This is a question that pops up time and time again in Facebook groups and events for interior designers. And while there isn’t an easy answer to this question, as there are so many variables involved in an individual business, there ARE some tools that can help get you there. As with anything, it’s about working smarter, not harder – and here are some tools that live that mantra – and will help you grow your business if used properly.
One of the most popular graphic design tool available, Canva has an amazing free plan that doesn’t limit you as much as other free plans out there, and has an extremely affordable paid plan. Canva is great for anything visual, including social posts, business cards, invitations, and so so much more!
They have really great templates, which is great when you have no idea what you want to create, or need a source of inspiration. They also have a number of presets for different types of media (like a Facebook cover photo, or a postcard), so you never really have to worry about if you’re using the right dimensions.
Free Plan: Access to 250,000+ templates, thousands of free photos and graphics, the ability to add team members, and 5gb of storage.
Paid Plan: $12.99 a month per team member. Everything that free has plus access to 610,000+ templates, 100+ million photos and graphics, 100gb of storage, and access to their premium set of tools including a photo background remover, magic resizer, the ability to save designs as templates for your team, and the ability to schedule your designs as content on social media.
Hopper is a great tool to manage your Instagram account and schedule posts to automatically post them! It also allows you to post the first comment (which is ideal for hashtags!) And while there is no free plan, it is still a really affordable option!
One really great thing about Hopper is that it’s great for creating a media library where you can just dump stuff in to post later, or if you see something cool you want to save for a future post. Their analytics section is also amazing, you can see how many new followers you acquired, impressions, reach, profile views, website clicks, and email clicks. You can also see active times for your followers which is great for planning posts!
Their pricing is pretty simple, at $19/ month for one account across four platforms (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). If you bill annually, they’ll also give you an additional 15% off! They also have a free 14-day trial without any limitations, which is great for seeing if it’s a good fit for you.
GetResponse is a fantastic marketing automation tool. If you’re asking yourself “What is Marketing Automation and how will it grow my business?” then picture this.
You visit an online store and are about to leave the website without buying anything. Suddenly, a popup appears saying “Leaving so soon? Here is a coupon for 25% off your next purchase!” You enter your email and receive an email with the coupon. You visit the website again and find something you like and add it to your cart, but then decide not to buy it and leave. You then receive an email saying “don’t forget about this item in your cart, here’s another coupon!”
That is marketing automation. Automating communication and engagement with your audience without having to lift a finger. You may not have an online shop, but this can apply to any business (and maybe you have some design services packages people can buy straight from your website!) GetResponse is great tool for this because it’s an all-in-one solution for email marketing, workflows and automation (like the above example), a CRM for your deals and contacts, landing pages, autoresponder emails. and a lot more!
It has great templates, so you don’t have to always start from scratch and it is very easy to use! Choose a template, enter your own content, and send it off. Another powerful feature is the forms section. This is where you can build popups (they have tons of templates!) for your website. They are super simple to make and even easier to add to your website.
GetResponse has a few different plans, but their basic plan starts at just $12.30 per month, and gives you access to everything we’ve talked about, with a limit of 1,000 contacts. They also have a free account available with a limit of 500 contacts and more limited access to their suite of tools.
The best part? The three tools we’ve discussed can all be used together to get that business growth that we’re after!
