How To Blog To Build Your Celebrity Interior Design Brand - Part 1
I started blogging during December of 2007. Although my first blog was set up in November, it took me weeks to get the courage to start posting articles. After doing five or six posts, it became much easier. It was scary to reveal my ideas and personality to the world. Do you feel the same way?
Blogging may sound intimidating to you, but it is a fun and easy way to connect with your audience of prospects. This one tool alone can bring more and better clients to you. You want your prospects to discriminate in favor of you. If you can share stories and testimonials in your blog, you will gain credibility.
You may be wondering what a blog is. It is a web-based log of your thoughts and ideas and it is similar to an online journal. Just because it is a journal does not mean that you have to share your personal secrets. However, it is good to share a few stories about yourself so the readers connect with you. Sharing stories that show you aren't perfect as a designer makes you seem more real. Most prospective clients have the feeling that we judge them, so it is important to make them feel comfortable. You can help them believe that you are there to help them enhance their lifestyle.
You may wonder why you should have a blog, and you may think that you don't have time to do one more thing with your busy schedule. Here is compelling information you should consider. According to ASID's recent survey, when a prospective client is looking for a designer, 38% of the people surveyed said they were most influenced because they felt comfortable working with the designer. Also, when looking for an interior designer, today's consumers go to the Internet to get information about you. A blog allows you to "enter the conversation" with your potential clients. Your prospective clients may be voyeurs for awhile, but when they are ready, they will start posting comments and they will call you.
One of my colleagues shared an interesting statistic with me - only 25% of interior designers have a website. Rather than spend a fortune and months creating an expensive website, a blog is extremely easy to set up. You can create a new web presence in a few hours or even less. You have complete control over the look and feel of the blog, and best of all, you can actually set one up for free.
If you do have a website, it is a static presentation of you and your company. A blog can be updated as often as you like, and the search engines love fresh content.
If you don't have a website, it is worth taking the time to visit your competitor's websites to see how they present themselves. When you take a careful look at your competitor's sites, you are likely to see pretty pictures, a list of services, awards, credentials and articles. What you rarely see is a description of the benefits that a prospective client will receive from working with that designer. This is a big mistake. Prospective clients only want to know what you can do for them, and if your pictures and style of design aren't appealing, they won't call you. This is another great reason to start with a blog instead of a website.
The benefits that you provide and the reason you are different is what will help your prospective clients select you over your competitors. If you are only focused on your credentials and pictures of your beautiful work, the only way a prospective client can compare you to other designers is by your work. In reality, your prospective clients want to know why they should work with you. They want to know, like and trust you. Blogs do a great job of letting you provide a glimpse behind the pretty pictures so these prospects develop a relationship with you.
Google, and really all of the search engines, love blogs. They provide new content on a frequent basis, and if someone is looking for information about a topic such as interior design tips, blogs often come up on the searches before your website is listed. This is especially true if you post articles frequently, and you are linked with other key sites.
Another great reason to blog is to connect fresh content to your main website. This will help you will drive more organic traffic to your website. If the reader is engaged and interested in knowing more about your services, you can include a link to your main website.
If you do a Google search on the Internet, there are more and more interior design blogs listed every day. Are your competitors blogging? If they aren't, you have the opportunity to create a loyal fan base that comes to you before they go to your competitors. "Is Blogging Right For Me - I Am An Interior Designer, Not A Writer!"
For more information, please visit our portal to your design success, www.interiordesignsuccessblog.com. Stay tuned for article #2 in our series on blogging.
Gail Doby, ASID, is a professional interior designer specializing in interior design education that is not taught in interior design school. Her award-winning residential interior design has been featured in local, regional, and national publications.
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