3 Popular Email Marketing Services

Email marketing is where it is at! You can have small list and generate a lot of business from that list. Social media is still great but instead of putting content out there for the whole world to see knowing that fewer and fewer people are seeing it every day, put more effort into the content that your target marketing is seeing.

You may have thousands of followers on Instagram, thousands of likes on Facebook and millions of view on Pinterest but even if you only have a couple hundred on your email list you could be making a lot more money with your email list than all of your other social media combined.

After searching the internet, I found that email marketing is one of the most cost-effective marketing tools for small businesses. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing on average sees a 4300 percent return on investment (ROI) for businesses in the United States.

This is because email marketing is easy to manage, gives you full control, and allows you to establish a direct contact with your customers.

Now that you are considering doing more email marketing, what marketing services are out there?

I talked to several interior designers and came up with the 3 most popular email marketing services among interior designers. All three of them were listed in an article at wpbeginner.com.

CONSTANT CONTACT

Constant Contact is one of the largest and fastest growing email marketing services in the world. It is also the easiest to use and beginner friendly.

You can easily manage your email lists, contacts, email templates, marketing calendar, and more.

Each account gives you access to easy tracking and reporting, built-in social media sharing tools, free image library, list segmentation, Facebook ads integration, and a powerful eCommerce integration for Shopify stores. If you sell product from an online store this could be great.

Their Email Plus accounts also come with powerful features like email automation, surveys & polls, coupons, online donations, and subject line A/B testing which helps you send targeted emails to maximize your open rate.

Constant Contact offers unmatched support with live chat, phone calls, email, community support, and a vast library of helpful resources.

Aside from online training, they also offer in-person live seminars across the United States. This allows small businesses to quickly learn the basics of email marketing and start using it to grow their business like a pro.

For all the reasons above, several sites have rated Constant Contact the best email marketing service for small businesses.

Constant Contact has a 60-day free trial (no credit-card required). After that their pricing starts as low as $20/month.

CONVERTKIT

ConvertKit is a robust email marketing platform for professional bloggers, authors, and marketers. It is extremely easy to use and incredibly powerful.

ConvertKit allows you to easily offer content upgrades and incentives with email signup forms. It also comes with easy to manage auto-responders allowing you to send drip emails.

With ConvertKit, you can easily segment subscribers into those who are interested and those who have already purchased. This helps you increase conversions with automated emails that feel more personal. In marketing terms, this is called targeted email marketing.

ConvertKit offers email-based support and has an extensive knowledge base with great learning material.

ConvertKit offers a 14-day free trial, and their pricing starts from $29/month. They also offer a 30-day refund policy.

MAILCHIMP

Mailchimp is one of the most popular email marketing service providers in the world primarily because they offer a forever free email marketing service plan.

Mailchimp comes with an easy email builder, autoresponders, segmenting contacts into groups, and simple tracking for analytics. It also allows you to setup delivery times based on user’s time zones, and you can setup segmenting based on geolocation.

You can easily integrate Mailchimp with WordPress, Magento, Shopify, and many other platforms.

When it comes to marketing automation features, Mailchimp platform is quite limited when compared to other providers such as ConvertKit.

In the recent years, Mailchimp has attempted to add many of the “advanced” features, but I’ve read some you have tested these and don’t feel that they are truly advanced.

Mailchimp support is offered by email, live chat, and a large tutorial knowledge base.

Mailchimp offers a forever free plan which allows you to send 12,000 emails for up to 2,000 subscribers. This plan is limited because you don’t get features like send-time optimization, advanced segmentation, multi-variate testing, etc. You are also required to display their branding in your email. Finally, support is restricted to email only which is fine if you’re a hobbyist but as a serious business, you need reliable support that you can count on.

Their paid plans start from $10/month for up to 500 subscribers, and the pricing increases in the increment of 500 subscribers.

As limited as Mailchimp sounds it’s still a great free option to get you started with your email marketing. As you grow you can upgrade to a different system if you chose. At the end of the day it’s your content that sells.

Please let me know if you have any questions on how you can use email marketing to grow your business!

Project Management Software or Self-hosted, Which is Best?

Many interior designers use project management software such as Ivy, Studio Designer, Mydoma, Design Manager or another software. Last week’s blog post focused on the features of these project management systems.

What happens when you don’t find the right fit, or decide to do it yourself either with free programs or programs you already have? There is a group of interior designers that are doing this and are considered self-hosted. They don’t use any of the software options above to stay organized. So how do they do it?

MICROSOFT EXCEL

Most people already have Microsoft Excel and if you are good at it, it can be used to organize projects, orders, expenses, bookkeeping and a variety of other things in your business.

PINTEREST

You can create private boards to share with your client to house your design ideas and product choices for their design. You can also create a private board to create a library of your favorite and popular products and sources.

GOOGLE DRIVE

You can keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recording, videos and more in your google drive. Your first 15 GB is free with a google account. This is also great for storing notes, spreadsheets, invoices, documents and correspondence with clients.

TRELLO

This free cloud-based platform is great for working with your clients to collaborate on projects. You can create boards, lists and cards to help you stay organized. Many of my virtual design assistants use Trello when collaborating with designers as well.

PAYPAL, VENOMO, WAVE

Create invoices and collect payments. These are free to use but some fees may apply for processing payments.

HELLO SIGN

Use this free service to collect digital signatures for your client contracts. Collecting signatures with this platform just became a lot easier.

MAILCHIMP

Free for up to a certain number of subscribers this service is a great way to get started with your email subscriber list. As you grow you may want to consider using a paid service for your email campaigns. Next week’s post will be on the best options for your email subscriber list and emails.

