In this article I will show you how to never worry about where your next client is coming from and turn your architecture and interior design website into a machine that prints and generates clients on demand, whenever you need more supply and as much as your practice can handle.
The first thing that comes to mind is the quality right? Maybe you've never tried to generate leads online or maybe you have and the quality was terrible.
They either ghost you or you get trash traffic for low quality projects from clients that don't even value your work and effort.
I won't be teaching that, instead I will be showing you how to:
1. Get PAYING clients, not just dead leads.
2. Get clients that actually want YOU actually want to work with.
I am an architectural designer that spent most his career growing and marketing for a luxury interior design practice.
So this is very personal to me.
Having been a self-taught marketer combined with my professional design skills gave me an extra insight in the market.
I was able to speak and understand the designers language but also see the discrepancy in how services were being communicated to the market, that is unaware or sophisticated in our craft.
Why is this important? Well, in our profession we kind of live in our own world that anyone without training finds hard to understand.
As architects and designers, our craft revolves around making environments better for others, in a way, we serve the people.
Yet unlike most industries, unless someone took a crash course in design principles, its rare they know what goes on in the built environment.
This gap makes it hard for consumers to make sound judgements of what is a good design, how much they should spend, and who to trust.
Which is typically the main issues that clients have when trying to choose the right designer for their project.
After all, everyone is offering the same deal "I will build your dream home,"
So, how do you differentiate yourself? Most importantly, how do we bridge that gap to find common ground with our clients?
By doing so, we can not only create spaces that meet their needs but also craft beautiful environments into which we have tirelessly poured years of vigor and dedication into learning how to do.
That's what we will dive into here in this article.
As you know, almost all architect and interior design firms rely on word of mouth, magazines, and those digital platforms that connect you with clients.
Almost every architecture or design practice I see has no inhouse systems and funnels that gave them a predictable way to print leads on demand using their website and social media.
So these are some core principles I applied to my company that increased our annual revenue by 50% every year in closed renovation contracts for midrange to high end projects.
1. Design Your Website Into A Funnel That Speaks Your Ideal Client's Language
Most design companies use their website as a business card, to showcase their work and contact details.
Few actually have a website optimized to turn traffic into leads / clients. You can re-design your website to be a funnel while keeping it aesthetic. The easiest way to turn your website into a funnel is by adding:
a) A Unique Selling Proposition (USP) paired with a Call To Action (CTA) button on the homepage making it very easy for people to contact you via the website. Having a strong USP on the main landing page (most important) that makes you standout from your competitors. This should communicate in one sentence what you do and the problem you solve for your ideal client.
2. Build A Blog That Attracts Your Ideal Architecture & Interior Design Clients
Can't stress this enough, this is what was responsible for 60% of our success.
Most companies just have a generic blog that they haven't updated in years. The blog is an active way for you to reel in clients from google and social.
the main function of the blog is to provide VALUE to your ideal client, your main edge as a professional is that you have unique set of knowledge, clients value your experience and will listen to a perceived credible source.
By creating long form content that SOLVES problems for your ideal client, they will thank you by hiring you for their project.
The success of the blog lives and dies by the problem you are solving, if its a problem that is at the end of the buyer funnel, that will generate the most leads for you.
The key here is to find out what people are looking for by using keyword volume tools and seeing what keywords related to your industry people are looking for and then writing content that can rank for that.
You can easily hit top google search results for niche keywords and get tons of organic leads that translate to paying customers
3. Replicate this same strategy for social media, curate posts and videos that provide value to your ideal clients and they will thank you by hiring you for their projects
4. Generate Paying Clients On Demand For Your Specific Architecture & Interior Design Projects
Run ads, when you find out what is the best piece of content people are responding to, you want to take that piece of content or article on your blog and using ads to bring traffic to it in order to scale the amount of leads you get.
5. Have a proper lead qualifying system. Time and time again i've seen how much leads go down the drain because the person on the other end of the line, weather email or phone has no idea how to communicate or take a lead that came from an online cold traffic source and qualifying them to get them onto a consultation call or site visit.
You can have the best client with high purchasing power ready to start a project and lose them if the first touch point they have with your company is not aware of the psychology of a cold lead.
A key here when it comes to hot leads from online sources is to respond QUICKLY. Don't make them wait more than 24hrs to hear back from you, even if its the weekend, timely qualified responses will increase your closing rate by 30%. This strategy made us millions and actually gave us high end leads for bespoke full scope renovation projects.
So yes it 100% works. I guarantee if you do this properly you will turn your business into a lead printing machine.
I believe as professionals its our job to share credible information on the internet with the market, clients want to hear from YOU, not marketers. But very few professionals are taking advantage of the online landscape in a way that's meaningful. And if you can generate an income while educating the market then that's the best incentive. I hope this inspires you to take action. Ask me anything
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