The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Killer Portfolio for Your DecoratOR Marketing.
As a decorator, your portfolio is one of the most important tools you have to showcase your work and attract new clients.
Real talk.
A well-put-together portfolio can help you stand out from the competition and demonstrate your skills, creativity, and attention to detail.
As they say.
A picture is worth 1000 words.
A whole library’s worth when it comes to Decorators.
In this guide, we'll walk you through the steps to create a killer portfolio that will impress potential clients and help grow your decorating business.
Fast.
Let’s dive in.
1. Decorator Marketing IDEAS: Gather your best work for your portfolio.
When it comes to creating a killer portfolio for your decorating business, the first step is to gather your best work.
This is the foundation of your portfolio and will be the primary way you showcase your skills and expertise to potential clients.
To begin.
Start by compiling a list of all the projects you've worked on in the past.
This could include anything from complete home makeovers to smaller, one-room projects.
Once you have a list, go through each project, and choose the ones that you are most proud of and that best showcase your decorating skills.
When selecting projects to include in your portfolio, try to choose a variety of different styles and types of spaces.
This will demonstrate how versatile you are, the quality of your workmanship and show potential clients that you are capable of working on a wide range of projects.
In addition to finished projects, be sure to include before-and-after photos in your portfolio.
These are powerful visual representations of your skills and will help potential clients see the transformation you are capable of creating in a space.
Before and after photos really give your decorator portfolio the way factor to your clients (even if you don’t find them that impressive anymore because you’ve become immune to your own epic work!).
If you're just starting out in your decorating business and don't have many projects to include in your portfolio…
Don't stress.
Consider offering your services to friends and family members in exchange for permission to take photos and videos as part of your portfolio.
This will give you the opportunity to showcase your skills and build a strong portfolio from the beginning.
We all start from somewhere.
The key to gathering your best work for your decorator’s portfolio is to choose projects that showcase your skills, demonstrate your versatility, and tell a compelling story.
Then you'll be well on your way to creating a killer portfolio that will help you attract new decorating clients and build that successful decorating business you’re grafting so hard for.
2. Decorator Marketing IDEAS: Organise your portfolio.
Organise Your Portfolio.
Because no one likes a mess!
Once you've gathered your best work, it's time to organize it in a way that makes sense and doesn't leave potential clients scratching their heads in confusion.
Imagine your portfolio is like your own home.
You wouldn't want your living room to look like a bombsite, right?
Organise your portfolio like the pro decorator you are!
First things first.
Create categories.
Like you're organising your wardrobe.
Because we know you keep an organised wardrobe. 😏
For example.
You might have categories like ‘Living Rooms,’ ‘Kitchens,’ ‘Bathrooms,’ ‘Bedrooms,’ and ‘Outdoor Spaces.’
This will make it easier for potential clients to find the specific type of work they are interested in.
Now we're talking!
💡 WEBSITE IDEA.
You can have separate pages on your website for each specific category complete with its own album.
💡 SOCIAL MEDIA IDEA.
To help highlight the photos of your work...
You could set up albums on your Facebook business page specific to each service to organise your portfolio.
Or set up highlights on your Instagram page for each of your decorating categories.
Why is organising your portfolio important?
Because we, your clients, need it made quick and easy for us to find what we’re looking for.
If we can’t, we’ll be leaving your decorator website or social platforms and popping onto your competitor’s pages - where it has been organised for us.
Another plus of organising?
When your Ideal Clients enquire with you about a job, you can send them links along with your quotes for them to view photos and testimonials for the exact kind of job they are after from you… i.e. Kitchen decorating, bathroom decorating etc.
Showcase your unique style and specialties.
But also make sure to show your versatility by including a variety of projects that showcase your decorating superpowers.
Magic.
3. Decorator Marketing IDEAS: Tell the story.
As well as balancing your portfolio, it's important to tell the story behind each project.
Potential Ideal Clients want to know the story behind the beautiful spaces you've created.
And the creative process that went into them.
If they can find out as much about your services and HOW you operate you stand a much better chance of winning the job in the first place.