Best Project Management Software for Interior Designers

I work with a lot of interior designers and they use a variety of project management software including Ivy, Mydoma, Studio Designer, Design Manager and self-hosted.

Which one is best for you? Hopefully the information below will help.

Ivy
Ivy’s website states - Our platform is designed to take the pain out of administrative tasks and allow designers to focus on the work they love. You don’t just get access to the Ivy platform, but also to our incredible industry resources, and the most powerful and supportive design community.

I’ve been told that Ivy has a low learning curve and is the user-friendlier version of Studio Designer. Ivy works well with direct integration with QuickBooks online including easily accepting credit cards. Ivy allows you to view project timelines without added data entry because estimated ship dates automatically go on the Project Calendar. Ivy will continue to add functionality to make it a strong candidate for the interior designer’s use.

Although it may be user friendly, it does take two programs to do what Studio Designer can do in one. Studio Designer is more customizable; however, Ivy is still very popular among interior designers.  

Pricing: Basic $59/month or $599 paid annually

Essential $99/month or $999 paid annually

Unlimited $149/month or $1,499 paid annually

Plus, QuickBooks fees $40 per month

Try it: Ivy offers a 30-day refund.  www.ivymark.com/

As of March 2018, Ivy sold to Houzz and has some designers questioning their partnership and ethics.  I suggest doing your research on this before taking the plunge into Ivy.  

Design Manager

Design Manager is an all in one software for project management, purchase order tracking, accounting, reports, inventory. Since Design Manager isn’t super user friendly it is often used by established design firms. Their website claims 70% of interior designers prefer Design Manager over QuickBooks.

Design Manager is the leading project management and accounting software for interior designers. Created in 1984 to respond to the requests of local interior design firms, it expanded into a nationwide software company and became one of the first providers of cloud-based design software. Because design firms have specific needs that cannot be answered by conventional software, it is our mission to provide a product that is dedicated to serving the design community. We deliver software that saves time, money, and frustration, while eliminating countless hours of paperwork.

Pricing:

DM Cloud $39.99/month

Pro Cloud $54.99/month

Save 10% by paying annually

Try it: They offer a free trial at https://designmanager.com/

Mydoma

Mydoma is a great organizational tool for your interior design projects.  Many designers love the systems and processes and creating automations so that your business runs easier and Mydoma helps with this.  The Mydoma platform helps with the onboarding process, a place to keep project info (ex: space info, before images, measurements, inspiration images), and a place to collaborate with your clients.  Using Mydoma you are creating an online design studio/project binder to collaborate with your clients.  You can have new clients sign contract, fill out onboarding questionnaire, and send initial payment all within the program.  Great if you do e-design or smaller design packages.

This software is limited if you run a full-service interior design firm.  And the accounting is in QuickBooks, so it requires double entry for products.  

Pricing: $59 per month for Pro, plus QuickBooks fees $40 per month

Try it: Free 30-day trial. www.mydomastudio.com

Studio Designer

Studio Designer claims to be the leading application for interior design professionals. It provides project management and accounting systems for its users. In 2016, it created a Vendor Portal and Client Portal. In 2019, version 2.0 is a new streamline look and efficiencies.

It is a very robust and extensive program for every operation a design firm could face.  This is a one-stop-shop for all your interior designer application needs.  Because of this Studio Designer can feel overwhelming for a novice designer.  It is an accounting program and project management program wrapped up in one.  You can manage your entire business from this program.  Accounting, Expediting, Ordering, Timelines, Reminders, Logistics, Inventory and so much more. 

This program is very technical, and you may need an accountant that specializes in the program.

Pricing: Basic - $35/month

Professional - $45/month

Try it: Studio Designer does not offer a free trial, but they do offer pro-rated refunds, if you wanted to try it for a few days for a few bucks.  www.studiodesigner.com/

DesignDocs

DesignDocs is a total project management and online accounting solution for the interior design industry. Founded by a husband and wife team (a Chartered Accountant and a Designer), DesignDocs provides a full suite of business management tools for interior designers. Additionally, the system gives access to valuable financial reports so designers can gain a strong understanding of their profit margins and identify areas in their business where they can increase revenue. 

The software is ideal for full-service design firms who are looking to increase profits, improve their operational processes, and/or scale their businesses. Pricing: Solo $69/p month or $708 paid annually

Professional: $98/p month or $1,056 paid annually (minimum of 2 users)

Try it: Free 14-day trial. www.designdocs.com

Self-hosted

I know more and more interior designers that are going to a self-hosted type of program. They use landing pages on their websites, Pinterest, spreadsheets and processes to stay organized and on top of their businesses. This isn’t for everyone but if you are looking for a cost-effective way you may be interested in checking out a self-hosted system. Next week, I’ll be writing about how the self-hosted system works and why it might be beneficial to you!

As always, feel free to reach out if you have questions!

Client Facing Emails for Email Subscriber List

In an effort to continue to make my clients’ lives easier I’m always looking for better and more affordable ways to help them. One thing that continues to come up in our businesses is social media. Social media is ever changing and as more and more accounts are added and more and more people jump on the platforms it’s getting harder and harder to be seen. And not only is it getting harder to be seen, the platforms are being bogged down by glitches and days where posting is almost impossible.

