I
know that some of you imagine there simply isn’t enough business out there right
now. You would be right if the only
thing you thought you were looking for was income. Actually, what you’re looking for is that
person or couple who are in need of professional interior design services. You want the kind of client that will ask you
to project manage a new interior design job.
It may be a client you’ve worked with before or someone new. Either way you will find there really is
business out there to be had for the right designer using the right marketing
approach. Defining who your client is makes
the job of marketing more focused and interesting for you and your firm. You will also need to ascertain how many
prospective clients there are in your area based on the definition of your
optimum client. Do you have any
idea? If not, take some time to think
about your optimum client and how many there might be within your geographic
area. You will need to contact a larger
number of prospects within a specific area to finally bring in the number of
clients you want. Some professional
marketing firms work on numbers of contacts needed to successfully land a
job. The number ranges from between 500
and 900 client contacts for each successful conversation to a client. Do you have that many prospects in your
area? Do they all fall within the
economic level you have pinpointed as optimum for your firm? Not so easy, is it? By now, you know where I’m going, don’t
you? That’s right, focused advertising
and marketing. If you plan to advertise
make sure you have a very clear idea of the demographic of the readership of
the magazine or publication. If you plan
to do direct marketing work with a firm that has up to date lists that fall
within your criteria. Do you want to
market to prospects in their mid 30’s, have an income of between $ 125,000 and
$
175,000 and live within twenty miles of your office? There’s a list for you out there. Another approach is to define a list by
percentage of income. How about deciding
to market to the upper ½ of 1% of the highest earners in your area. Again, there’s a list out there for you.
For
a lot of geographic areas of the country you will find a plethora of
choice. In other areas you may have to
go a lot farther than twenty miles to reach the magic number of 500 to 1,000
qualified prospects. Once you do,
however, you will find there really is a wide range of potential clients. The work to define and market really won’t
take a lot of time and once it’s accomplished you will have the data to use
over and over again. Update at least
once a year and your list will prove valuable and easy to maintain.
Now
is the time to create your best bait and tackle to lure those prospects to your
door.
Good
luck.
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