lead to repeat, high-quality leads and clients who love your work even before you start working with them and the best part about it is that you don’t have to make a large investment of your time and money.
Start for free with ConvertKit or maybe use MailChimp to automate your emails in the process, but remember that to get people’s email addresses, you will need to place calls to action on your website.
When you have your list, send a monthly newsletter. It can include your blog posts, case studies, and trends you are seeing, as well as any other information you feel people will be interested in. This should only take a few hours per month.
To ensure you have proper success in this lead generation strategy, this is what you can do so your sales team will receive more prospects and grow your email list:
- Popups.
These popups may seem annoying, but they actually work! In general, between 3-10% and 15% of people who see an email signup lightbox complete it and sign up.
Sumo, which offers a free plan, is one of the most popular tools for creating popups. This allows you to customize the popup with title, copy, call to action, images, etc. It is also very easy to use.
- Landing pages.
It is smart to use dedicated landing pages to gather subscribers for your blog’s mailing list.
Landing pages are a great way to increase your conversion rate. In fact, over half of the visitors to landing pages become subscribers.
They are a central point for traffic and a way to sell the products your subscribers will be buying.
A few forms on your website can drive people to sign up for your newsletter. If you have limited time or are pressed for time, this is fine. However, to increase your numbers, you must incentivize people to give up their email addresses.
- Content Upgrade.
It basically puts your lightbox popups on supercharge. This can increase the number of people who sign up by as much as five times.
Instead of getting five subscribers for every 100 visitors, you could get up to 25. From the same traffic, you could gain up to 25 more subscribers!
Content upgrades are unique lead magnets that can be downloaded based upon the post the visitor is reading. They provide a highly-relevant resource for the reader. You could, for example, add an upgrade to a post.
- They have signed up; now what?
Once someone signs up for your email list, you should first do to thank them. Let them know that you appreciate their effort in giving your email address.
This can be done as part of a welcome sequence. Depending on the purpose of their signup, you can deliver what it was (a checklist or a guide).
You can then follow up with bonus content every few days so they can get a feel for you and what you expect from being on the email list.
You can include the following items in your welcome sequence:
- Invite to follow your social media accounts.
- Display case studies and projects you have worked on.
- If they ever needed them, educate them about your services.
If executed properly, your welcome series can convert potential leads into customers quickly.
After the welcome sequence, it’s important to get into a habit of emailing your list at least once a month with any new content, projects, or features that you have created. This will keep them interested and help you to be available for them when they need you.
You must give potential customers a compelling reason to sign up and keep them interested.
Challenges Interior Decorators Face in Lead Generation
Interior designers face unique challenges in generating leads. Although people will say that everyone goes through difficulties, this niche comes with some extra work in terms of getting the leads and prospects you need.
This is why you need to take your time organizing your lead generation strategies and always measure their progress.
Now, suppose you want to know some of the main challenges for your profession and business to be prepared. In that case, these are four common issues you may encounter when starting an interior design business or growing it to the next level:
- You can be extremely busy with project-based work one month and then have nothing the next. It can be difficult to stay focused on lead-generating activities and follow up with prospects due to the ebbs and flows of work.
- Without a portfolio that includes references and details about your previous projects, it can be difficult to generate leads. It can be time-consuming to build this portfolio. However, it is necessary and completely worth it.
- You may struggle to distinguish yourself from established interior designers if you have chosen a competitive area of interior design. Differentiation can be achieved through proper branding and messaging.
- It can take between 30 and 60 days for a client to sign an agreement and first conversation. This natural lag in sales means you must plan for cash flow and align marketing expenses and processes accordingly.
If you want some advice to ensure you are able to work towards your company’s growth or business, make sure to keep this in mind:
- Lead generation takes more than a few days or weeks.
- Although paid options are appealing and some work, organic (free) strategies are necessary to boost your opportunities.
- Make sure you are able to hire people that can help you like your sales team or handle some lead generation strategies if you are unable to (unless you plan to take care of the business alone for now).
- You don’t need the fortune of the century to work with lead generation, and the organic or free options can be more than enough to finally generate your interior decorator leads.
