17 Ways to Get Clients as an Interior Decorator

Proper marketing will be critical to your long-term success. After all, you can be the best designer in the world… But if no one knows your business exists, or you aren’t showcasing your skills and/or services effectively, you’ll struggle to find clients as an interior decorator.

If you’re brand-new to the concept of marketing, don’t worry! Yes, you’ll have to do a little leg work and conduct some research so you have a better understanding of best practices. But once you understand it, you’ll actually find that marketing your business can be really fun!

For instance, here are just some of the ways you can choose to market yourself as an interior decorator:

In the world if professional home design, there will be no shortage of local competition. Thus, if you want to know how to get clients as an interior decorator, the key will be to make yourself stand out from the crowd.

This, of course, makes perfect sense. If a prospective client is looking around online for interior decorators in their area, they’re going to be met with a ton of results. In order to increase the chances of them booking with YOU, there’ll need to be something about you and your business that can’t be found anywhere else!

There are countless interior decorating and home design groups on Facebook – and all of these present you with a very unique opportunity to promote your business. Some of these groups may have regular people who’re looking for professional expertise. Others may be more tailored to industry professionals with whom you can network.

Either way, there’s no harm in joining and getting active within these communities!

Google is basically the ultimate powerhouse of online marketing. As such, it’d be a mistake NOT to maximize it to your benefit. And one way you should use Google to help market your business is through their paid advertising.

When you create and invest in a Google ad, you’re drastically increasing the odds of prospective clients coming across your business – especially when conducting searches on Google itself. Your paid ad can be shown above or below Google search results, in the Shopping tab, and even in Google Maps.

Mind you, Google isn’t the only online platform you can turn to for paid advertising. Many of the world’s most popular social media sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, allow you to create paid ads on their platforms, too.

What we love about this option is that you have the flexibility to really narrow down and target who it is you want your ads to be shown to. As a result, you can ensure that your investments are meeting their full potential, since they won’t ever be wasted on those who fall outside of your target demographic.

A lot of what we do takes place online these days, especially as a business owner. Another excellent way to find clients as an interior decorator is to familiarize yourself with SEO (a.k.a. Search Engine Optimization). This way, you can then work hard to ensure that your SEO on the back-end of things is as strong as possible.

Since you’ve taken the time and put in the effort to become a professionally-trained and internationally-certified interior decorator, why not find additional ways to lend your subject-matter expertise? One such way is to start your very own home design blog!

If you want to get clients as an interior decorator, a professional business website will be a MUST! Without one, you’ll be missing out on so many booking opportunities and, quite frankly, it’ll make you look unprofessional.

If you have the budget for it, you can hire a website developer to create a site for you. But if you don’t have the money for this, that’s okay, too! There are all sorts of free website builders and hosts out there with simple, user-friendly templates for you to work off of.

Either way, it’s important to make sure that your website contains the following, pertinent information:

Growing your professional network will not only allow you to potentially collaborate with others in the design industry; it can even lead to them referring interior decorating clients your way!

One type of industry expert you absolutely need to connect with are realtors. Often, they’ll turn to design professionals – such as decorators and home stagers – to elevate the appearance of their clients’ homes before listing them on the market. You can take full advantage of this by becoming their go-to decorator!

Literally everyone uses social media these days. It’s undoubtedly one of the greatest and smartest ways to meet others in the industry and find clients as an interior decorator. We can’t stress enough that over the course of your career, social media will be one of your very best friends.

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube are just a handful of the most popular platforms you can establish a solid presence on.

When setting up your social media accounts, here are some useful tips to keep in mind:

Let’s circle back to the topic of networking for a moment. Home builders are another group of industry professionals you should definitely be getting in touch with. This is especially the case if they’re building model homes!

After all, their goal is to create the ideal home for people to want to buy. The right model home will make the person walking into it immediately think, “This is what I want for me.” And a large part of that won’t just be the architecture of the house itself – but the interior decor and overall set-up as well.

Who doesn’t love a giveaway? Everyone likes getting something for free!

In general, running a giveaway on social media – such as Instagram – is something you can do at any point throughout your career. If done properly, it should always yield a positive response and benefit your business. At the start of your career, however, it can be an especially great way to attract new clients to you and your services.

