When starting your business, one of the first things you’ll need to consider is how to attract customers. And these days, 95% of people researching which home stager to choose will do so via Google.
Let’s explore how to make a home staging website that attracts customers. There are three main topics we will cover:
- How to get a home staging website
- What to put on your website
- How to promote your website
We break down these topics into a few bite sized chunks, so get your cup of coffee ready and lets dive in…
Creating a Home Staging Website
Every home staging business needs a good web site.
The industry is visual in nature and your business needs a website to show your portfolio. If you have good keyword optimization and site structure, you’ll also get a good portion of your leads through search engines. But we touch on home staging digital marketing shortly.
There are three ways to build a home staging website; hiring a web design company, hiring a freelancing, or doing it yourself. Each of these has their own pros and cons, and all can vary in price wildly.
Option 1: Hiring a web design company to build your home staging website
Unless you’ve built sites before, hiring a designer is probably the way to go. You’ll have enough to take care of and your time would be better spent creating marketing materials or working on a portfolio. No need to re-invent the wheel on this one.
Hiring a web designer won’t be too expensive since you only need a few pages and the competition is fierce for web designers. Their prices are all over the place so get several quotes. Make sure you see lots of their work and actually go to sites they’ve built.
In summary…
Pros
- You don’t have to stress about creating the website
Cons
- The most expensive option
- You might get sold an overly complex website that you don’t actually need
- You’ll need to keep paying the company to maintain the website
Option 2: Hiring a freelancer
In summary…
Pros
- You don’t have to stress about creating the website
- Most likely cheaper than a web design company
Cons
- The freelancer will be required to maintain the website
- They might decide they no longer want to freelancer, then you need to worry about who will take over the website
- You might choose a low quality freelancer to save money and get delivered a website which is of low quality, or won’t rank well in Google.
Option 3: Building your own website
There are actually a few ways to build your own website. You can become an expert web designer and learn a programming language (no thank you!), or you can use a tool like Wix or Squarespace to build your website.
Note: WordPress is a little more complex and needs constant updating, which is why we don’t recommend it here.
Another note: Those aren’t paid affiliate links above for Wix and Squarespace, so I’m being 100% unbiased when I recommend them. We don’t get a commission so we aren’t biased in which on you choose to build your staging website.
Since you’re interested in home staging which is a creative industry, you probably already have a good eye for what makes a beautifully designed website, so I’m confident you’re capable of building your own home staging website.
When you’re building your webite you’re going to need a domain name to be registered at some point in the process. Our favorite place to register domains is NameCheap.com because they are cheap, as the name implies, and they also have auto-renew functionailty so you’re not at risk of losing your domain when it expires in a years time.
Don’t be surprised if the name you want is taken, though. This part can be tough. It is a good idea to have several domain names ready to try since you may have to go with your second or third choice. This brings up one of the benefits of using your own name in your business name since the domain name is much more likely to be available.
If you are using Wix or Squarespace you don’t need to worry about buying hosting, since they’ll host the website for you.
Building your own home staging website in one of these platforms will take a week or two of work in the evenings, and you’ll have both saved a lot of money, and got yourself a beautiful website.
In summary…
Pros
- The cheapest option by far
- You can design the site exactly as you imagine
Cons
- Can be a little frustrating at times if you can’t figure something out
- You’ll be responsible for all future updates for the website
What should I put on my home staging website?
The pages you’ll typically need to consider when building a home staging website are the homepage, about page, portfolio page, contact page, and a packages & pricing page.
Although these are the most important, you might also like to have a page dedicated to realtors and the services you can provide them, and also a testimonials page.
Let’s review these pages one by one, and the content you should place on them.
Homepage
Your homepage needs to create a good first impression, and there is no simpler way to do that then on prominent header image showing your very best work.
The Oak and Stone Home Staging website does this well with a simple uncluttered page which shows one hero image.
It’s also a good idea to share a short blurb (under 400 words) about what services you offer, with links through to your pricing & packages page, along with a simple way for the customer to contact you for an enquiry: either form, phone number, or email address.
Packages & Pricing
This is the part of your home staging website where you need to simply and concisely explain the services you offer. Remember, you are the expert and you know the services home stagers typically offer. However, the visitors to your website might have no idea the difference between a home staging consultation, occupied staging, or vacant staging.
So it is your job to explain your services as if it’s the visitors first time hiring a home stager.
