An Interior Designer Gets Lots of Web Visitors But Few Leads / Enquiries

Posted: 30 January, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »
This Is Not the Target Market

Image via Wikipedia

I talked to a friend a couple of weeks back and she bemoaned the fact that her Design Practice had spent quite a bit of time and money on creating and growing their web site but not much was coming from it in terms of genuine leads and sales in the very particular niche market that she was targeting much of her efforts towards.

So I quizzed her a bit more:

1. Was she creating engaging, frequently updated content for her target market? She said yes. I read her blog and had to agree.

2. Was she using the right keywords? She thought so. And although I’m not an expert in her particular target market I tended to agree.

3. Then she raised the point that Mr Google thought her PAGERANK was quite high. That was strange and surely not part of the problem?

4. We then looked through her Google AdWords campaign. And that too seemed broadly OK.

5. There were quite a few backlinks from other sites to hers, so that wasn’t the problem either.

So what’s the problem? Other than she wasn’t getting any money back from the investment? And, er, that’s pretty important!

To cut a long story and quite a bit of research short, here’s what we thought the problem was (if you want to know what pagerank is there are links at the end of the article).

Well, although her pagerank was OK it wasn’t actually that relevant.

One problem with pagerank is that it just BROADLY shows how often your site is visited/how important your site is/how trusted yoru site is. It does NOT show you how often YOUR target customers visit your site…and that is the stat you really want.

So what was happening was that quite a lot of people were visiting the site from all the good links and good search engine positioning that she had paid for. A few of them read some of the stuff on her blog BUT VERY FEW went on to the next steps for converting them into customers. And that was because they weren’t interested in her services because her services were not RELEVANT to them…they just WERE NOT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS.

So you could have the most visited website with the best page impressions, page views, clicks and all the rest of it. BUT THAT IS NO GOOD IF THE WRONG PEOPLE ARE VISITING YOUR SITE ! They won’t buy.

Her market was such a small market and relatively technically unsophisticated so, perhaps, blogs and search engines were not the best way to get to them.

Similarly, and a bit simplistically, if she had a pagerank of 8/10 (which would be excellent) it would not mean that she was excellent at targeting her customers…just excellent and targeting the whole population.

And the problem was compounded because the 3rd party, who was commissioned to get clicks and a higher pagerank and higher search engine positioning and all the rest of it, did just as they were asked. They weren’t asked to get leads! And didn’t!

Now it was not a total waste of time of course. Because pagerank IS IMPORTANT for google to give your site weighting when google produces search results.

And really the picture was not as bleak as I painted as she did experience an increase in leads for other services she was offering. Although they were more mass market services with lower levels of profit.

So what did she do?

A: Cut back a bit on 3rd party SEO services, focussing the remainder of the budget on the markets that had been successfully reached. With the marketing budget that she saved, she is now looking again at how best divert funds to more traditionally target the profitable niche market she originally set out to make money from.

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Interior Designers – An Update On using Facebook, LinkedIn WordPress blogs and Twitter

Posted: 17 January, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: interior designer, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »
heather buckley Follow me on Twitter I have a ...

Interior Designers have been moving much of their sales and marketing into the digital world over the last few years. Maybe this was because of great looking Apple products or maybe just because as new, young designers come into larger business they bring in with them the gadget trends of youth. Or maybe because all this digital e-stuff actually can work and can work quite cost effectively if done right.

I’ve written a few articles on this general subject over the years (I’ll reference some of them at the end of this post. However things have moved on in the real world and some of what I’ve PREVIOUSLY written has been superceded or improved.

1. Blogs, Twitter, Web sites, LinkedIn and Facebook – linking them

It’s still mostly true that you will use your web site as your show case for your business. Your blog will be a part of your website and, unless you sell products that require an up-to-date online catalogue, it is your blog that will contain the information that CAN AND SHOULD be regularly updated. (That will boost your google position). Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook come in as networks you are building. All good stuff.

The problem used to come in  how you would simultaneously update all these networks without having to manually re-submit the information. That would obviously be time consuming as would installing and keeping working additional pieces of software that glued all the bits of your marketing together.

