When you want to scale to a new level – and the old methods aren’t working…
It’s time to do something a little different.
There’s a significant difference between small interior design companies that are happy to just tick over…
… and million dollar plus interior design companies that want to continue their growth to ever higher levels.
Small interior design companies can survive on inefficient marketing strategies. A couple of extra interior design deals here and there is enough to keep them fully busy.
Whereas for bigger companies making meaningful improvements to sales figures becomes increasingly difficult.
For companies that want to scale upwards towards the $10 million per year level the old saying has never been more true:
What got you where you are today won’t get you where you want to be tomorrow
Something has to change. These companies need the kind of customer generation activity that is able to:
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consistently locate and attract homeowners who are intending to replace their interiors
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sort those who are ‘just looking’ from those who are serious about buying
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deliver those lead details to you exclusively so that you’re the only company calling them
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require the lead to book a interiors inspection appointment to show real commitment
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be scalable on demand – turn it on as your capacity expands, turn it off when you’re over-busy
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be trackable so you know where your new orders are coming from
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do all this at lead costs that are up to 80% below the industry average
Now is the time to step up a level.
Takes less than 2 minutes!
Here’s what doesn’t work when you want to scale past $1 million per year revenue
To succeed beyond the $1 million, $5 million and $10 million per year levels – in an industry as competitive as interior design – the standard alternatives become much less viable for you.
You may have tried one or two of these:
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Generic marketing agencies
Most marketing agencies will work with any client in any industry. They will use any platform that the client prefers. They are experts in no industries and they are masters of no platform. Their skills are spread widely and thinly. For start-up firms they can be useful.
But for established firms in competitive industries looking to transform their sales results… they simply lack the depth of insight and knowledge to make that happen.
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Google ads
Google ads can be helpful for specialist, low-competition industries. But they’re notoriously expensive for competitive industries like interior design. The cost-per-click is now sky-high. Yet many ‘clickers’ are just doing some research. They have little or no intention of actually buying this year. You can pay $80 for each wasted click and simply watch your ad budget vanish before your eyes…
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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Writing blog content for the search engines is a long game. We need regular weekly posts for 6 months minimum – but usually a year or more – just for Google to rank us. Again, the keywords are ultra competitive and you’re always trying to catch up with the firms that started before you. And still there’s little assurance you’ll win the customer in the end.
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Lead websites
Angi, Home Advisor, Houzz… Sure, these seem so easy to use. But that’s exactly why every Tom, Dick and Harry uses them. And that’s why that lead that you just paid $150 for has already been called by 5 other interior design companies.
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Radio and TV slots
These channels are untargeted and expensive. They can be useful for brand awareness – getting your name known. But for fresh customers for next month’s sales target? They’re way too unpredictable.
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Door knocking, referrals, billboards, printed mail…
Relatively cheap, they get a sale or two but are difficult to track, very difficult to scale to the levels you aspire to. And they’re impossible to turn into a consistent source of qualified, ready-to-buy customers.
And so on.
What these – and other channels – have in common is that they’re either hard to do, hard to scale or they’re expensive… or all three. And at their best they only produce a person’s contact information – not a booked appointment.
Here’s what does work when you want to scale past $1 million per year revenue.
If you’re in the $1 million to $10 million per year revenue bracket – and you want to grow beyond that – then your marketing approach must be sharper and more focused. Which means:
1. A specialist interior design sales agency
Feel and see the difference of working with an agency like Ad Gage Media that
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is dedicated to a single industry – residential interior designers. We work with nobody else.
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works with interior designers only from your country. We understand your industry and your audience.
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is using the one lead generation platform that strongly outperforms all others in this context
2. Focus on one ads platform that delivers everything for interior design companies
That single most powerful source of new interior design customers is Facebook.
Whether you personally like Facebook or not is not what matters here.
What really matters is that
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Facebook has roughly 3 billion active users – 71% of Americans have an account
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millions of America’s 240 million Facebook users own their homes
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on any given day several thousand of them need a new interiors
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Facebook’s targeting tools means we can hyper-focus interior design ads on those homeowners
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with our approach Facebook ad costs for our clients are some 80% below industry averages
Facebook’s complex but powerful targeting capabilities plus our
relentless focus on the technical of testing, altering and measuring results is the difference that is going to make the difference.
3. Not leads generation but appointments generation
Good quality leads are essential for businesses of all types.
But for interior design companies the one thing that’s better than a good lead… is a booked interior inspection appointment.
Because that’s a customer who has shown real commitment to the purchase of their interiors. Not ‘just looking’ – but ‘ready to buy’.
We create an online calendar with your availability plugged in. And we ask our leads to book their appointment with you using that calendar. You get an email notification of the appointment – and that’s your next interior design deal already half-done.
4. A structured sales process that all your people can operate with confidence
We didn’t start off showing interior designers how to close deals. But time and again interior design clients told us it was a serious commercial problem for them. Not all their staff were confident sales people and their selling method was often just made up on the day.
This is a waste of good appointments.
Working with some of the most savvy US interior design companies we’ve perfected a straightforward sales structure that covers the whole inspection appointment. This process doesn’t hurry – or harass – anyone. The interior designers themselves feel at ease doing it – and the customer doesn’t even realize it’s happening.
The appointment flows naturally from introduction, to inspection, to pricing to asking for the deal.
But it also contains some essential ingredients that so many interior design professionals simply don’t realize are necessary to a successful sale.
Our sales structure reassures the customer that they are in good hands – and helps the interior designers come across as knowledgeable, thorough professionals.
We are securing for you high-grade interior design appointments – we want you to turn them into sales! This short sales training is the key to ensuring that not one potential customer gets away.
5. Everything done off your branding and website
Your campaigns are fully branded using your company name, logos and colors.
So the customers we find for you will know who you are. And they will be expecting your call.
Your branded ads are visible even to people who aren’t currently looking for a new interiors. So they’ll be familiar with you when they are…
6. A fully managed, done-for-you service
You can have as much or as little involvement in our work as you wish.
And our online platform tracks everything we do, shows you every pre-written email or text we’re sending… and even tracks leads from other sources. You can geek out with us…
Or you can let us get on with it and we’ll update you at agreed intervals according to your preferences.