I’m not saying that the internet is perfect either, but more and more companies are going to start going to email subscriber lists to stay in front of their target markets. Once you start using an email subscriber list you will be amazed at how quickly you’ll start getting clients. Now it doesn’t happen overnight, but it does happen much more quickly than posting on social media. After two years of posting on Instagram and getting zero clients I decided to start an email subscriber list. Two months after starting that list I got my first client, a few weeks later I got another and so on. The growth potential with a subscriber list is far greater because you are targeting a smaller very specific group of individuals. These are people who asked to be signed up for your emails, they are interested in you and follow you and for some reason are more likely to do business with you when you send them an email versus you putting something on social media.

The best ways to grow an email subscriber list:

1. Get your landing page out there - Whether it’s attached to your website or blog or other, get it out there in Facebook groups and on social media. People will check out your website.

2. Offer a freebie - Some offer a free style quiz or free download on how to choose a paint color or some other helpful tip for signing up for their email newsletter.

3. Write engaging content - This is the place where most designers get tripped up. They either don’t have time to write the content, they don’t like to write, or they struggle to come up with topics to write about.

The engaging content is where we are here to help! I am creating a place on my website where my clients can go to download inexpensive client-facing emails to use in their emails! Yes, that’s right. The emails will be written for you and less expensive than hiring a copywriter to write custom copy.

If you are interested in hiring a copywriter to write custom copy, we do offer that service as well, it’s up to you which you prefer!

Now, does inexpensive client-facing email content sound like something you’d use? If so, let me know. I’ll announce when that portion of my website is ready. I’m so excited to help interior designers get in front of more people and grow their clientele. It’s what I do best!

Establishing Credibility in Interior Design

Establishing credibility is extremely important in growing any business. You want people to know who you are and why you’re the expert. There are several ways to establish credibility in interior design and I’m going to share three of them below.

One of the best ways to establish credibility in any field is getting published.

It may not be as hard as you think to get published. Research your local newspaper, magazines and even regional magazines. I was able to get published in a local magazine called Definitive Woman simply by reaching out and asking if they’d be interested in an article about interior design. Not only were they interested, they were interested in several articles. I wrote articles about creating a home office that inspires and how to refresh your winter décor. I also reached out to a more regional magazine covering a few upper Midwest states called Lake and Home Magazine and they were interested in articles, too. I’ve written several articles for them on refreshing your home’s exterior, hottest new design trends in 2019, creating a master bedroom retreat, the best indoor plants and fireplace styles.

I do not get paid for these articles but I’m also not paying to be in the publications either. Paying to be published in something is called advertising.  I find that publications that do not pay for articles are also easier to get published in. I read both magazines that I reached out to … so what do you read?

I’ve also seen personal interest stories about interior designers in newspapers. Your newspaper is always looking for fun things to write about. What’s your story? Would you be willing to share it with your local reporter? It’s worth a shot to ask.

Another way to establish credibility is by being on a local news or television program. I personally know people in the financial industry, psychiatry and interior design fields who live close enough to a local program to go in and talk about and/or demonstrate things. You could go on television and talk about how to style a coffee table or pick a paint color. With the popularity of interior design shows today I bet you could find a station who would love to have you appear.

The third option is hosting workshops. People who love DIY interior design love workshops. You could host one or do a series of them. You might even be able to partner with a community education program in your town. My town offers a variety of adult education programs on cooking, photography, cake decorating and more. A workshop would be a face-to-face opportunity to really drum up some business.

Being read in publications, seen on television and hosting workshops are all great ways to establish yourself as an expert in interior design. Once people view you as an expert they are more likely to work with you!

Enjoy Summer & Grow Your Business!

Summer is here and it’s a crazy, busy time of year. The kids are out of school, summer vacations are in full swing and everyone has ball games, golf outings, beach days, family reunions and more! It’s a time to enjoy the beautiful weather and take that vacation so you can come back to the office renewed and ready to move mountains. Did you know that summer can also be a great time to grow your business?

With everything else going on don’t just put your business on autopilot to get through the summer. Take advantage of the tips and tricks below to make the summer of 2019 your best summer yet!

1.       Get organized! Take a few hours and get organized for the entire summer, yes it’s possible! Get your schedule on your calendar for the next three months! Carve out some time in your schedule and get it done.

 2.       Prioritize! Now that your calendar is booked solid with everything BUT work, prioritize. Do you really need to do EVERYTHING you have on your calendar? What are the most important things? Leave those and either put the rest as optional or better yet, forget the rest.

3.       Outsource! Summer is a great time to start outsourcing some of your time consuming tasks. Most people don’t realize that there are several things they do that can be outsourced such as 3d renders, cad drawings, social media, presentations, purchase orders, proposals, blog posts, vendor management, etc. The beauty of working with a highly skilled virtual design assistant is they will help you manage your days and weeks. They will help take a lot off your plate. Get more done this summer by hiring a virtual design assistant that can do the dirty work while you take more time for yourself doing what you love whether that’s growing your business or a day at the beach or on the golf course!

4.       Take a day off! I recently read in Inc. magazine that 42% of American workers do NOT take their vacation days! Everyone needs to take days off to relax the mind, body and soul, these days are extremely important if you want to continue to succeed. Your mind and body need rest. I am so relaxed when I’m on vacation that I typically come up with some of my best ideas. Take a journal with you on your vacation and write what comes to mind. This way you won’t stress about forgetting your great ideas and you can truly relax. You don’t have to take a week-long trip somewhere, you just need to get away from work for a few days. Working vacations don’t count – many employers are starting to frown upon those anymore. J

5.       Just do it! You know that thing you’ve been planning and researching and finding every reason in the book why not to pull the trigger? May it’s learning a new language, or taking a trip overseas, perhaps you want to go sky diving or plant a vegetable garden. Whatever it is - just do it! Many people waste time just hem-hawing around and never really do anything about it. There comes a time when you just need to pull the trigger. Why not now?