If you choose to put some money behind your post and boost it, too, then you’ll get even better results. This is because an exponentially larger number of people within your target demographic will be made aware of your giveaway.

The rules for the giveaway are entirely up to you. For example, you could require that in order to be eligible for the giveaway, a person must follow your Instagram account. You could also have a post or IG Story that they’ll be required to share on their own page. Or you could simply allow anyone to enter, with no strings attached.

Notice how we keep coming back to the importance of networking? There’s a clear reason for this, and it’s obviously because it’s such an effective and business-savvy marketing tool!

There may very well be local meetups for home designers and interior decorators in your town or city. So, do a little digging online and see if you can find any. If there are, be proactive and go attend them.

And if there are none? Why not organize one yourself!

Getting your business listed in local directories will help strengthen your SEO and absolutely better your chances of getting more interior decorating clients. Essentially, it means that whenever people in your local area are searching for interior decorators, your business will have more exposure and additional ways of being promoted to them as a reputable service.

Popular examples of local directories include (but aren’t limited to):

Another popular option that can help you both gain in-field experience and find interior decorating clients is to reach out to people you know personally. For instance, do you have a friend who’s been wanting to give their home (or a specific room) a makeover? What about a family member who’s just moved into a new place?

YOU can assist them!

By maximizing your personal network and connections, you’ll be able to acquire the materials needs (such as photos and success stories) to develop your professional design portfolio. Plus, your friends and family can give you positive feedback that can then be added to the testimonials page on your website and social media posts.

And just as importantly, they can help spread word about your decorating business by recommending you to people they know!

Acquiring new clients is obviously important as a business owner. But keeping those clients and potentially working with them again down the road is just as important, too!

Studies have even shown that repeat customers can often, in fact, be even more beneficial to your bottom line. In this article published by LinkedIn, they list the following reasons for this:

1. Repeat customers can spend upwards of 67% MORE than new customers. Furthermore, more than 50% of small business’ annual revenues tend to come from repeat customers.
2. They’re also known for spending more during holiday seasons.
3. Return clients are easier to sell to, with a 65% chance of converting (compared to 13% with new prospects).
4. It costs more (5x more, to be more specific) to acquire brand-new clients than it does to bring a past client back.
5. Satisfied clients are likely to promote your business, which can help you obtain new clients at a reduced cost.

Of course, as we’ve mentioned, it’s still super important to pay attention to new clients as well. After all, getting their foot in the proverbial door is often the biggest challenge. Once they’re in there and they see how awesome of an interior decorator you are, it’ll be a lot easier to convince them to book with you.

So, why not entice them by offering them some sort of financial perk? For example, first-time customers can get a certain percentage off their first project with you.

Alternately, if you offer additional design services (i.e., color consulting, home staging, professional organizing, landscape design, etc.), the special offer could always be that they’d pay full price for your decorating services, but then get any of these other design services at 50% off. Or something to that effect.

People like to save their pennies – that’s just a fact. If they’re trying to choose between you and another interior decorator, and you’re offering the same high-quality services for a slightly cheaper price, guess what?

According to Pure360, email marketing is often cited as “one of, if not the marketing channel that consistently delivers the highest ROI” (return on investment). An email campaign is a sequence of marketing messages, mindfully coordinated and sent to targeted people for a specific purpose. When executed correctly, at some point during the sequence, it should result in a lead converting to a sale.

Thus, it’s one of the single greatest ways to find clients as an interior decorator!

Being a part of a stylized photoshoot has many benefits. For starters, you’ll get to collaborate with other professionals, which will help you grow your network. Not to mention, these are all people who could wind up referring you to others.

Secondly, styled shoots provide you with the opportunity to put your knowledge to use and gain real-world experience. Yes, it’ll be a different experience than completing a project from start to finish with a paying client. But it’s experience all the same – and as an interior decorator, no experience is bad experience!

Thirdly, although you more than likely won’t get paid for the stylized photoshoot, you will probably get high-quality, professional images of your decorating work. This is exactly the type of material you want – and NEED – for your design portfolio.

Which of these 17 tips do YOU find the most helpful? Do you have any others to add to this list?