So, don't be afraid to share your decorating journey!
When choosing the decorating projects to include in your portfolio, be sure to include a brief description or caption that explains the design concept, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them.
On a website, this might be a paragraph or 2 of text on the page.
On social media, this will be some text in the caption of the post.
This can help potential clients understand your design process and approach and make them feel more confident in your abilities.
For example.
Highlighting the challenges, you faced and how you resolved them can showcase your problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
Also.
Consider including behind-the-scenes photos or sketches (could be from the developers or interior designers that you might be working with) to help tell the story of each project.
This can help potential clients understand the creative process and give them a deeper appreciation for your work.
Remember.
Telling the story behind each project can help potential Ideal Clients understand your design style and approach.
And make them feel more connected to your work if you are showing similar projects that they are after, because you’ve done your Ideal Client homework.
So.
Take the time to craft thoughtful and engaging project descriptions and consider including behind-the-scenes photos or sketches to help us understand your processes.
4. Decorator Marketing IDEAS: Consider the presentation and quality of your decorator portfolio.
The presentation of your decorating portfolio is just as important as the quality of your work.
That age old saying.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
You want your decorating portfolio to look professional, polished, and visually appealing to potential Ideal Clients.
You want your portfolio to showcase your work in the best possible light.
Incorporating high-quality photos of your work is a MUST to the presentation of your portfolio.
Make sure the photos are…
✅ Well-lit, in-focus
✅ Accurately represent the true colours
✅ Accurately represent details of the space.
If you aren’t at the stage where you can hire a professional photographer to snap your projects yet, be sure your camera phone quality is top notch,
And time your time getting the shots.
Don’t rush it.
Poor-quality or blurry photos can detract from the quality of your work and give potential clients a negative impression.
Done really badly, it can make your workmanship look very poor.
Photos are one of your most powerful tools.
The presentation of your portfolio should be professional, polished, and designed to showcase your work in the best possible light.
Take the time to choose a layout that works well for your portfolio, carefully select the order of your projects, and make sure your photos are high-quality and accurately reflect your work.
5. Decorator Marketing IDEAS: Update your decorating portfolio regularly.
And don’t forget.
It's important to update your decorating portfolio on a regular basis to showcase your most recent and best work.
As you build your business, the calibre of projects you take on it very likely to get bigger.
Be sure you’re featuring them in your portfolio!
Otherwise, you may give clients the impression that you are the decorating business you were 10 years ago… but you’ve come a long way since then!
You want potential clients to see the latest examples of your skills and style to help them make an informed decision about hiring you for their project.
As a busy decorator, you likely have a steady stream of projects coming in.
So it's important to make time to update your portfolio regularly.
Aim to update your decorating portfolio every 3-6 months, or after completing a particularly noteworthy project.
When updating your portfolio, make sure to remove any outdated or low-quality projects.
Also be sure to remove any kind of project work that you DON’T want to do anymore.
Advertising it will only attract more of it.
So get rid if it’s no longer fitting for your Ideal Client and where you want to take the business.
You want your decorating portfolio to showcase your best work and be reflective of your current skill level and style.
This can also help potential clients see your growth and progression as a decorator over time.
Also, consider updating the layout and design as well.
This can help keep your portfolio looking fresh and up-to-date, and also give potential clients a sense of your design versatility and creativity.
A little website make-over could be just the thing, or a spruce up of your social media albums.
Regularly updating your portfolio is an important step in marketing your decorating business.
It allows you to…
✅ Showcase your most recent and best work
✅ Demonstrate your growth as a decorator over time
✅ Keep your portfolio looking polished and professional.
And THAT is how you use your portfolio to do so much of the heavy lifting in your decorating business, for you.
⬇️ The Ultimate Guide to Creating a Killer Portfolio for Your Decorating Marketing Rundown:
1. Gather Your Best Work.
2. Organise Your Portfolio.
3. Tell the Story.
4. Consider the Presentation.
5. Update Your Portfolio Regularly.
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