Well now it is relatively straightforward to have your wordpress blog update your twitter account, your LinkedIn presence and your facebook business page. Similarly twitter can also update your facebook page automatically. Lots of these automatic links now exist within the main software websites (wordpress, twitter, etc) so you only have to write new information (blog posts or tweets or on your wall) once and then the software you use automates the distribution of that information across lots of different web site and online communities. Sorted, no mystery any more.

2. Vanity URLs on Facebook

This area used to be horrendously complicated and thankfully facebook have now simplified how to create a venity URL. What I mean by this is how do you create and use www.facebook.com/kothea …or of course you would have your business name at the end of that.

Essentially you can now just create a PAGE and give it a name (eg KOTHEA in our case) straight away. Gone are the ridiculous but well intentioned rules about having a certain number of fans.

3. Building networks with Facebook

You probably already know that once you have created you PAGE in facebook then you can use facebook as if YOU are the ‘page’. Rather than the person you really are. So rather than having your facebook activities in the name of ‘Joan Smith’ you make comments as if they are coming instead from your business ‘Smith Interior Design’.

google are also trying to “do a facebook”. This is their Google plus network. You can ignore that for the time being.When was the last time you or your kids used it?

Much better for your branding. Remember to be nice ad say sensible things and don’t get carried away!

4. Gadgets

Especially in the Interior Design and Architecture industry lots of people use Apple iphones and ipads. Of course your clients may well also use these devices but perhaps are also quite likely to use other ‘tablet’ devices and other smart phones like Blackberries.

Like you, your clients lead hectic lives. They are on the go and people are increasingly looking for  information on the move. So all the electronic marketing you do needs also to work on these devices so your potential clients can read it and find it.

This is not so hard to achieve. Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn will automatically do it. WordPress blogs will do it if you check a box in one of the admin features. It might be harder for your web site to do it properly so have a word with your web page designers.

You can use something like http://marketing.grader.com/ to tell you for free some of the more technical things (like working with mobile/cell phones)

 

Here are some of the posts I previously wrote or you can find them all in one go by <clicking here>

 

1. How to get links to your web site 

2. Interior Designers: Why does no-one visit your web site 

3. Interior Design Marketing Strategies 

4. Effective Ad Writing For Interior Designers on Facebook

5. Five Crucial Bits For Your Facebook Business Page

6. Seven Facebook Mistakes Interior Designers Make

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Interior Designers: How to specify A Luxury Cashmere Throw For Your Client Projects

Posted: 25 November, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic Fabric, Fabric Tips, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, modern homes, modern interiors, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »
Luxury Cashmere Throw
Luxury Cashmere Throws

Luxury Cashmere Throws are often used by many designers to add that special finishing touch. The good ones look great and feel fantastic. As well as being aesthetically pleasing a throw can also be functional – keeps you warm!Bearing in mind how often your client will interact with (touch/use) such an item over time it is very important to specify your cashmere throws properly.

Of course you can buy them from very many places. But how do you get a really good one? I mean really good, the best?

We have put together a series of designers’ worksheets. Here is a link to the main one <click here>. The worksheet goes through some of the things you should be looking for when coming to a decision on what to specify.

When looking at specific designs you might then want to look at this worksheet. <Click here>.

All the worksheets are listed here, <click here>.

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Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen | Channel 5

Posted: 25 November, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Companies, The Business Of Interior Design | 1 Comment »

Downing Tweet Christmas receptionThe vast majority of us in the Interior Design industry are not in the position to be able to host a TV show like Kelly Hoppen‘s  ”Superior Interiors with Kelly Hoppen | Channel 5“. Such great publicity is obviously a client-winner.

From a business angle the programme is a good watch for interior designers. Of particular interest to me is how she deals with her clients. She is very good interpersonally. But, from a creative point of view, I especially like how she and the programme address situations where the client obviously does not agree with part of her design. Kelly Hoppen is very good at politely sticking by her guns and by the correctness, if you like, of what she is proposing. She is flexible enough to  eventually succumb in but not without a gracious and often persuasive fight.

