10 Ways to Grow Your Home Staging Business Today

1. Follow Up With Your Past Clients

Your past clients should be the easiest sell, since they already know your work and know what kind of home staging service you can deliver.

BUT, clients are busy and can be forgetful. They need us to remind them of our existence. If you haven’t been in contact with your past clients for awhile, reach out and update them on your new projects, news, events, etc. You never know where the next job or next referral will come from. Often times when I am looking for the next project, I would send a newsletter out. Clients would call because they remember they have a project coming up.

2. Always Ask for Referrals

While following up with your past clients, or wrapping things up with your current clients, don’t be shy about asking for referrals from them. Don’t just ask “Hey, can you refer me for future business?” Be more specific. Ask something like:

     “Do you know someone who would benefit from my services?”
     “Are there anybody in your office who may need home staging services?”
     “Can you make an introduction for me with so and so? I would love to work with him/her.”

3. Tune Up Your Website

Your website is not just a place to showcase your portfolio, but it is an important selling tool in your business. It is on 24/7, even when you are asleep. So check it periodically and make sure that your website shows well, is easy to navigate and easy to browse. If you haven’t done so, sign up for Google Analytics (it is FREE!) and see how your website is performing. 

Regular updates on your website will also help to boost your SEO.

4. Build Your SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
by Blogging

The whole point of having a website to be found online. Your website is a lead generation tool, so it is important to learn how to be found on the internet by potential customers.

When you update your website periodically to keep it fresh and relevant, it will also boost your search engine rankings. This is why blogging is an easy and great way to build backlinks (when someone links to your site), build authority and boost SEO rankings, while educating potential clients.

Not to mention when you are blogging about your home staging work, you will naturally fill the website with search-engine friendly keywords for your niche.

See also: Blogging for Real Estate with Top Blogger and Agent Mary Pope-Handy | The Home Staging Show S7.7

5. Check Up On Your Marketing Plan

Successful marketing takes consistency and strategies. You cannot try one marketing tactic once and then give up, you will not accumulate enough data to make educated decisions on if what you are doing is really working.

To get the word out about your business, leverage free tools like social media, email newsletters, handwritten notes, face to face visits, etc. You can also look at advertising to get your brand out in the marketplace.

See also: 50 Income Producing Activities for Home Stagers

6. Are Your Target Audiences and Service Offerings Clear?

Who is your ideal customer and what problems are you solving for them? What are their needs? What kind of stager are they looking for? You need to do market research and look at your client base to see if you understand who is your ideal client. Once you understand your target buyers, you will be able to identify their pain points much quicker and easier. Then you can tailor your service offerings to fit their specific needs.

See also: Create Winning Marketing Strategies with Fred Berns | The Home Staging Show S7.1

7. Are You Pricing Yourself Out of Business?

Pricing can seem very tricky to do, but it is not rocket science. You need to learn the costs of running your business and work out how much money you will need to make to break even. By knowing your bottom line, you can easily say no to jobs that can become profit vampires. By understanding and knowing your numbers, you will be able to see the big picture of how to grow your business.

See also: Pricing Your Job for Profits and Boost Your Cash Flow with Denise O’Berry | The Home Staging Show S7.9 and Pricing Your Home Staging Jobs with Pam Christensen | The Home Staging Show S7.8

8. Get Off the Couch and Get Yourself Out There

You will never meet anyone or get any work just by sitting at home watching Ellen. While it is important to leverage social media and putting your work out there, it will never replace face to face time, especially in an industry like real estate.

It is a people business after all. People want to do business with people they like. So go out there and start going to networking events, meet agents, meet brokers, meet influencers and get your company out there.

9. Be Your Own Publicist

You have to learn how to toot your own horn and create opportunities for your brand and name to be out there. One of the best ways to get credibility is to get press.

It is not as difficult or expensive as you may imagine. You can respond to press inquiries, like HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and provide helpful home selling tips. You can pitch to podcasters to get interviewed. You can also publish your own tips and ideas through your own blog and social media. Technology has made our lives much easier nowadays to reach our potential customers.

10. Advertise

When I first started building my home staging business, it was very popular to sell homes on Craig’s List. So I knew a lot of agents would be hanging out on Craig’s List looking for leads.

I started to publicize my business through free ads on Craig’s List and started getting clients that way. This may not work today, but the idea is similar.

You can leverage platform like Google and Facebook to find your target markets for free. W
hile both Google and Facebook charge for advertising, there are many ways to get information about your target audience for free. You can use these platforms to source helpful keywords for SEO purpose and learn more about your demographics.

You can also list yourself on directories like Yelp, Houzz, etc. where sellers and agents will look for local stagers at. You can create a Facebook page as well, this is all free advertising for your business.

If you want to go with paid advertising, it can generate significant ROI for you. But this is something you need to make sure you are comfortable with in terms of budget and hire the right professionals to help you guide through the process.