6.       Have fun with marketing. People are in better moods in the summer – they might get your humor so try that fun marketing campaign you’ve been wanting to try. Summer opens people up to wanting to try new things so why not your service, get out there and make it happen!

I hope you enjoy your summer this year and grow your business! You can do both!

Attract MORE Clients with Your Personality!

I was visiting with a friend the other day about her daughter’s upcoming wedding. Her daughter was trying to find a photographer and so she checked out a couple local photographer’s websites. Both photographers had gorgeous photos so either one would’ve been great – but who did she choose? She chose the photographer who made two references to Michael Scott’s character from The Office on her website. The bride-to-be was a huge fan of The Office and figured that she could get along great with anyone who loved Michael Scott.

There is a lot of great talent out there and so when you offer a great service you also have to offer something of yourself. People want to know who you are, what are your likes and dislikes, they want to resonate with you.

Don’t be shy – be proud of who you are and shout it from the mountain tops. Your spirit animals will find you!

If you are struggling about what to put in your website or marketing copy think about your likes and dislikes – those are easy to convey. Also, think about what you like about other people’s websites. You do business with a lot of people – why do you use that contractor, vendor, client management software or in your personal life why do you use the local services you use?

Think about if you were searching for a service and you found too people who could offer a similar service for a similar price with similar customer service – what would make you choose one over the other? I’ll tell you – the brand. The brand is what you use to choose and the brand is YOU!

Create your own unique brand to stand out from the competition. If you attract people like you – you’ll enjoy working with people like you. 😉

As always, if you need help with copy, let me know! I’m a nerd when it comes to writing creative copy.

Would YOU Use This Service?

As my company grows, we are trying to help even more interior design clients. A lot of our clients use their Elite Design VA for AutoCad drawings, 3d renders, social media management, mood boards, floor plans, affiliate links, administrative tasks and more. In an effort to better help interior designers I’m trying to come up with other beneficial services to make your life easier. Would you be interested in either of the services below?

Email content – these would be client facing emails that you can purchase to use for your subscriber list. You would be able to use these emails as is or edit to your liking and add images or video. They would be inexpensive and assist in your email list planning. If you do not already have an email subscriber list, you need to start one! This is an amazing tool to stay in front of the people who want to hear from you.

Video content – showing your face is becoming more and more important. People want to know who you are, so they feel more comfortable about doing business with you. You would be able to purchase client facing video scripts to use to create your videos. You would then be able to start a video series or video blog, add a video to your website, add videos to your social media or blog posts. I love watching videos of designers on Instagram while I do my treadmill workout in the mornings. It makes the time go so much faster and if you have a love/hate relationship with exercise like I do it’s great!  I hear from so many people that they would love to do videos, but they don’t know what to say or what to talk about.

Both options would be housed on my Elite Design Assistants website in the form of digital downloads. Since I would upload them as I write them, they would be a lot less expensive than hiring a copywriter to write custom copy.

Please let me know if you would be interested in a service like this and let me know if there are any other ways we can help.

Have a great day!

Xx Danae

7 Hot Affiliate Vendors

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to make money just because people purchased products from links you placed in your blog posts and emails? That’s how affiliate marketing works. It’s great passive income and a lot of interior designers are looking for more ways to make money. Affiliate programs are a great way to make money in your sleep. Quite literally, your clients and followers can purchase items you are promoting 24/7.

The companies below have great affiliate programs that your fellow interior designers use and love! I did my own research and am not receiving any compensation from these companies to have them listed here. After visiting with several interior designers these were the Top 7 hot affiliate vendors they shared with me. They are listed in no particular order.

 1. Boutique Rugs- Boutique Rugs is one of the more popular ones I’ve come across. They offer amazing rugs, have great customer service and pay an affiliate commission of 7%. You can get more information at https://boutiquerugs.com/affiliate-program/

2. Amazon – Doesn’t everyone use Amazon, anyway? Why not use it for your business. A few of the interior designers I reached out to loved Amazon. As you can imagine you can find a wide variety of items and with affiliate commissions of up to 10% it’s worth a shot. For more information - https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

3. Bellacor – Lighting, furniture, décor and more. Bellacor pays up to 8% affiliate commissions when a client purchases from your link. Click for more info - https://www.bellacor.com/affiliate.htm

4. Curtain Works – This company has all the window treatments your clients will ever need. They pay 10% commission and offer a wide variety of ready-made curtains at competitive prices. Here you go - https://www.bellacor.com/affiliate.htm

5. Jonathan Adler – If your target market loves mid-century modern this affiliate program may be the one for you! Think luxury, smart design and colorful optimism with a 6% commission. Check it out here - https://www.jonathanadler.com/affiliate-program.html

6. Lulu & Georgia – This home décor company seems to be a favorite of several of the interior designers I spoke with. They offer a wide variety of super stylish décor and offer a 10% commission. Learn more about their affiliate program - https://www.luluandgeorgia.com/affiliates/

7.  Serena & Lily – This company always makes me think of a breezy California style. Their products are definitely casual coastal. They have a 9% affiliate commission and more information here - https://www.viglink.com/merchants/35595/serena-and-lily-affiliate-program

Let us know if you need help setting up your affiliate vendors. That is one of the many services we offer our interior design clients at Elite Design Assistants!

Make More Money By Outsourcing

Running a business is a challenging career choice and those of us that do it, know that we continuous try to come up with ways to make more money and save more time. I am in the business to make YOU more money and to save YOU more time.

