Why Interior Designers Should Be Building an Email List

When it comes to small business marketing, many solo interior designers feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of tasks they have to manage. They must keep up with their website, blog, and social media accounts. In the hustle and bustle of the daily grind, many of these professionals forget about a key aspect of growing their business: email marketing.

Every interior designer should be working on their email marketing strategy to keep growing. And this should be more than just a simple email blast every once in a while. Instead, interior designers need to implement a consistent strategy that can be maintained and cultivated over time.

Do you need more help with your email marketing campaign? Some of these tips will help you see the importance of building an email list and effectively managing your marketing strategy.

Building an Email List

Many small business owners assume that they can grow their companies through social media marketing and word of mouth alone. But, unfortunately, they are missing some important details that could impact them later on down the road.

When it comes to social media marketing, you do not own the social media followers you have. Therefore, if a change in the algorithm occurs (and it does so regularly), your reach could ultimately be affected.

On the other hand, interior design marketing through an email list is a completely different sort of growth. At the end of the day, you own the email addresses you have collected and can do with them whatever you want (within reason, of course!).

This has a much greater long-term value because you can continue putting your business in front of your prospective clients by popping up regularly in their inboxes.

Many designers are not taking full advantage of this tool, though. They fail to capture any information on their websites that would allow them to follow up with someone thinking about signing up for interior design services. By failing to capture email addresses at a minimum, designers are making a big mistake.

The Buying Cycle and Email Marketing

When you set up a drip campaign that targets clients who have yet to make a purchase decision, you engage them in the buying cycle. This starts by capturing their attention and putting your name out there. Next, find a unique angle that sets your interior design business apart from others in your local area.

Remember that it can take seven touches or more before a client is ready to move forward with your services. This means that you will need to interact with them at least seven times through various channels, one of which can be your email campaigns.

A seven-touch strategy can help prospective clients justify interior design's expense. They just need time to mull over their decision-making process.

As you continue to connect with prospective clients through social media and email marketing, they will evaluate what you have to offer them. Show them the person behind the brand and build trust with them. If you can do this effectively, you will never have a shortage of clients! 

How to Capture Information for an Email Campaign

The good news is that an email marketing campaign doesn’t have to be complicated to set up. Instead, it starts with using simple forms on your website to capture information to contact someone interested in your services.

Build a simple form that takes just a few minutes for a website visitor to fill out. Keeping it short and sweet makes it more likely that a client will complete the form fully.

Key pieces of information you want to capture include:

• Name
• Email address
• Location

One way to convince more people to sign up for your email list is to offer a lead magnet. This can be a checklist, a short eBook, or some other piece of information that a potential interior design client would find worthwhile. 

You are far more likely to grow your email marketing campaign if your clients are offered something in return for their personal information!

Email Marketing Best Practices

When it comes to email marketing tips, interior designers need to know how to set up an effective campaign. A campaign can make a real difference in your bottom line, but it can feel complex when starting out.

Here are some of the best practices you will want to follow when generating your new email list.

Deliver Quality Content

Nobody wants to provide their personal information to someone who cannot offer them content that they find truly valuable. If you are going to set up an email marketing campaign, ensure that your content answers a question, solves a need, or educates the customer on how your services can help them. 

You may even want to provide some simple interior design tips that they can implement on their own without paying for your services.

Offering a lead magnet that promises real value is one key way to get people interested in your services.

Ask for Permission

One of the key email marketing tips? Always get permission from a contact before adding them to your email list. Some vendors will add everyone they meet to their newsletter and marketing campaigns, even if the potential client has not expressed an interest in the services offered.

This is a mistake that can have far-reaching consequences for business owners. If your recipients tag your email as spam, it can lead to delivery issues for the rest of your clients moving forward.

Make sure that someone is interested in receiving your emails before you start sending them out!

Create a Call to Action

At the end of your email, there should be a clear action that you want your readers to take. It might mean signing up for your services, booking a consultation, or attending a free webinar that you are hosting. Think about what you want your customers to act on, and then make it easy for them to follow through.

A solid call to action (CTA) is done when you thoroughly know your audience and amplify your unique selling proposition.

Related Article: “How to Convert Leads on Your Interior Design Website” 

Don’t Buy an Email List

Once interior designers realize the inherent value of owning an email list, they often want to get started right away. However, building a solid list of contact information for prospective customers can take time. This is why many designers are tempted to purchase an email list from a provider.

A company may promise you a list of people within your target demographic and geographical area, but this is not usually the best way to move forward with your plans.

Why is buying an email list frowned upon as one of the worst marketing strategies for small businesses? First and foremost, the people on the list do not have any idea who you are. Chances are that many of the people on the list may not even be interested in interior design services and do not want to clutter up their inbox with your messages.

As a result, they may tag your emails as spam. This makes it much harder for you to land in the inbox of clients who do want to hear from you. It hurts your reputation and ultimately negatively affects your overall business strategy. Many people who might have otherwise been solid leads will ignore your content.

If you purchase a list, you may not even be able to use it for a drip campaign. In addition, many reputable services that you can use for email campaigns do not allow you to send emails to a purchased list, which will render your investment useless.

CAN-SPAM Act Rules

If you are going to use drip marketing, it is important to understand the rules that govern your email list. The federal government has a series of rules that all businesses must adhere to when they use email as a means of advertising their services.

Most of the rules relate to being fully transparent with your audience in the following ways:

• No false or misleading header information
• Must identify the message as an advertisement
• No deceptive subject lines
• Must include the location of your business
• Must allow recipients to opt-out of your email list

In addition to these key rules, you must also honor those opt-out requests promptly. You cannot allow months to go by without removing someone from your email list after they have elected to unsubscribe.

If you decide to hire an outside company to manage your email marketing strategy, you should be kept informed about how they handle the business side of things. Just because they are the ones running your email marketing campaign does not absolve you of responsibility for adhering to these guidelines and rules!

Always be aware of how your company is being represented by a marketing firm.

For more information on the CAN-SPAM Act, visit the Federal Trade Commission website. 

In conclusion, email marketing is an essential part of a successful small business marketing strategy. To keep up with the competition, interior designers need to think about creating an effective and consistent email marketing plan that can be organized and maintained over time. Creating an email list is now easier than ever before with the availability of helpful online tools, and savvy designers will find many more advantages to reaping the rewards that can come from a successful campaign.

If you're feeling overwhelmed or are having trouble getting started with email campaigns, look into joining Behind The Design. With community spaces like forums, webinars, and tutorials, it can help you discover tips to create successful campaigns and gain insights on best practices from other experienced professionals. Join us at Behind The Design for support on your journey towards success in email marketing!