Of course this raises the perennial issue of whether or not ‘the client is king’ or ‘the client is always right’. However if the client is right and got their way, in such instances, then the client is happy! If the client is not right then at least that reinforces the correctness of the designer’s original  scheme and the parts of it that were followed.

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Interior Designers: Why does no-one visit your web site?

Posted: 24 November, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , , | 6 Comments »

Interior Designers can spend hundreds or thousands of pounds ($) on websites. That CAN be a good investment or it can be a total waste of money.

Not just interior designers, but people from many industries bemoan the fact that no-one is visiting their web site. Then the next (incorrect) step in thinking goes that “well maybe I need to pay someone to get links to my site”… or something along those lines. And so it goes on, more money is spent on technology, on social media, on the web, on the net, on web 2.0 – whatever you want to call it. I’m sure you recognise the picture, perhaps from other designers you know that have these awesome looking websites…with no visitors!

This all-too-typical situation raises a whole raft of questions, points and observations. I’ll try to cover a few of them here.

1. Why on earth should I visit your web site?

I think you, the interior designer, really have to answer this question. Yes I’m sure your site looks great. Yes I’m sure it highlights your services and showcases your past projects (hopefully!). But let’s say I’m a potential customer, really, why should I visit your site? What’s in it for me? Your site MUST address this issue. IE the issue of your customer. Your web site should NOT be set up solely to gratify the interior design company’s owners or marketing team or web designer…I’m sorry but what you guys think is not that important to most people! You need to add something to the (potential) customer. Ideally something that will take them on that metaphorical ‘voyage’ towards closer links with your company and ultimately turning them into a customer and advocate of your firm.

So, simplistically, your site needs to contain the words and images necessary to give the client the information they need in an appropriate format.

2. Why on earth should Google or Bing or Yahoo visit your web site?

This questions is important because even if your site is set up to cater for the needs of your perfect potential customer that’s absolutely no use whatsoever if the search engines do not place your company on the first or second page of a potential customer’s web search. And even if you understand this issue it is still awfully hard to achieve such a placing in search engine results.

So, part of the solution here relies on your site having sufficient words and properly ‘tagged’ images (I won’t go into that that means here, look elsewhere on this site or the net). Remember that google cannot really see images at all, only words. Look at the sofa/fireplace image below  only ONE OF YOU UK INTERIOR DESIGNERS IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY automatically came up with an image that I can could choose from to publicize on this blog. Only one. Amazing. And who are Rogue Designs? Never heard of them…but google.co.uk, wordpres.com and zemanta.com have and now so have you. Go figure!

interior design oxford rogue designs

So you have to have the right words. You have to know what the words are that your customers use in their searches (not so easy!) and then you have to use those words a lot…but not too much! How much is not too much? No-one really exactly knows. But you have to use them sufficiently frequently and towards the start of the various pages on your site. But just write stuff that makes sense don’t try to write the key words a million times per article… that doesn’t work either.

All well and good you might say. If you’ve got this far…which most people haven’t…you’re a long way down the line.

Now the next problem is that the search engines also look at the frequency of how often your pages change. So now you really have a problem. Even if you did a great web site last year Google will downgrade it’s importance in search results this year because the content hasn’t changed in the 12 months. The solution to this is of course to change your words and pictures a lot….but that takes time. Either your time or the time of someone that you pay for. That’s annoying and expensive. But that’s the way it is. Oh yes, and you quickly run out of interesting things that your customer will want to read. That’s annoying too.

If your web site has some sort of e-commerce facility ie products are sold, introduced, discounted etc etc. Then I think that meets the ‘sufficiently changing criterion’ of the search engines. But you are interior designers and many of you will not have a retail front or an internet based retail front. So you won’t be able to do that or won’t want to do that. So what you would do instead is write a blog. And that blog should ideally be a physical part of your web site not an add-on somewhere else on the internet. It must also be frequently updated with posts that contain the right pictures and keywords.