How do I do this? One of the ways is by offering a service to you that you can resell to your clients for a profit. For example, let’s say you want to offer 3d renders but you don’t have time. We can work with you to create a package that you can sell to your client where your Elite design assistant does the renderings for you. The image above is just one example of a 3d render created by one of our virtual design assistants.

This works with floor plans, mood boards, shopping lists, etc.

A second example is to outsource some of your billable hours to your design assistant. This way you can charge your clients for the work your assistant is doing. You are charging your rates and paying assistant fees. See the margin there?

Also look at where your clients are coming from. If you want to grow your business hire an assistant to market in that area, for example – if most of your business is coming from Pinterest, hire an assistant to manage your Pinterest account to grow your business. If you are getting business from your email list but don’t have time to create the email content, hire an assistant to create your email content, schedule and manage your subscriber list.

There are so many ways to generate more income and more time, you just need to be smart about it. Take a look at your business and see where you can increase revenues by hiring an assistant.

Should You Be Offering E-Design?

As you look at your interior design business, are you offering e-design? E-design is growing in popularity but if you are unfamiliar with the term e-design is the interior design of a space done entirely online. There are no in-home visits, face-to-face meetings with clients or implementation of the design. You work completely virtually from your home or studio to complete an e-design project.

There are a growing number of interior designers offering e-design as a service now. It opens them up to working with clientele in any location in the world. Perhaps you have clients with second homes, out of state friends or family who are looking for an interior designer or an ever-growing social media presence that is attracting potential clients from all over.

There are some big-name firms that I follow that are now offering an e-design package from Erin Gates to Kathryn Ireland. Check out your favorite interior designers that you follow for inspiration and see if they are offering an e-design service.

Before you offer an e-design package there are a few things to consider.

1.       Your e-design client market will be different from your current interior design client market. The clients you will working with on e-design may still have a healthy budget, but it will typically be less than that of a tradition client. An e-design client is also very much a DIY type of client since they have the confidence to implement your design. Also, e-design clients typically want things done more quickly since everything is online.

2.       You must be comfortable working with your clients online. Some interior designers have to see their client’s home, physically be in the space, touch the materials they are recommending and have face-to-face meetings with their client to really get the creative juices flowing. This is their process – so suddenly jumping to an all online model may not work for this type of designer.

3.       There is still great value in this service. Unfortunately, there are some companies out there who are significantly undervaluing e-design, but the strong, creative, e-designers of the world are emerging and proving their worth and value. There is obviously money in it or some of the most influential interior designers of our time would not be marketing it as a service.

The pros of offering an e-design package

1.       Working remotely! This offers you a whole newfound freedom to be able to do everything from your laptop.

2.       Business growth! It’s an opportunity to substantially grow your business by increasing your target market beyond your physical location.

3.       Passive income opportunities. Now that you are offering e-design as a service you may also want to consider affiliate marketing. You can make commissions off products your e-design clients purchase but you can also add those affiliate links to Pinterest pins, emails you send to your email list and your blog posts.

e-design is a wonderful new option for clients and interior designers. Although it is extremely popular it will never replace a full-service in-house design. Not everyone is in love with a virtual experience and that is okay. It takes all kinds to make this world go round, so if you are interested in e-design at all for your business – it might be worth exploring!

Let us know if you are interested in learning how working with a virtual design assistant can help you offer this new service. We are well-versed in e-design as well!

Do You Have An Email List?

You can have every social media platform covered including a great blog, but you will get the most bang for your buck if you have an email list. Email lists are amazing and can bring you more income than you thought possible.

Why are email lists so important? Email lists are comprised of people that want to hear from you. They are interested in what you have to say and are interested in updates having to do with your business. Social media is a very valuable tool but unless you are paying for targeted ads it’s not as specific to your target market as your email list is. The email list provides you with a go-to list of people to contact when you decide to run a special, offer a new service or have great news and updates to share.

Starting an email list is fairly simple for someone who knows what they are doing.  I’ll be honest, my virtual design assistant set mine up for me. The easiest way to start one is to create an opt-in on your website. You can attach this opt-in to all your other social media as well. The opt-in is a pop up that will appear when someone visits your website and it will ask for an email address. A lot of designers offer a freebie in exchange for the email address. You can offer a style quiz or a how-to guide for the most commonly asked questions you receive such as how to hang curtains, how to hang a gallery wall, how to choose the appropriate sized rug, etc.

Once you have your freebie and your opt-in ready you will need to link it to an email capture service like MailChimp or ConvertKit. These services allow you to keep an email subscriber list and allow you to set up email campaigns. You can create an automatic email campaign or go in and schedule new ones to go out as needed.

This is a very high-level overview of how to start an email subscription list so if you need help getting one set up please let us know!

We can help you set one up, write your email content for you, schedule the emails, etc.

Do you need help with your email list? Please feel free to email me at danae@elitedesignassistants.com.

How Can We Make Your Life Easier?

I honestly want to know how we can make your life easier! I know you are busy, overwhelmed and possibly exhausted and we want to help. We want to help you grow the business of your dreams while giving you back your life! Interior designers are passionate about what they do and speaking from experience the work can get quite addicting, but we must prevent burnout and we must enjoy life.

I’m sure you have some hobbies right? Maybe you like to garden, or travel or watch Games of Thrones… is that considered a hobby? Because I feel like it should be for some people.

Think about what aspects of your business that you like the least. What would you love to outsource? What do you find time consuming and boring? And what do you love to do the most?

