Marketing Basics for Designers: A Sourcebook of Strategies and Ideas

Business essentials and marketing strategies to help your firmsurvive and thrive . . .

As a design professional running your own small firm, you expect towear many hats--designer, office manager, project manager--all in aday's work. But strategic marketer? No one prepared you for that!Marketing Basics for Designers is a long overdue resource fordesigners who need to become expert marketers fast. It providessolid practical advice on how to market your services, build yourclient base, and keep your customers coming back for more.

You'll learn how to establish your design niche and develop yourown marketing plan to reach potential clients. You'll findtechniques for networking and using your contacts with otherprofessionals. And you'll find inside tips from 30 leadingdesigners who have had to develop their own marketing methods tosurvive. Positively packed with all the details you need, MarketingBasics for Designers helps you ensure your firm's future successand shows you how to:
* Increase your firm's visibility within your community
* Use past successes to generate future business
* Perform beyond your clients' expectations
* Utilize a show home to market your talents
* Establish competitive and appropriate prices
* Work successfully with other professionals
* And much more

If you are recently out on your own, planning to start your ownpractice, or already managing your own small firm, this is one ofthe most important books you will ever add to your professionallibrary.

Marketing Basics for Designers

What makes running a small design practice so much more challengingthan working for one of the big firms? You have to attract your ownclients and keep them, you're working with limited resources andpersonnel, and once you finally pull yourself away from yourdrawing board to concentrate on marketing your services, where doyou begin? You can't just sit there wondering why you didn't learnmore about marketing in design school.

Here's a book to help you out. With a clear, no-nonsense approach,Jane D. Martin and Nancy Knoohuizen address the full range ofmarketing problems and solutions from the unique perspective of thesmall design firm. They understand that you often find yourselfshort of the time, money, and know-how it takes to advertise yourservices effectively. Drawing on their own experience as well asinterviews with more than 30 successful designers, Martin andKnoohuizen show you how to overcome these limitations and developan effective marketing campaign.

This incomparable guide will help you put together your marketingcampaign, map out your strategy, and attract the attention ofpotential clients. Not everyone is a born salesperson, but Martinand Knoohuizen let you in on trade secrets that really work andoffer suggestions that will help you feel more comfortablemarketing yourself. You'll learn to build relationships byeffective use of referrals and word of mouth. You'll master thesubtleties of clinching the deal and discover how to keep yournewfound clients coming back for more.

You'll also receive sound advice from those who have been therebefore you. Charles Gandy, B. J. Peterson, Mark Hampton, and CherylP. Duvall are among the illustrious designers who share theirwisdom, tips, and recommendations. You'll find out how these majordesigners have coped with many of the same problems you face now,and you'll learn from their mistakes as well as theirtriumphs.

Whether you're just starting out in the design business, yearningto break free and become your own boss, or trying to create growthin an established firm, Marketing Basics for Designers helps youdevelop a successful marketing strategy based on your own needs,capabilities, and expectations.

Jane D. Martin, ASID, Allied Member, is a successful interiordesigner with more than 15 years of experience in residential andcommercial practice. She has established her own design firms inBoulder, San Francisco, and Nashville.

Nancy Knoohuizen is a professional researcher and writer withexperience in marketing consulting services and in planning andmarketing with small business start-ups. She provides professionalservices on marketing and practice development.