Designers often underutilize their project portfolios. However, your portfolio is the foundation of your marketing, providing ongoing inspiration that drives your marketing content.
In this episode, I’m joined by website designer, brand strategist, and the founder and owner of Caffeine Creative, Teresa Schlup. We discuss why your interior design portfolio should be the center of your marketing as the perfect jumping off point for an entire month of content.
Sharing the story behind the pictures
Clients want to know the “realness” behind what is going on in your portfolio images. You can use your images to connect with people far more effectively by sharing the intimate details behind your project stories. This is why your portfolio is at the center of a powerful SEO strategy to draw traffic to your website. It gives you content that you can repurpose and reuse through different channels and forms of media, while sharing who you really are with the world.
Start at the beginning of your project
To tell a story and capture all the often-forgotten details of a project, you should start crafting your content at the very beginning of the project.
Intimate details will resonate with different people in different ways. For example, someone who is hesitant to hire a designer because they’re worried their vision is a little odd, might be inspired to reach out if you share a story about how you overcame a particularly challenging client idea. A story about special attention to maintaining historical aspects of a heritage home, might resonate with someone not sure where to begin with their own restoration. However, the important thing is to use stories to engage potential clients living in the same locations and faced with similar challenges.
Creating dedicated portfolio pages
Dedicated portfolio pages allow you to present each project infused with your brand. You have control over how they appear, the language you use, and what you include. For example, do you prefer using bullet points to explain your process, or are you more of a story teller sharing how you approached each project from start to finish? This is your chance to shine and find your brand voice while sharing the details that draw in readers and get attention for your work.
Sharing client stories
People love to know the interesting details behind the project, including the types of clients you serve. This isn’t about divulging personal information about your clients, but instead explaining their story and how it ties in with the job. Is it the home of a work from home mom who needed privacy during business hours? Is it adding an ensuite for a client who was frustrated sharing a tiny bathroom with the rest of the family? Where do they live? What were their challenges?
Using keywords
Some of the most important elements that help create traffic-driving, rank-increasing keywords include:
- Location using specific local community terms as opposed to generic cities
- Category of the project such as residential, commercial, kitchen, bedroom, etc.
- Design style such as contemporary kitchen or mid-century modern living room
These keywords help open golden opportunities.
Be authentic
Your work is real and provides an opportunity to be yourself. Instead of using marketing and selling language, you’re telling a story in your own words to help build trust. It’s a far more organic approach to marketing than anything else you do, sharing real work provided for real clients who were sincerely happy with the results.
Repurposed marketing
There are a few ways you can repurpose each of your portfolios:
- Create a blog for an ongoing supply of fresh content for SEO purposes and to help drive traffic
- Use the blog post to create video content
- Share the new content via emails with subscribers
- Create social media posts linking to the video and/or blog post
Expanding with case studies and presentations
The repurposed list of marketing above is pretty standard, but you can also expand your content by writing case studies for each project. This is serious content prospects use to make their final decision. Present the challenge you faced, how you resolved it and the results. You can then use the case study to create a presentation ready for sharing at networking events, or when pitching to a lead looking to complete a similar project.
Getting into social media
Did you know that every element of your portfolio is a potential social media caption and post? Whether it’s your inspiration for your project title, your love of contemporary residential projects or sharing repurposed content from a portfolio inspired blog, portfolios are packed with social media opportunities. The image is also important and can be used for posts such as an Instagram reel that shows different stages of the project.
Keep going back to the well
Repurposing also allows you to repost content that is long forgotten. Is a design element you used years ago suddenly on trend? Post an image of the project with a caption saying, “Way ahead of the trend.” Reigniting a passion for a colour you used several years ago? Share a post with the old pics explaining why it’s become one of your got-to colours again. You can also group elements from several portfolios for things like a reel featuring your favourite kitchens, a blog about overcoming your biggest design challenges, or a social media post about cost saving ideas, etc. This is the beauty of repurposing content. It keeps on giving.
Solidifying your message
The easiest way to stay on brand is through repurposing. Your images become familiar, your style remains consistent, and your message is solidified. When you reuse your favourite images with different captions, you’ve got something fresh and new that’s always on brand.
Reach out to subscribers
Whether it’s sharing a link to your latest portfolio, telling a story about something funny that happened, or addressing a challenge you helped resolve, using your portfolio to reach out to email subscribers tends to work well. It also keeps people interested in your company and engaged in your work to keep you top of mind.
Your portfolio is your saving grace
It all boils down to having ongoing access to free content that constantly reinvents itself. You never need to fret about what to write about or post on social media, because your portfolio is the foundation of your content inspiration.
Episode highlights
Here are some highlights from this episode:
- 4:31: Sharing the story behind the pictures
- 6:20: Start at the beginning of your project
- 8:40: Creating dedicated portfolio pages
- 11:06: Sharing client stories
- 12:33: Using keywords
- 14:11: Be authentic
- 15:00 Repurposed marketing
- 17:12: Expanding with case studies & presentations
- 20:43: Getting into social media
- 23:37: Keep going back to the well
- 25:21: Solidifying your message
- 26:23: Reach out to subscribers
- 33:12: Your portfolio is your saving grace
Running low on content ideas? Let’s discuss how I can help you repurpose content to create blogs, social media posts, and case studies.
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