We help interior designers schedule their appointments because they love meeting with clients but they hate managing their calendar.

We help our clients manage their social media because it can be one challenging beast to stay consistent and continue to post every day or weekly.

We do renders! Yes, that’s right – maybe you love working with clients and finding the right pieces but you don’t always have the extra time to create the renders or floor plans or mood boards or shopping lists or spec sheets for contractors or proposals … we do it all!

Anything that can be done virtually, we can do it for you – from writing your blog to designing your website. We are trained interior designers who found a passion for helping other interior designers grow and manage their businesses. it’s a win-win-win. Win for the designer, win for the client and win for the design assistant!

One thing I’ve heard over and over and over again is blog copy – blogs are everything right now and many designers either don’t have a blog or aren’t consistent with one, but blogs are a great way to share your insight with your clients and followers. We are going to be offering a new blog service very soon that will allow you to purchase blog templates with copy and images that give you the formula for quickly creating the blog post yourself! We will also be offering original blog posts for purchase as well as our custom blog writing service. There will be a large variety of posts to choose from and I’ll be adding new ones weekly! Stay tuned for more information to come! You can always visit our site at www.elitedesignassistants.com for more information!

Take it easy! Danae

Attract More Clients with Your Brand!

As an interior designer, your brand is you. You will attract clients just by being you and I know for some creating a brand around themselves and their ideal client isn’t easy.

So how do you create your brand?

In order to really start honing in on your brand ask yourself these questions.

1.       Who is my ideal client & what style do they like?

2.       What have been my favorite projects to work on and why?

3.       What type of client do I resonate with most?

4.       What kind of person am I and what do I love besides interior design?

Once you’ve answered these questions look at your answers. It’s very important that they align with each other and here’s why. I can say my ideal clients are young wealthy couples who are attracted to luxurious designs but if I resonate most with middle-aged couples who live on the coast and love a beachy design then there is an obvious disconnect there that needs to be addressed. Once you are sure that the answers to the questions above make sense implement some of that into your brand. For example, if you specialize in coastal interiors then your brand should have a coastal feel. Create a brand mood board complete with colors, images, quotes, etc. Pinterest is great for inspiration.

Once you’ve created a brand mood board start writing some copy about your brand. First write a story about you – who are you – to use on your About Us/Me page of your website.

Your About Us/Me page is your brand, your story, what makes your business so unique? Why should people do business with you? What do you have to offer?

Your About Us/Me page should be written in a conversational tone and include:

1.       The story behind how your business was started.

2.       The services and/or products you provide.

3.       How you benefit the customer.

4.       A call to action such as entering their email for a newsletter or leaving your phone number for them to call you.

Use your About page in your marketing, in your branding, on social media – update it and post bits and pieces of it throughout social media. Write a blog post or newsletter article about your About page. You really can use it as a marketing tool to create customer awareness and attract new business.

If you need help writing your About page consider hiring a copywriter or content marketer to help you. They know what they are doing and can take your thoughts and turn them into a lead generating piece of copy!

You are an interior designer so almost more important than good copy are good images. Highlight your portfolio on your social media. Create a story with your images and visually entice your ideal client to want to do business with you. Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are great platforms to showcase your work.

Need a more in-depth idea of what your brand should look like? Ask yourself the following questions.

1. What do you sell?

2. What are you really selling? For example - you may think you sell financial planning but really you are selling peace of mind.

3. What is your target market? Is this market small enough – would you be better served to narrow your focus and go after a niche market?

4. What are the characteristics of your target market?

5. What are the characteristics of your company?

6. What would your company look like if it were a person?

7. What would your company act like if it were a person?

8. What makes your company unique?

9. What need does your company fulfill? Or what problem does your company solve?

10. How do you want your target market to see your company?

Write down the answers to the questions above and start formulating your true brand. The brand that is going to attract customers and the brand that is going to move you toward success!

Remember, your brand is the mark you want to leave on the world.

Use your brand in all aspects of your marketing. Need help? You can always contact us at www.elitedesignassistants.com.

Enjoy the adventure of branding!

Danae

Generating Interior Design Client Leads

In working with interior designers I’ve found that one of their least favorite things to do in their business is marketing for clients, i.e. generating leads. They love creating beautiful spaces but don’t love having to spend time chasing potential clients. Here are some great tips for generating more leads for your business without losing your head!

1.       Start an email list. I know several designers that get clients simply from the email list they have built. Add an opt-in for people who visit your site to subscribe to your email list and offer them a freebie for subscribing – maybe a style quiz or a design guide of some sort. Use Mailchimp or other user-friendly email platform to capture and send out a weekly email of your offerings.

2.       Concentrate on one social media platform. Sometimes it’s easier to focus on generating business from one platform and doing that platform really well then it is to half-ass a bunch of platforms. Persistency and consistency are the names of the game on social media.

3.       Start a Facebook group. Start drawing your target market to your Facebook group where you can discuss your services, show examples, offer advice and get people excited about working with you by connecting and getting to know them.

4.       Create a 5-day challenge. Entice people to use your service by creating a free challenge of some sort. It could be a 5-day room challenge or more specifically a 5-day home office challenge or 5-day master bedroom challenge. Something that fits with your target market and would get them involved.

5.       Use a lead funnel. Lead funnels are a great way to generate leads but do cost money and are best set up by experts, unless you know what you are doing. They use Facebook or Google Ads to generate leads to your inbox. These are typically automated in such a way that they work even while you sleep!