I guarantee you (with caveats! hmmm) that if you do that, then blog weekly for a month and then write an ‘appropriate’ article/blog page; within an hour or so it WILL be on the first page of google for a suitable ‘keyword search’ (techy term, sorry) but obviously things too generic like bbc or ‘interior designer’ won’t work. Maybe, of course, a week or month later it won’t be on the first page as something ‘better’, or more recent or more ‘trusted’ is written! Sorry again! But at least you will have proof that what I am saying has some truth in it. I did the same thing in about September 2011 for our new ‘Luxury Cashmere Throws‘. Click on that link and see if we still come up. If we do still come up then, of course, I am wonderful (hmm) but the more generic you get such as with ‘Cashmere Throws‘ then the less likely our articles will be to come up. [So here 'Cashmere Throw' is a quite generic search with many results returned; but adding in something specific to the market I am targeting, ie the word 'luxury', narrows the results sufficiently so that my new/well-written post figures highly].

Indeed if KOTHEA’s articles still do have a first page listing for that search then it will be because we have been doing this blogging thing for quite a while. And if you have done just that then Mr Google gives you extra gold stars (pagerank) and you rank even higher in search engine results.

So if you are just starting out with a blog and use the wrong or widely used keywords then you will not appear on the first page of your customer’s searches. You have got to be in it for the long term.

Now, to complicate things further. Take a closer look at the search I got you to do on Luxury Cashmere Throws. If you actually click through onto the page in question. You, as a customer, may well be disappointed!! (See I am fallible). The pages that were coming up top were an image of ours on FLICKR and a general press release on one of the colours of our throw. So if you were looking to buy a throw then those pages might not have been good enough for you. Maybe you’d have gone off and looked somewhere else very quickly? Well yes probably. Especially because I did not include a ‘call to action’ to take you from that click to our website or request samples page further down the sale process.

So even if you do the right technical things ie intelligent(ish) blogging, then that’s no good if the customer is not drawn further onto your web presence and actually goes on to buy something. So I committed the cardinal e-sin. I got a click but did nothing about it to convert it into a sale.

3. The Big Brands

If you have a big brand then people will visit your site because they know the brand and at least vaguely associate that brand with selling what they want. So in that situation, it is your branding driving web site visits rather than the content of the site per se or how good the search engines think your site is.

So you smaller interior designers have yet another problem to overcome. Branding of course is a whole different kettle of fish of which web-presence is only one part.

4. Link Building

You will probably get hundreds of overseas based companies emailing you every day to say they can boost the SEO of your web site or guarantee you inbound links to boost your ranking. Hint… they can’t really. And even if they can…it won’t last. And even if they do what are they going to link to? Remember you have to have stuff that your customers is genuinely interested in, can they write that? I doubt it. YOU have to do it.

5. Social Media

And now of course you have to have a presence on Facebook and twitter and all the rest of it. Well, yes you probably do. But don’t get your hopes up too much.

Bizarrely I think that Twitter may well end up being the most effective. There will be the odd few of your blog posts, that effectively get syndicated across like minded people on Twitter, and those few posts will hit home to them and turn into something for your business.

Facebook. Only really useful I think as a mechanism for interacting with people on the move (via smart phones) or who just spend their time in that world more than the other parts of the digital world.

If your blog automatically sends updates to your facebook business page and twitter i think that will be enough to cover you there.

Before you embark on building a facebook world for your potential clients think again why on earth would they come to your facebook world for anything other than a cursory look or query? When they do you have to respond to that but the reality is that you will not have some all-singing all dancing interior design world on either the web or twitter. And even if you do who will go there… other interior designers or your clients!

Good luck. Getting clients was never easy – if that’s any consolation.

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Designers: Interior Design Links – How To Get Them

Posted: 3 May, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , , | 4 Comments »
Decorex

Decorex 2011 Logo

If I get another email from some dodgy company in some foreign country offering to boost my reciprocal links I’ll, I’ll, I’ll….I’ll probably either cry or laugh. You get them too I know.

