How to Start an Email List for Your Design, Staging, or Organizing Business
"How can I get consistent, high-quality leads for my design firm?"
This question popped up in my inbox recently. It's one I've been asked many times over the past few years, and it's one that every entrepreneur in the home industry should be asking. We all know we can't rely on word-of-mouth referrals forever, and I'd wager to say that most of us know social media isn't going to directly grow our businesses either.
Social media by itself is not a pipeline, nor is it a sales funnel. You don't own your social audience, but you do own your mailing list. Which means there's hope! Email addresses are the currency for your interior design, staging, organizing, or workroom business. Don't rely on your social media followers to bring you new projects.
If you don't have an email list, but you know that you should be using email marketing to bolster your home industry business, you might feel defeated or stuck before you even begin. I'm sharing the exact steps to take if you want to get your first handful of email subscribers, whether you've been in business for years or just launched.
How to Start Your Design, Staging, or Organizing Email List from Scratch
Have you ever taken a ride on the over-thinking merry-go-round? You are told that you need to send email newsletters or do some form of email marketing, but you have no one to send said emails to...so you don't do anything except constantly stress about it.
Frustrating, right? You might have a beautiful website with on-brand copywriting. You might have a perfectly curated Instagram feed and a well-honed Pinterest account. Each of these pieces is intrinsically valuable to your marketing, but none of them accomplish personal connection quite like an email directly from you.
Before I dive into how you can get more email subscribers, I need to establish some ground rules:
If you've served clients in the past or if you were contacted by leads who didn't hire you for whatever reason, you need to put those people on your mailing list. Start a spreadsheet and start gathering their emails.
If you aren't automatically saving the information of people who complete the contact form on your website, you need to start. Squarespace websites will let you ask these people for permission within the contact form, and then automatically add those people to Mailchimp or simply save them in a Google sheet. If you use WordPress, check into how your contact form plugin, gets this permission and how saves or transfers data.
If you purchased an email list or harvested business cards at various events, you can't use any of those contacts. You can only add people to your mailing list if they’ve given permission.
If your mailing list largely contains friends and family right now, don't feel bad. Those people can be great referral sources. Who knows, they might forward your newsletter to your next favorite client!
How to Get People to Sign Up for Your Newsletter
The first step, ironically, is to not use the phrase, "Sign up for my newsletter." That invitation is about as interesting as inviting your neighbor to watch the grass grow. Instead, think about what your ideal client would find valuable. What would draw the right leads to you like a magnet? (Yep, that's why we refer to this step as the "lead magnet.")
Lead Magnet Topic Ideas
You don't need to have more than one lead magnet, but if you feel the need to have more than one, go for it. Avoid using cheapskate lead magnets such as offering a free call or offering a discount. Discounts will hurt your brand unless of course, you are offering a promo code for your (physical product) online store. In that situation, discounts can make sense. In all other situations, offering a discount or a free consultation will successfully attract bargain hunters rather than appealing to the clients who would actually value your services.
Lead magnets can take on various formats. Choose the one that makes the most sense for your client and is also the easiest for you to create. Video and PDF are the two most popular. If you work with the DIY market, you could also offer a Buzzfeed style quiz, but I don't recommend using quizzes as lead magnets if you are targeting high-end homeowners.
Lead Magnet Idea #1
Create a guide on how your design, staging, or organizing process works, especially if you work with people who like to do heavy research or who tend to have larger budgets. This type of lead magnet works well as a PDF and would also work well as a 3-5 minute video. Simply create the video and the PDF, then ask your visitors to opt-in if they'd like to see your inside process.
Lead Magnet Idea #2
Create a pricing or budget guide. A budget guide is ideal for clients with smaller budgets, those who plan to do their project in phases, are saving up, or those who love to plan as much as possible beforehand. This type of lead magnet works best as a downloadable PDF in eBook or magazine format.
Once you've created your lead magnet, you can't just let it sit on your website and hope the right people find it. Create several graphics for each lead magnet and post them in the following places:
Instagram or Facebook (if you use it - we don’t!)
Pinterest (definite must for SEO value, as Pinterest is a search engine rather than a social platform)
Google Business listing
How to Publicize Your Lead Magnet & Grow Your List
To further enhance your lead magnet's reach, create a blog post around that same topic, then end the post with a link to your lead magnet, allowing your readers to opt-in for the deeper information your lead magnet provides. That blog post can also be shared in all the places I listed above, as long as your ideal client is using those platforms.
If you can step outside your comfort zone once or twice a month, create a 3-minute video that aligns with your lead magnet (even if your magnet is a video, too), and end that video with a call-to-action that directs people to your lead magnet. These mini-videos can be posted on your IG feed and in stories. You could also share it on Pinterest.
In short, do at least one of these twice per month:
Blog about something relevant to both your ideal client and your business
Pin your lead magnet to Pinterest, as well as any ongoing blog posts
Share your lead magnet on social media
Create a mini video around a topic that ties in with your lead magnet, then pitch your lead magnet at the end
Email lists don't grow by themselves. If you have a lead magnet that isn't generating any sign-ups, make sure you are diligently promoting it and that it is easily visible on your website. Rather than using a pop-up, place it on your homepage above the fold (where it can be seen without scrolling).
If you've done all these things with no significant email sign-ups, you might need to reassess whether the design, topic, and format of your lead magnet are truly aligned with your ideal clients' deepest needs. To all the Socialite Vault members who are reading right now, I consult with many of you on topics just like this. If you're struggling in this area, book a consult with me or send me an email.
Member-only tip: If you love the graphic design of our magazine lead magnets but need different verbiage, copy/paste anything you like from the vast newsletters that are available to you within the Vault membership. Compile your own completely unique lead magnet without needing to hire a graphic designer or a copywriter. This little hack has helped more than a few members. ;)
To all the future Vault members, please know that email marketing is the most important form of marketing you can do for your business. It is the last step in the sales funnel, one that many entrepreneurs forget. Stay two steps ahead of your industry by starting and growing your mailing list - and be consistent with your emails. Once or twice a month is a perfect balance.
Resources
Here are several online tools for email marketing:
Canva for creating all your graphics and PDFs
Smart Mockups for creating real-life renderings of your eBook or magazine
Vault for email newsletters that you can customize and send, as well as pre-designed magazines for Canva
