Dear Dakota | Why You Have No Leads Coming In To Your Interior Design Business

Feb 6

Updated September 2023

DESIGNER SUBMITTED QUESTION

“I have no leads coming and haven't booked a new client in a while. Do you think I should invest in having my website rewritten, or should I have it redesigned?”

If you don't have leads coming in, it's not a website problem, or a copy problem, or a fulfillment problem, or a sales problem, or an operations problem, or a team problem.

IT’S A MARKETING PROBLEM.

No leads coming in? It's not why you think

Before you do anything else, you must MARKET your business.

Let potential clients know how you can help them. Show up where your people are and ask for the sale. Here are some simple marketing tactics to do before you do anything else:

Reach out to 15 people you know and talk to them about your services.
Send an email to past clients and ask them if they need any design help for upcoming projects.
Contact local realtors to share about your business and ask if they know anyone who might need design services.
Follow up with previous leads who never booked and see if they ended up finding someone for their project. If not, your email may prompt them to pick up the ball again, with you!
Roll out a smaller service so people can get a taste of what it's like to work with you. Be sure to EMAIL people about that new service and post about it on your marketing channels.
Jump into local Facebook groups, provide valuable tips, and offer to do discovery calls or consultations.
Co-host a workshop or event with an industry peer (realtor, builder, architect, showroom rep) and invite potential clients and/or previous clients.
Reach out to local builders and architects to find out how they work and share about how you work.
Put calls to action in your Instagram profile, on your website, in your blog posts.

The goal is to get as many eyes on your business as possible. Sometimes all you have to do is ask your people and have them ask their people (you tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on).

If you don't have leads coming in, It's a marketing problem. The goal is to get as many eyes on your business as possible. Sometimes all you have to do is ask your people and have them ask their people. So before you invest in fixing your website

What to do before you invest in your interior design business

So before you invest in fixing your website copy, redoing your branding, or setting up the fanciest new software, make sure you are actively marketing your business and asking for the sale. That will be the thing that brings in leads, none of the other stuff.

Now, if you find you’re bringing in leads, but they push back on price, have way lower project budgets than you can work with, or don’t value your expertise, that’s when branding, web design, copywriting, and all the other investments will come into play.

But first: market market market.

You might also enjoy this post: The #1 Thing You Need to Book More Projects.