Here’s how smart Interior Designers get some links without paying or investing too much of their spare time. Oh yes and ways that will actually work for you rather than work AGAINST your website.

Q. Why do I want links?

A. So customers can find your web site

A. So google ranks your website HIGHER in your customers searches.

You need to understand that good links ARE important for your business even if you then choose to do nothing about it.

First DO NOT DO THESE TWO:

1. :-(  Spend a whole weekend of your time posting your web address on various message boards, forums or comments on blogs to do with interior design. This does not work. There is a technical reason why this does not work even though it seems like a good idea. Trust me DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME DOING THIS (Here’s the technical reason in case you don’t believe me: the html nofollow tag is automatically inserted on blogs/forums to hide it from Google)

2. :-( Pay someone to create lots of reciprocal links from sites they control. This works only in a very, very, very, very I MEAN VERY limited way. Don’t waste your money. If you know a little bit about reciprocal links then you will think I am a bit mad as surely all links to your site are good? No, sorry. I can explain why not in detail but it’s quite boring. OK here we are then…a link to your site must be from a good, relevant and genuine site. Google know about this faux strategy of linking and actively penalise against it!

Now you need to think about something.

Why would any potential CLIENT go to your web site? Let’s face it your site is probably pretty boring. It might have a few nice pictures and things saying how great you are. Everyone’s site is exactly the same as yours. So ask why google should want to go to your site. there may well be no good reason other than you would quite like it to because you might get more customers! but that’s talking about YOU and not YOUR CLIENT. And YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENT is the one that Google is trying to help.

So once again we return to the old adage: “Your site must contain genuinely unique and relevant content that is frequently updated”. Apologies for the previous paragraph if you already do this!

Think about it. Someone who is going to spend thousands of pounds on your services and associated products wants to see your work. So yes you have a portfolio but they also want to know how you work. They are probably interested in your opinions and keen to see what things you like. If they go back to check you out a few weeks later, when they are more keen to make a decision, they might want to see some of your even more recent work…not the same static website that actually you put up there 3 years ago and haven’t touched since.

So you need to write a blog as well as having your show piece web site. Then you will have new and hopefully interesting  stuff that people, who you neither know nor pay, will be keen to link to.

So start by linking your blog to interesting things (work related). Don’t ask for them to link back, you can but concentrate on writing good stuff. When anyone links to our web site/blog we are automatically notified by wordpress.com and we of course check these people out and may link back. If you want you can get some friends or associates to link back to your blog/web site but only do that about 5 or 10 times. If you do it too much Google at best ignores it at worst penalises you as it ‘thinks’ there is some form of trickery going on (which there is).

Write about your clients and potential clients (nice ones) and link to them if you are operating in the commercial sphere.

Add your site to industry directories

Add your site to google local businesses

Link to your Facebook business page and twitter. Generate contacts and links through your network there.

.edu and .gov links – When you have an intern be nice to them and make sure they link back to your site when they return to their studies.

Embedded links – when you write an article (like this one) and relevant links at the bottom. some of the related links should be to your own website/blog. Also embed links within the text to link to other relevant bits of your site like a picture, video or maybe to Wikipedia to explain a term. These type of links help google rank your writing more highly than it otherwise would be.

Comment on others web site and blogs. But do so genuinely and professionally. On  your comments have a very short 3 or 4 line bio of you which links back to your site. remember, above, I said that these links don’t work for Google but they will help people get to know about you a little bit. Don’t waste too much time on this though.

Issue press releases from time to time with links on. eg through PRWEB.com again with links.

