Marketing Your Kitchen Design Business

There are many ways to market your Kitchen Design Business, and successful designers will develop an overall strategy for their marketing plan.

The goal of marketing is to attract new clients to your business, and a good way to do this is to differentiate yourself from the competition.

The purpose of this article is not to develop a marketing strategy for your kitchen design business but to show you an example of an element you should add to it.

One of the unique skills that Kitchen Designers have is the ability to transform homeowner’s spaces. Highlighting before and after images in your marketing is a great way to convey this.

Studies have shown that consumers are drawn to this type of imaging. Magazines, TV shows and blogs often feature Before & After images because they know it resonates with their subscribers, viewers, and followers.

Before & After imaging is a great way to present what you do as a Kitchen Designer.

Consumers have also become more visual in recent years with Houzz, Pinterest and Instagram becoming part of the design process.

Consumers expect and want to see transformational images.

My suggestion is to take the Before & After concept one step further.

I have found the following technique to be successful in doing this.

Take your Before & Afters to the next level with my technique called: DESIGN YOU CAN SEE

DESIGN YOU CAN SEE, adds 3-D computer renderings of the space into the mix.

Many kitchen design firms and independent designers use some type of computer aided design software in their practice, so use this tool to take your Before & Afters to the next level.

Let me show you how!

If you already take before and after pictures of your projects, you will have some images to get started with. The key is pairing up images that are taken from the same or similar angle.

Start by looking at all the before pictures that you have of a project.

I’ll use this kitchen as an example:

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Next, pair up the before shots with your after shots from a similar angle.

Like this:

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These images would be great on their own but this next step is key to differentiating your design expertise. Produce renderings of the New Kitchen Design from the same angle as these images.

Like this:

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You may already have these images in your files if you presented 3-D renderings to the client during the design process. If not, you will need to produce the renderings or modify your existing renderings to replicate the finished kitchen.

When you put the images together in a sequence you are showing your prospect that you really do transform spaces.

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You are also giving clients the confidence to work with you because they see you will enable them to visualize their project before the kitchen renovation begins. This will alleviate any fears of moving forward a client may have with your proposed Kitchen Design.

This is DESIGN YOUR CLIENT CAN SEE!

The rendering becomes a key component because you are showing the prospect that you can provide an “after” before the project begins.

Your marketing of DESIGN YOU CAN SEE proves your expertise!

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Once you get into the habit of photographing your projects this way and producing renderings for your clients based on angles of the before pictures, you will be able to build a portfolio of “DESIGN YOU CAN SEE” presentations.

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Incorporate your “DESIGN YOU CAN SEE” Images throughout your Marketing Strategy

Here are some ways that you can use these images:

• On your website portfolio page
• Within your blog posts
• Included in your in-person client presentations
• As part of your printed literature
• On your social media feeds
• Along side your mood boards
• Inside your email campaigns
• Featured in your Home Show booth
• Throughout your Showroom

With the variety of programs on the market you could also combine your Before, Rendering and After into a “movie” to show the transformation you can achieve with your design abilities.

To produce this video I inserted the images in sequence on a PowerPoint slide, animated the slide and then exported it as a video. This is an example of how you could achieve this, but experiment with other programs you may be familiar with to see how you could get a similar look.

I would love to see your examples of DESIGN YOU CAN SEE. Please post them in the comments below or send me a personal note with your design example. It would be great to share all of your beautiful transformations.