How To Make The Best Interior Designer Websites
I think the perfect website experience involves evoking emotion and telling you a story. Your website needs to fight to keep your dream client hanging out. If it isn't doing that, you've got yourself a problem.
Antique Booths Can Teach Us About Website Experience
I love to go to the large antique warehouses where there are tons of different dealer booths where you can spend a couple of hours. I love it when I find the booths that wrap their arms around my mind allowing me to have an experience. Creating a website experience is something you need to be doing with your dream clients to get them to fall in love with you. I'm going to walk you through my experience as a shopper to show you how you want your dream clients to feel when they get to your website.
I love to go out antiquing. The biggest reason isn't that I think I will find some long lost treasure, but because of the moment, I will experience in the booths. A completely unique moment each time.
Antiques represent something true. Something that has a past was a part of a story and now it could be your turn to be a part of that story and take it in a new adventure. Imagine a new life for it.
How Antique Booths Create a Moment
You step into the booth and while most booths all have that same “old” smell it allows you to dream from your point of view with no preconceived notions since everything smells the same. You come into the space and see the big piece antiques and then all the smalls (as they call them, the chotchkies). Each piece is a truly great space builds upon the other to create a complete story that you get to narrate.
It's All About The Client
You see the story isn’t about the antique dealer as much as it’s about you, their client. It's about what you want to do with the items they are selling. How these pieces are put together in such a wonderful way that you can’t help but want to buy something from them. Even if you don’t need the showpiece of their booth, you want to buy the bookends because they speak to you, where you are... and you also want to show them a token of your appreciation. They gave you a moment of inspiration in their space.
You feel safe in their space and can imagine a few scenarios piecing together different facts that speak to you. And each thing you piece together could work. It’s not like you only have one option at a storyline, you could take the story in many directions and you appreciate being able the freedom.
Antique Booth or Website Both Create Moments To Get Lost
You see whether it is a website or an antique booth, both of them are telling you a story or at least allowing you to get lost and tell your story in their space. You are free to feel the story and give it a new life with you. Those are the best spaces. You need your website to inspire your clients in the same way. When they come to your website do they start to picture what it would be like to work with you in a good way or are you making it hard for them to say "yes"?
Ideas to take action on:
Have a friend review your website and ask them if they know immediately that you’re an interior designer and can they figure out how to work with you. Get their feedback and make the changes they suggest. (Listen they don’t need to be a pro to be able to help you find something that you’ve overlooked for a while because you look at your website all.the.time.)
Does your website reflect who you are? You’re your business, you shouldn’t be hiding behind a logo. People work with people and that’s why your website needs to reflect who you are. If it doesn’t, decide what isn’t you and change it.
What’s the main goal of your website? If you ask me, it’s should be about getting visitors email addresses. Having a “brochure site” is kinda a waste of money. Why in the hell would you spend over a hundred dollars a year to have something on the web that doesn’t work for you? If you don’t have an email opt-in, get one. If you do, make sure it’s near the top of your website.
If your website is turning off clients, and you’re really serious about making your website work for you, why not create a beautiful website in a weekend with Squarespace?
Hola! I'm Alycia Wicker and I help online interior designers grow their business.
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