Houzz.com Trains Potomac Design Guild Members.

Members of the Potomac Design Guild hard at work learning about Houzz.com

Today the Guild hosted a training session with Houzz at the Salvations Architecual Furnishings Studio in Silver Spring Maryland. Houzz sent in a training specialist from their California Headquarters to give a group of non-computer savvy interior design professionals a better understanding on how to use all the services they provide.

While interior design professional pages on Houzz are free of charge, the question was do free pages get you as much attention as you would if you had a ProPlus page? ProPlus from Houzz is priced based on your location and specialty, and is where you pay Houzz to help promote your business. We learned some simple tips to attract customers to your free site.

A photo of you, gives your business
a personal touch.

A Complete Profile on your business, be as descriptive as possible, and use photos. Especially a photo of yourself. You want to give a personality to your business, make it stand out. Describe your photos in vivid detail, and describe what you do in your business, as well as the areas you are an expert in and what locations you serve.

Photos, use large resolution photographs, they do not always have to be professional shots, you can use high quality camera images, even phone camera shots. The key is the better the photo, the better the it will look on your page. Describe in detail with written words your photos, as the internet can not see them, the written words is how your photos will be able to show up in search results, when consumers search for items. The Houzz site does not allow for downloading, thus stealing your photos. This has been a concern to many of our members.

Activity on your Houzz Page. Make sure you spend time on your page each week, Don't Set it and Forget It!  it is the activity that you put in to the page, which will help your business page show up in more search results. If Houzz does not see you are actively maintaining your page, and someone else is, with theirs, they will feature the page with the more activity.

Participate in Houzz.com Discussion Boards. Doing so from your professional page logon, identifies you as a pro, also known today as "inbound marketing" and will be some of the best pro-active marketing you can do. You will be identified as a professional, and consumers will see you have the expertise they are looking for.

Customer reviews are key to promoting your business.

Ask customers to give you a review. Houzz has a page where you can request a review from your customers. Get in the habit of requesting your customers to give a review after a job. Not just those customers that found you on Houzz, all of your customers. Nothing says more about your business than a positive review of your work from clients.

If your interior design business does not have its own website, Houzz offers a free site designer with a number of templates, right from your page. You can even point your domain name to it. By having a Houzz based website, you do not have to update both your separate website and your Houzz page each time you have new content.

Antiques can be promoted
by using photos of vignettes.

There is a Houzz Marketplace, while it is not set up for antiques, which several of our Guild members sell. The best way to use Houzz for promoting your antique business is to populate your page with photos of rooms or vignettes filled with the antiques you have for sale. Describe the pieces and let viewers know they can get that piece from you in the description.

Lots of great information was explained today about how to use the organic (free) interior design professional pages. Thanks to everyone who attended, and to Houzz.com for sending a trainer to Washington DC to educate the Guild.

Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral - Founder's Winter Meeting

A wonderful floral arrangement by Ron Shake and items
From Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral welcomed the Guild

Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral hosted the first Guild meeting in McLean VA on Wednesday March 2. Thus called the Founder's Meeting. Winter weather precluded the group from meeting in January and February, a bright March day provided the spring energy that everyone was ready for to help develop better marketing for their business.

In attendance, our host, Ron from Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral, Ali, who represented the interior design consumer, providing insight into what today's professional woman, mother of teenagers is looking for when consuming interior design products and services. Jacky, a floral artist of Wildflower, who is working out of the Mosaic District in Fairfax; Marilyn of Cherishables Antiques, a purveyor of American Antiques, William of WWH Restoration, an art and furniture installer, and Vicky of the The Mummy Cronicles, a lifestyle blogging Mom and interior design consumer.

Vicky and Ron discuss Asian Antiques

After a very lively and interactive introduction session where everyone spoke about why they joined the group. The discussion focused on each member's digital marketing, or lack of. Talking about, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Eatsy, eBay, OfferUP, Houzz, Tumbler, SnapChat, as well as blogging as a way to promote your business.

Jacky spoke of how photos on her Instagram account wildfloweratmosaic brings her customers due to the visual nature of her work. This began a session of connecting guild member's Instagram Accounts. Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral, The Mummy Chronicles. Several posts on  William's Instagram, ended up getting local McLean business attention and likes for posts of the event. A discussion on how important it is rely on social media accounts of businesses you like and admire to develop your own social media followers.

Ali spoke as a consumer, that she shops online and how important an internet presence is to her as a consumer. Vicky spoke of  how her career in the defense industry led her to be a lifestyle blogger and how she as a consumer is frustrated by the lack of return communication from the designer service and product providers, especially on Houzz. Ron and Marilyn both professed computer illiteracy, while they have great creative skills, building websites, remembering passwords and using apps and online sites eludes them.

Poor digital marketing says this!

Everyone used their phones to look up each other's social media accounts and websites, looking at design projects, products, and finding out the meaning of pop-culture terms like SteamPunk. also discussing how important it is for websites be compatible with all formats, especially mobile in today's handheld digital world. If your business is not online visitors will think you are no longer in business.

Jacky talks about how Silver Linings
Have a SteamPunk energy.

How to promote two unique lines, that are only available through two guild members prompted a lengthy conversation about being knocked off for your original ideas. Marilyn spoke of Lord & Taylor blatantly knocking off her laser cut, hand painted Cherishables Christmas Ornaments, after a major magazine featured them. Ron shared the same concern about his Silver Linings, a unique decor element designed to remind you as you go about your day, to go and find your joy of life, and look for the silver linings in every experience.

A collection of Asian Antiques from
Beyond Asian Antiques & Floral

A general discussion was held to plan future Potomac Design Guild meetings, and membership. It was decided that members must come at the introduction from the founders, and be there to to support all guild members. Two meeting would be held between now and May, when a team from Houzz corporate, the home design promotion website would come to the Guild and teach a course on how service and product providers can benefit from their site.

A discussion of how simple stools
have personality.

We discussed growing the group from the initial invitees, some of whom were unable to attend, but will be invited to attend the next meeting, and who to invite to the limited seating opportunity for the Houzz training in May.

The next Guild meeting will be hosted by Cherishables Antiques in Bethesda Maryland, a number of options for the location for the Houzz training was discussed and will be announced at the next meeting.

Thank you to Ron for hosting, and for all those who persisted after the weather delay of previous meeting for attending.

                       -  William West Hopper