- Aim for qualified leads and not random ones, which is why you shouldn’t buy leads lists either: They are not high-quality leads.
The Local Lead Generation Process for Your Interior Decorator Business
All right! So, everything is about building properties and generating leads. But how does the process actually take place? Are there other steps I need to know?
The steps I mention below are what students from our local lead generation program follow to generate leads for businesses like yourself. So I’ll help you see what we do. And how if you join our program, you can simply generate leads for your own business (unless you want to start a side hustle and build a laptop lifestyle business).
Essentially, our lead generation can be divided into four steps:
The first is prospecting. You need to take the time to do market research on a niche (industry) and determine how many phone-driven businesses are there.
Keep in mind that this is local research as you need to know how many companies need leads. For example, you may search for “plumbing services Youngstown OH.”
You will find dozens or even hundreds of businesses trying to get themselves in front of the customers by ranking on Map Listings, organic results, and even Ad.
The second step, building. When you find a niche (plumbing, tree services, a software company, real estate…), you will need to start building your digital properties. You don’t need to be an expert in HTML or coding. It can be easy with the right tools.
The third step is now taking time to rank your lead gen website. With the site done, you need to work on SEO strategies and start dominating those Google search results. If you’re new to SEO, it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
To keep it simple, it consists of the entire process of growing a company’s visibility on search engines like Google and generating organic traffic. And remember this, local lead generation is part of the strategies.
Moving on to step four, once you rank the site, you will start getting your ROI and profits. You only need to rent it out to a local business interested in the leads the site generates. You can offer a couple of free leads to their move on with the actual pay per lead.
To review steps 1-4 above, I described it to a normal student who is building a lead gen business to help local service providers generate more calls. But replace the student with you as the business owner. And replace sending the leads to a business to simply siphoning the leads to your personal business.
By the way, fun fact, about 20% of our students in our local lead gen program are actually business owners who went through the program. And they use the skillsets we teach to generate leads for their own business.
An Example of Lead Generation: Home Advisor
You must be thinking, “if lead generation sounds so good so far, how come I haven’t seen any company?” That’s the thing; there are many out there. You just don’t know they are dedicated to it.
HomeAdvisor is one of the best examples you can find on the Internet as it is a top lead generation company that has spent millions building its brand but also earned even more zeros for this same reason.
They started small as everyone else but invested in building their brand awareness to make people who are looking for home services go to their website and find what they need. They are over 75% of people’s first choice when they need those services.
If you don’t get HomeAdvisor that much or need a refresh, users need to submit their information to request a service and get a professional or expert who can provide it.
HomeAdvisor’s job is to share your information, which makes you a lead, with local companies so they can contact you and offer the service you’re requesting. For sharing this lead information, HomeAdvisor gets paid by the companies. This happens for every single lead they send to multiple businesses.
Business owners who don’t have marketing skills or don’t even know how to have any online presence will always rely on those pages to list their services. They will save time and effort, but companies like HomeAdvisor can make them spend lots of money as leads aren’t exclusive (one lead is sent to multiple companies after all).
Using Facebook Ads aka Paid Ad Platforms: Do They Generate Leads?
They DO generate leads. If not, no one would use them.
However, you need to remember two facts:
- Paid ads or platforms can be expensive.
- They don’t generate “natural” leads.
Whenever someone sees or clicks in one of those ads, over 80% of them did it by accident or are trying to close/report it.
Why? Because they aren’t looking for those services. At least not at the moment.
What those ads do instead is interrupt their time on the platforms. Users aren’t there to find companies or businesses unless they are searching for a specific company’s user, and for that, there’s a search bar. This is why it is hard to convert them to actual customers who will show interest in the companies’ services. Also, you’re limited by a budget.
When using lead generation, everything is organic. You aren’t forcing others to pay attention to your business but rather being there when they need you. This is why Google’s organic traffic will always beat paid ads, and the reason companies continue investing in it, which is a lot cheaper as well.
What Is Local SEO?
Don’t worry… I didn’t get it at first either. Following the short explanation, local SEO focuses on scaling businesses’ visibility on search engines. However, this is only for those who serve their communities face-to-face.
What does this mean?
