As an interior designer working with limited marketing funds, you might find yourself wondering where you’ll see more conversions, Google, or social media?
In this episode we discuss your options with Daniella Furtado, owner of Toronto boutique agency Findable Digital Marketing. Learn how she uses search engines, ads, and content to help her designer clients substantially increase website traffic and triple their sales.
Understanding Google as a marketing tool
Google can be used to generate organic traffic through SEO rich content or paid ads to help drive traffic by improving rankings. When used together, you can effectively improve your rankings and increase your reach.
Ask the right questions
The big mistake designers make is asking the wrong questions when trying to figure out where they’ll see more bang for their marketing buck. The important question is, where are my customers? Your marketing strategy is based on your ideal client and therefore should use the channels your ideal client is likely to frequent.
Designers also have to understand their own business and who they want to serve. Is it commercial or residential clients? What work makes you happy? What are you good at? By asking yourself these questions you can find your audience and determine who to target and where.
Identify customer pain points
Your customers’ pain points provide insights into why they should hire you. Marketing allows you to share how you resolve pain points and what happens if someone doesn’t hire you for the job. What your customers experience provides insights into their language to inform your keyword choices and the types of information that will help shape your marketing strategy and content.
Map out your customer journey
The customer journey maps out how customers get from where they are to where they want to be. Mapping it out allows you to be there at each stage of their journey with content that convinces them you’re the solution from the first stage of awareness straight through to the final purchase.
Not every journey is going to end at the same destination. Some people might find a purchase can resolve organizational issues, while others might discover they can DIY a project to improve their interior eyesores. However, there are people who become overwhelmed with information and processes. These are the people most likely to become clients.
Intent: Google vs. social media
Customer intent determines what keywords and contents you use. Using the right keywords allows you to be there at the most critical times of every stage of the journey so you can make smarter marketing decisions. For example, it’s rare that social media followers are at the purchase stage. Instead, they’re looking for inspiration. So, in the earlier, awareness stage, this is the time to share ideas and visuals on social media. Social media is all about sharing short form content in the awareness stage, blogs share detailed content at every stage of the customer journey and website service pages provide the nitty gritty about your process and pricing at the consideration and purchase stages.
SEO and keywords
You can optimize your website pages including your blog, home page, portfolio pages, and service page to come up organically on Google. For a boost you can also back up your SEO efforts with paid ads linked to various blog content aligned with customer intent. It’s a good idea to consider paid ads in directories like Yellow Pages or House to attract clients at the consideration or purchase stage.
Telling the full story
Photos don’t tell prospects what you did to a space, even with before and after shots. Case studies explain the challenge of space and what steps you took to resolve them. You can tell the stories behind your portfolio using captions or write a blog, but case studies are the most effective during the consideration stage. They have all the answers and help you stand out.
Specialization strategy
A specialization strategy provides focus for your external communications, keeps things consistent and appeals to your ideal client. However, behind the scenes you can use a check list that helps you weed out undesirable projects based on things like budget, design style, scope of project, etc. Specialization allows you to build a portfolio of your preferred project and client type to attract more of the same yet still find opportunities outside your lane.
Evolution of your business
Many things have to evolve and transition in your business before you find your niche. This takes time. Throughout each phase of your evolution, you will find you become better at determining where your marketing dollars are best spent. By identifying your ideal client, mapping out your customer journey and using the right content and channels to meet customer intent, you will begin to see significant growth.
Episode highlights
Here are a few top highlights from this episode:
- 4:34: Understanding Google as a marketing tool
- 6:44: Ask the right questions
- 11:11: Identify customer pain points
- 13:39 Map out your customer journey
- 19:53: Intent: Google vs. social media
- 29:23: SEO and keywords
- 30:19: Telling the full story
- 39:56: Specialization strategy
- 46:07: Evolution
If you’re struggling with finding the right channels and content to increase conversions, book a consultation to discuss your strategy today.
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