Write articles on specific areas of design that you are expert in and get them and your links publicised eg through ezinearticles.com

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Interior Design With Russian Oligarchs (Guardian.co.uk)

Posted: 3 February, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Market Comment, News, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , | 2 Comments »

Interiors: The new bling In a world far removed from cuts or recession, the super rich are spending like never before – investing their millions in mansions and art. ‘I don’t think there is a higher end,” says John Lees of his work as architect to the super rich. A distinction must be made, he says, between the merely vulgarly rich (ie, footballers of the Cheshire belt or the mere-millionaires of The Bishops Avenue) and the world of obscene wealth that Lees inhabits. He creates homes for the Russian oligarchs and Chinese business moguls who run the global economy and who continue to inhabit a land untouched by cuts and recession. In fact, their extreme wealth is buoying the fine-art market: Andy Warhol’s Coke Bottle sold for a record $35m in New York in November, the same month a Chinese vase sold in London for an unprecedented £48m to a Chinese businessman. Sources in the art and property markets say these billionaires are currently spending “without restraint”. In response, developers in London are creating a new crop of luxury homes, dripping with original Picassos and swimming pools, to cater for this profligate class, including a vast development in Cornwall Terrace being sold for £29m upwards. Likewise for Lees, business is booming. “Our big-scale jobs are £40m-£125m,” he says. “I work for private individuals and I’ll be doing their country house, their London house, one in Hong Kong and another in, say, the south of France. We recently did a dacha outside Moscow for £174m, for someone who entertains Putin.” Which makes it all the stranger that Lees is sitting in the scruffy offices of Lees Associates, near Borough Market in south London. The stairs are rough concrete, the shelves dusty, but the computer screens rotate with virtual tours of excessive luxury. “On our current job, the accessories budget is £2m,” he says. “That’s teaspoons, glasses, plates. Towels and linen is a separate budget. Each bed costs £20,000. We are a very specialised market at the very highest end.” So what does an oligarch require in his home? Not the classic markers, such as banks of TVs (“We put some televisions in, but we hide them”), gold-plated taps or swimming pools shaped like a shell. Wealth at the hard-to-imagine end of the spectrum is “subtle”. Creating a truly, deeply wealthy home becomes more about rarity and materials: imported stone, works of art, grand pianos and libraries. At Cornwall Terrace, Lansdowne’s development of eight mansions, two show homes have just reached the market, luring the super rich with original Francis Bacons, Murano glassware and furniture from Portofino. Everything is bespoke: the paints specially mixed; the hardback books handpicked. Lees is similarly aware of the hunger for provenance. “At that level, your bathrooms will be made of heated, solid stone carved in Brac, an island off the coast of Split in Croatia, which produces a particularly white limestone.” A spokesman for Knight Frank, an agent operating at the top end of the market, says the super rich “have moved their money away from bank deposits and stock markets into alternative investments such as luxury property and art. It is increasingly normal for Christie’s to deliver a painting to a potential buyer’s house so the owner can see it on the walls.” These gliding swans of houses, occupying only the best London addresses, have layer upon layer of service floors from the basement down. The traditional family kitchen might be above ground, for coffee or a snack, but below ground there are catering kitchens with a dozen chefs ready to entertain a party of 100. Lees says these subterranean floors “contain all sorts of service departments, catering kitchens, gymnasiums, collections of cars. We’ve made swimming pools where the floors come up to become ballrooms. There’s no noise in the pools and no smell of chlorine. We have projected dolphins on to gymnasium walls – hologram images behind glass. We put a bowling alley in one house.” Bathrooms have become the most expensive rooms, he says, with their requisite body jet showers, warmed toilet seats and timed bathwater heaters that maintain supply at a specific temperature. But wealth and power create problems of their own. A house full of staff means no privacy. Owning homes all over the world means a fragmented family life. Lees is asked to, if not solve these problems, then at least mitigate them. “The family kitchen is incredibly important, because they all live dissociated lives. You want to find a home, don’t you? The fundamental thing is the family.” Children have suites, dressing rooms and all the latest toys. And Lees adds “secrets” for the children to discover: a doll’s house full of make-up or stepping stones in the garden that set off a fountain. “There is a sense of loneliness these children have, and that’s a great shame.” Does he ever feel contaminated by these monuments to consumption? Or envious? Isn’t it odd to return to life as a working London architect? “Happiness isn’t driven by anything you’ve got. It’s inward. I’m not sure I want all those things myself. It’s the sheer hard work in having them. They need these tools in order to play the public persona. I find it’s bad enough having just one house.”