Experts and professionals like painters, plumbers, and dentists (but not only them) offer their services to their local customers. Why? Because they can’t deliver them unless they are located in the same area of their customers.
To make sure those businesses get more leads, you need to rank them locally by claiming the business listing on Google to place them on Map Listings. Local SEO also involves online reviews, citation management, and how you manage your entire online presence in the local area.
If you are going to bet on lead gen, you need to adapt yourself to today’s world: The Internet.
Keep in mind that although traditional channels and methods like billboards, warm calls, and pamphlets still work, they aren’t part of your tools. Whenever someone needs a service, they go to Google and search for it.
“Dentist in Miami” or “plumbing services in Orlando,” etc. And you can keep coming up with services or professionals people need and look for. Thus, you need to make sure you’re using Google to get the companies in front of their clients.
Users will always click on the first search results (those near the top), and many of them will be either Ad links (people paid to place their websites there), Map Listing, and then you get websites. Almost all of them are your goal and where you should always aim to place yourself.
Can My Interior Decorator Business Utilize a Local Lead Generation Strategy?
If you want customers, you better know you need it. Following the previous explanation, lead gen is all about placing businesses in front of their customers, choosing them over their competitors.
Put it simply – it’s all about closing deals and having clients for those companies to make money. The main difference with the usual methods companies use for this is how lead generation approaches different channels to get them in the right place of the market to get customers.
Those channels are all focused on the Internet as most people are searching for products but also services across the net. The issue is that the Internet is way too broad, and businesses don’t know how to place themselves. They usually try, but they get one common result: losing money and time.
How Powerful Are Organic Interior Decorating Leads from Google?
For companies looking for customers, it’s everything. For you? Pretty much the same. When you build a business with digital properties, you get to make thousands of dollars a month.
This isn’t a “get started today and get rich tomorrow” thing, but it is HIGHLY scalable, and ROI + positive results are guaranteed. Learning a fairly decent and very needed set of skills to create your digital properties and start ranking them on Google is required.
I have invested in several online businesses over the years, and if there’s something uncertain, whether you will get your ROI or not, even more than the actual profit.
However, this business moved my earnings from five figures a year to a month in ONLY passive income while sitting comfortably at home.
On my laptop. Anywhere. Anytime.
You can look at one of the first sites I built back in 2016, and it continues making me over $1.000+ every month. The best part is that I don’t need to touch it or the rest I’ve built over the years, just like this digital property.
What Makes Lead Generation SO Alluring?
Here it goes: you can work from home.
The main issue with regular business opportunities is how much you need to invest in staff, equipment, or rent to have a place to sell your products or offer your services.
We all know the hassles of traditional businesses that involve regular expenses, which are extremely high. Can you afford it? I don’t think so, and even if you can, is it worth it? Now, it isn’t only about the money. You also need to put in a lot of work, and it isn’t only during the first couple of months or years. Usually, it is as long as you continue running it.
You can save yourself those headaches and bone-breaking tasks and expenses with lead gen since it is more about generating leads with digital channels—mainly websites.
Websites can be VERY cheap to build, and with many tools online, you get to do it in a couple of hours instead of days. Any virtual or digital business is scalable and won’t need constant maintenance.
So, let’s summarize this:
- You save money in regular expenses with traditional and most online businesses as what you need is yourself and digital properties (websites).
- You can bet on passive income.
- There’s no need to hire more people to get started.
- You can generate leads in multiple industries, which allows you to work on any niche you want.
How Can I Get Started in the Local Lead Generation Program?
Anyone can start and learn. That’s the beauty of this business model. I knew nothing about SEO, Map Listing, and everything I’ve mentioned so far. It is all about learning the skills, gaining experience, and deciding to take the step.
Remember that this business model will never get old as business owners are always looking for leads. They need to do business and scale their companies. Why not do the same while helping others and still making money?
You can start with this local lead generation course highly recommended for anyone wanting to grow in the business. It is a close training that will take you through each step and make sure you are able to get your ROI, profits and take control of your life.
You will be added to an incredible lead generation family ready to help you 24/7 when asking questions on the group. Anyone is welcome who’s willing to put in the work. Click here to watch the lead gen webinar.