 Any or all of these are excellent ways to get new clients. At the end of the day, time is money and if you are able to fit this into your schedule then do it! If you are not, you may want to consider hiring an experienced virtual design assistant to help you grow the business of your dreams!

Planning a Great Blog

Blog posts are an excellent way to drive traffic to your site and to showcase your brand, your talents and your services. Not only can blog posts shed some light on what you have to offer your clients, but they can be used as a great way to create passive income. Although we all know how necessary blogs can be for our business the unfortunate truth is the most of us don’t really enjoy writing them, planning them, finding graphics, sharing them, etc. So, what can we do to make blogging a little less painful and a lot more enjoyable? I’m going to share that with you today!

Create a Plan! Block out 30 minutes on your planning calendar once a month to brainstorm blog post ideas. What do you want to write about? What pertains to your clients, your brand and what you love to do as an interior designer? You need to know your ideal client well enough to know what they like and what they’d enjoy reading about. Start writing down topics. For example, you could write about color, specific pieces of furniture (tulip tables, sectionals, x-benches), mixed metals, powder rooms, maximizing visual space with design, etc. Gather ideas from your favorite magazines and websites.

Once you have a great list of topics, schedule a couple of hours once a week to research and write. Since you already have your list of topics, choose one, do some quick research and then write. Your blog posts don’t have to be novel size, 500 words is just fine. It’s best to write short engaging copy, then long rambling copy. Be sure to include your personality in your post, people get to know you as they read your writing and the ones that are entertained or educated continue to come back for more.

Once your copy is written, come up with a great title for your post. For example, Why Are X-Benches So Popular?, Sectionals vs. Sofas, Most Popular Paint Colors for 2019, The Most Attractive Way to Mix Metals. Okay, you get my point.

Now you have a title and copy – next is gathering some graphics. Search your own library of photos and your portfolio first, if you don’t have anything then try a free graphics site for photos to include in your blog post. You can try pixabay.com, unsplash.com, picmonkey.com, or picjumbo.com for free photos.

Once you have your title, copy and images you can reread your copy – out loud to make sure you caught all the spelling and grammatical errors and then either hit publish or schedule it to be published at a later date. Once it’s published be sure to share it on all your social media platforms.

When you plan time in your calendar to do these things and to do them consistently it gets easier and easier each week, especially when you know what you want to write about. To further my organization, I assign a topic to each post in my calendar so when I go to write I’m not even looking at my list of topics because I’ve already chosen a topic and placed it in my calendar for that day.

I plan by blog posts out 6-8 weeks in advance to ensure that I’m staying consistent with my posting.

This doesn’t sound so bad does it? If all else fails call me. My virtual design assistants write blog copy and manage social media all the time. We understand that you enjoy creating spaces and we enjoy creating content and a following for our clients.

For more information on our services, please check out the website at www.elitedesignassistants.com.

Happy Writing! Danae

Most Common Pain Points for Interior Designers

I’ve been in the interior design industry for a while and I’m in a lot of different professional groups. Interior designers are amazing at juggling multiple moving parts and taking what could seem like total chaos and putting it together to create an amazing design. They are master puzzle artists is what they are!

Trying to do it all on your own can get a bit overwhelming and that is why I find that a lot of interior designers face the same obstacles, and the number one obstacle is lack of time!

I’m sure you would agree – not only are you trying to work with clients you are trying to work in your business to keep the pipeline full. The adage of market until I get clients, work with clients, and now have to market again to get more clients cycle gets old and frustrating.

When several hundred interior designers were asked about their popular pain points. These were the top 5 that stood out!

1.       Keeping up on social media.

2.       Writing blog posts.

3.       Creating Renders.

4.       Utilizing affiliate links.

5.       Getting a steady stream of clients

Here are some tips to help you with these pain points.

Social media – concentrate on one platform. It’s far less time-consuming regarding posting and engagement if you focus on one medium and get really good at that one. Or you can always use a scheduling tool like Hootsuite, Edgar or Buffer but as a reminder these tools are great for scheduling posts but not for engagement. You’ll need to do that yourself. OR you can hire a social media manager to do it all. This way the social media is off your plate for the most part and you can focus on other areas of your business.

Blog posts – Block time to write several posts at once and then schedule those posts out. Another option is to purchase pre-written posts to use for your blog or hire a copywriter to write posts for you. Depending on the areas of your business that you enjoy focusing on the most, having someone else handle your blog could free up a lot of time from researching and writing.

Creating renders – there are some very quick and easy ways to create renders – more on this coming soon- or I may sound like a broken record but there are design virtual assistants who will do your renders for you!

Utilizing affiliate links – researching, applying, organizing and using affiliate links can me a nightmare. Keep them all in one place on an excel spreadsheet and in your website favorites tab so you can grab them anytime you like. To start, just work with 1-3 vendors that offer commissions of 5-7% and focus on promoting those. If you are wanting to grow more and use a lot of affiliate links it may become very cumbersome and worth hiring a design VA!

Steady stream of clients – we all want a steady stream of client’s don’t we? There are ways to get those by utilizing social media, active campaign, mail chimp and paid ads. The key is consistency and persistency in your posting. These things take time and patience. Use Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups and local networking groups and get your name out there. Make your portfolio visible to your potential clients on all your media platforms. If people don’t know what you do, who you are and how you can help then how to you expect them to find you? A design VA could certainly help you with all of this, too.

If you aren’t able to hire help just yet you can still become successful by managing your time well, getting your work in front of others, practicing great customer service and by being yourself. You are a Rockstar with a creative gift to share the world – so share it!

 For more information on our services, please check out the website at www.elitedesignassistants.com.

