Comments on: 9.5 ways for interior designers to make more money (profit)

By: Interior Design Marketing 2010 – 8 Predictions 8 Actions «

Interior Design Marketing 2010 – 8 Predictions 8 Actions « — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:03:21 +0000

[...] indirect custom and spending power of government employees and government agencies. Action Point: Look at the type of customers you have and assess the risks to your future levels of business from that area. Survey the economic [...]

By: 7 Marketing Strategies – Interior Designers, Consider These Areas «

7 Marketing Strategies – Interior Designers, Consider These Areas « — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:34:02 +0000

[...] Personal selling [...]

By: SMG@KOTHEA

SMG@KOTHEA — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 19:21:22 +0000

I think we will see social networking online grow over the coming years. It won’t be THE solution to sales and marketing.

It must work to a degree though even now. You’ve seen this article and now you know about KOTHEA and maybe that we sell fabrics. We have acheived some small element of brand awareness there and maybe one day that will lead to some business. Which I guess is why you are saying it is hard to quantify the conversion rate of people who are exposed to us who then go on to become customers. (That’s always been a problem with traditional marketing in any case)

I’m assuming you are an interior designer: your social network is much harder to market to as your residential clients would be accessible by sites like facebook but building a network there is more difficult than the b2b ones on the likes of linkedin.

On facebook I would imagine that to maximise the exposure to networks of potential cusotmers (where you are not part of those networks) you would need to advertise but again, as you hint at, that is then paid-for advertising not free social marketing. But if you gradually get your clients to join your facebook fan page or link to you then eventually their friends (your cusotmers of the future) will become exposed to you.

So I think you should use social marketing as PART OF your overall maketing.

By: Nancy Feldman

Nancy Feldman — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:51:08 +0000

I think we all need to know how to socially network on-line. Everyone says we should but I still haven’t seen it help the bottom line.

Nancy Feldman

By: Mary Brennan, ASID

Mary Brennan, ASID — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:58:55 +0000

Great article, thanks! Your advice about sales is spot-on. We obviously know that those current big clients/big projects are so important to us, but as individual jobs with them wrap up that is no time to stop nurturing them! In fact, if your attention turns more toward securing the next job, a truly golden opportunity might be lost – the “finale” of a project is the best time to get client referrals, testimonials, and often an assignment to the next project.

By: SMG@KOTHEA

SMG@KOTHEA — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:45:26 +0000

Absolutely. KISS. Keep it simple. Outsource one at a time with the most straightforward, less controversial first. And of couse management and control of any activity be it inhouse or outsourced is vital…althogh frequently overlooked becuase of conflicting time pressures in smaller organisations like many interior design practices.

By: Melissa Galt

Melissa Galt — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:05:46 +0000

I agree with your list and your pearls. I also know that what keeps most designers and design firms frozen in inaction is a lack of knowledge about outsourcing, and poor experiences with it. In today’s economic climate it is vital to make the decision well and right the first time. Outsourcing that fails will simply bring the tasks back in house. Resources, both domestic and international, including Virtual Assistants, elance.com, guru.com and more are available. The key is a tight description of tasks and delegating one at a time with close monitoring of results until the relationship is successful and established.