Super rich must-haves

• Direct access from road to underground parking complex, with lift directly into the residence.

• James Bond-level security including CCTV, infrared scanners, panic room, bomb-proof garage doors, bomb-resistant lift and bulletproof windows.

• A home office complete with a communications system that would please a Royal Navy destroyer.

• A master suite the size of a one-bed flat with his-and-hers ensuites, walk-in dressing rooms, day rooms, exercise area and TV lounge.

• A subterranean basement containing bar, nightclub, hairdressing salon, gymnasium, sauna, spa, swimming pool and private 3D cinema (with seats that move with the movie).

• Staff quarters, separate from the main residence.

• A show kitchen above ground and a basement industrial kitchen that can cater for up to 300.

Surce: guardian.co.uk

 

Interior Designer? Did Your Web Site Just Pop Up In My Search?

Posted: 23 September, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Companies, home decor, interior, interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, interiors, modern homes, modern interiors, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , | 1 Comment »

Interior Designers increasingly understand the need to reach at least part of their target market through online search results.

With that in mind I have been looking through a few search terms that potential customers of interior designers might use. Unsurprisingly lots of interior designers popped up.

But one thing that I noticed was that VERY few of you were making use of video.

I know it takes a long time to do these things to a reasonable degree of quality but I would suggest it is worth it.

The reason being that Kelly Hoppen popped up again and again. She is obviously a renowned interior designer of the first degree BUT she also appreciates the importance of PR to her new business generation activities. The internet is not much more than PR … just the digital kind.

Why did Kelly appear? Well google doesn’t favour her over you, that much is true. Google does not think that she is better than you. However Google DOES put more emphasis sometimes on non textual information eg pictures and videos. So her video (above) popped up. When you go and check it out, YOUTUBE takes you through lots more of her videos. Before I knew it I had spent 15 minutes looking at her work and hearing her views.

Now if you go to your web site designer and ask them to talk to your ISP and get the stats for YOUR web site, you will probably find that the average visitor spends MUCH less than one minute on your site.

Food for thought.

Decorex International 2010

Posted: 17 September, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: Companies, contemporary interiors, Fabric Tips, Market Comment, Press Releases, The Business Of Interior Design | Leave a comment »

Decorex is here again. This time it’s the 2010 version.

Beautiful logo isn’t it?

For those of you interested in fabric there are many fabric companies here. Not KOTHEA of course! but more of that another time.

Decorex is probably the magazine equivalent of House & Gardens. It competes with 100% Design and Focus (Chelsea Harbour Design Week). 100% Design is probably the  equivalent of Elle Decoration.

Personally I’d go just because of the logo.

If you are keen to get new contacts in the world of fabric then there are some interesting companies here. Quite a few new ones as well as some you will have heard of before.

As with all exhibitions of this sort it is a good place to go to get an idea of ‘consensus trends’. Try to figure out where all the manufacturers are heading. Of course they could all be heading in entirely the wrong direction for your particular target market so go having your own opinion as well. Go with that opinion in mind and see if what you find validates it.

Remember as well that the exhibition stands are there to grab your attention. To drag you to talk to a sales rep. Just because the stand looks good and the fabrics on display look good in the exhibition it does not mean they will work in your schemes of course! Although obviously striking designs do sometimes work for some people.

We were tempted to show off some of our new Cashmere Throws and Cashmere blankets but we weren’t quite ready with the full range yet. And we’d like to think that the best quality throws will generate interest through word-of-mouth throughout the industry in the year ahead! (Hmmm)

Interior Design Marketing Strategies

Posted: 21 July, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: interior design, interior designer, interiordesign, The Business Of Interior Design | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

Silk Velvet Upholstery Fabric TextileInterior Design Marketing Strategies need to reflect the modern technological age as well as the creativity and organisation skills of the designer.

We have previously covered on this blog many aspects of the (click link here fro more info=>) business of interior design often focusing on sales and marketing issues. Mostly marketing on the internet using sites like Facebook but also covering sales issue for interior designers with retail spaces. The following articles give more…

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