How to Get Clients When You Hate Social Media

I know a lot of super smart, motivated people who would love to work from home and/or run their own businesses, but they hate social media. And as most people in business now – if you aren’t on social media, then you don’t exist.

I’ll be honest, I’ve not always been a fan of social media. At times it feels like a huge drain on my time and I have so many other things I need or want to be doing. When I started my company years ago, I knew this about myself and knew I wasn’t going to be one of those people that could spend an eternity on social media platforms posting and networking and connecting so I came up with 3 easy ways to generate leads on social media without falling down the rabbit hole.

1.       Just Pick One Platform! That’s right, when I started my business, I picked one social media platform that I used to generate clients and that’s it. Depending on my schedule, I spent anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes per day, five days a week on that platform and that was it. I researched where my ideal clients hung out and since I work with business professionals – Linked In it was! I built a six-figure business using LinkedIn alone and it has served me well. You need to be diligent in creating connections and building relationships, but it doesn’t have to be super time consuming. Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest are the most popular platforms for Interior Designers.

2.       Use a Social Media Scheduling Tool. There are several social media scheduling tools out there that allow you to add all of your posts and set your schedule. So once a week, once a month, once every couple of months, how often you want to block out some time and go in and write and schedule your posts. Popular social media scheduling tools are Edgar, Buffer, Hootsuite, Tailwind and Sprout Social. Be sure to do your research and comparisons – some of these tools don’t do all platforms and their prices vary per month. Tailwind is very popular among Interior Designers who are on Pinterest and Instagram.

3.       Hire a Social Media Manager. Now that my business is growing and I need to be on more than one platform, I hired a social media manager. There are a few different ways to utilize a manager. You can spend a few hours each month creating a calendar of content and images for your social media manager to post or you can spend even less time giving them a general idea of what you want each month and let them create the content, find the images and post. Either way, hiring a social media manager is a great return on your investment. Their persistent and consistent posting on your social media platforms creates a funnel of leads that will keep your pipeline full as you continue to work on your existing clients. If you are serious about growing your business a social media manager is an excellent option to create the growth you need! And an added benefit of a social media manager is to have them also follow up on your engagement. You can schedule all the posts you want but engagement is key in generating new leads!

When used properly social media can be a very effective tool in growing the business of your dreams. So stop stalling and get your brand out there already … you’d be so happy you did!

Design Metamorphosis

Spring is the season of change and so it’s fitting that my business is going through a bit of a metamorphosis. My focus has changed and therefore my clients have changed. Instead of helping realtors and clients with virtual staging and e-design I will now be helping interior designers build the businesses of their dreams! I am very excited about this new adventure and change in my life. Working in the industry I’ve seen a real need for experienced interior design industry experienced virtual assistants to help busy interior designers grow and maintain their businesses. So when I found myself working with more interior designers and less with design clients I knew I needed to make a change. I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing design VAs and I’m excited to start matching them with interior designers that can use their services.

At Elite Design Assistants we are offering a wide variety of services including:

1. Marketing

2. Social media

3. Blog copy and posting

4. Rendering

5. Client management

6. Vendor management

7. Affiliate management

8. Graphic design

9. Lead funnels

10. Floor planning

11. Virtual staging

12. Mood boards

13. Email blasts

14. SEO

15. Bookkeeping

16. And so much more!

What set’s Elite Design Assistants apart from other virtual assistant firms? We are specific to the interior design industry. We understand all the moving pieces in an interior design business and we understand that deadlines, customer service and professionalism are key.

If you are an interior designer looking for help, please feel free to contact me! I’d love to work with you! I can be reached at danae@elitedesignassistants.com or 515.309.2838. There will be so much more fun things to come!

It’s the season of change and change is good!

Hot New Looks For Less!

2019 is fast approaching and design experts are already talking about the hottest new trends for the upcoming year. You’ll see more color, more comfort and more mixing of design styles and elements that create a truly unique design that reflects the personality of the homeowners and their families.

What I love to do is find those hot items that everyone loves but find them for less! Let’s be honest, decorating your home isn’t always cheap but it doesn’t have to break the bank. Below you’ll find the expensive version of hot items you’ll see in the new year and a similar item that you can buy for less!

Bar carts might just be the hottest new accessory. They are versatile, glamorous and can be used to entertain or to create vignettes.

The bar cart here is $1,298.00 from Serena & Lily

or get one on Overstock for $151.19

We will see changes in furniture this year with the addition off curved sofas, more four-poster beds and acrylic furniture. Acrylic furniture doesn’t appear to take up space and complement a neutral or bold palette.

Shades of Light Coffee Table $1,199.00

Lamps Plus Coffee Table $599.99

Some design experts are saying that matte black will be the new grey. You’ll find matte black on everything from furniture, accessories and pendant lighting.

Matte Black Pendant Light from Rejuvenation $449.00

Matte Black Pendant Light from Build.com $65.90

Bold patterns are going to be on everything from bedding to throw pillows, wall paper and rugs.

5′ x 7’6″ Rug from Payless Rugs $417.60

5′ x 7’6″ Rug from Overstock for $197.37

Along with more bold patterns you’ll see less monochromatic kitchens are more pattern and color in kitchens including cabinets, appliances, darker counter tops and graphic back splashes.

Graphic tile from The Builder Depot $18.45 sq. ft.

Graphic tile from Overstock $9.04 sq. ft.

Just remember, design trends are ever changing but the one thing that’s always in style is exactly what you love. Design your home with the pieces you love and value most. Decorate with what makes you happy and your home will be a place you cherish for years to come!