This page doesn’t need to be complex or filled with paragraphs explaining what you do. Just state your packages, prices, and what’s included.
In terms of “what’s included” it can be as simple as four or five sentences to let the customer know what to expect. Here’s an example:
- “We can take care of staging your entire home, or just one room.”
- “Our team coordinates delivery, setup, and pack down of all the furniture used”
- “Book for as little as one week or up to 3 months”
This is the page on your staging website that customers will likely visit in the moments before they enquire, so make sure you make it easy for them to take the next step. Either include a “Book a consultation” button to take the customer to your contact form page, or include your phone number and email address.
Your #1 job when designing this website is to make enquiring as simple and stress-free as possible.
About Page
Your about page should be simple and cover a few main topics.
Firstly, use about 3 parahraphs to introduce the company. When were you founder, by whom, and what geographic areas do you service.
Secondly, introduce the lead stager, or if you have a small team, introduce each stager with a headshot. To be honest most people won’t read the descriptions of all your staff, but it is still nice to put a face to the names, and to see that friendly faces will be working at your property. Including the images of staff is important as it makes a faceless company more personably.
Thirdly, you can also use the About page to talk a little more about your process and to share any home staging certification that your team may have.
Portfolio
The #1 rule of your home staging portfolio is to only show your very best work. Some people already have a dozen houses in their portfolio and when adding new ones, don’t cut out their older less impressive ones.
Your portfolio is a curated showcase of your very best work. Nearly every visitor to a home staging website will look at the portfolio to assess both the quality of work, and also the home stagers aesthetic.
The portfolio also showcases the type of home staging work you specialize in. If your portfolio only has apartments being staged, then it’s likely that future enquiries will be for apartment staging. So be sure to curate your portfolio to showcase not only your best work, but the type of work you want to attract in the future.
Contact
No matter how you build your home staging website, you need to include a contact form of some sort.
It’s pretty common knowledge that the longer the contact form, the less enquiries you will get. Most people are simply lazy. But in saying that, you want to collect just enough information to be able to respond to the enquiry in one call or email (rather than having to ask the customer for additional information before you can help them).
When we build websites for home stagers we typically add the below fields onto our contact forms:
- First name (required)
- Last name (required)
- Phone number (required)
- Email address (required)
- Property address
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of indoor living spaces
- Number of outdoor living areas
- Preferred installation date
- Other comments (this is a field where they can write anything else)
- Submit button
We don’t make the property address and property details required fields because you might have a realtor enquiring to use your services in the future, but doesn’t need staging for a home right at that moment. Similarly, the preferred installation date is an optional field.
If this form is too complex, then simply go with name, number, email address, and a comment field. Hopefully the customer will use the comment field to ask about your services.
Another option which isn’t s common these days, is to have on your home staging website a “request more information” form for visitors to fill out so they can receive your info in the mail.
Many people may be very interested but just won’t pick up the phone to call you, and may not even want to email you. Sending them a package in the mail is a good way for them to get to know you a little better. Send a brochure that does a full selling job of your service; business card, of course; a letter personalized with their name, and from their address you may be able to discuss nearby homes that you’ve staged; you may want to include a headshot or photo of you in a home you’ve staged in one of your marketing pieces.
A note on website copy
Having good copy for your marketing pieces and web site is important. You may decide to hire a professional copywriter; fees vary a great deal but it is money well spent if you’re not confident that you can do it yourself.
Writing good copy is completely different from being what most people think of as a good writer. Good copy is a breeze to read and makes you feel like the writer is speaking directly to you.
It isn’t fancy. It doesn’t rely on big words.
I’ve read extensively on copywriting over the years and will pass along some of the keys to great copy.
To write a good piece of marketing copy, start by thinking of a friend you might like to tell about your service. Someone you like and respect that might be able to benefit from using home staging when they sell their home. Keep the copy warm and person-to-person, not distant and cold. Tell them about yourself but not too much because they really don’t care. It’s true. Tell them what you can do for them.
Everything you write should revolve around your good friend, the potential client.
What can you do for them? What do they get from using you? How much do they stand to gain? Is it easy or will it be a hassle to deal with you and your service?
As they read, they start thinking about things like:
It sounds OK, but I’m sure it is too expensive, right? Only rich people hire people to decorate, why are you bothering me?
Don’t you know how stressed out I am already just thinking about moving?
Anticipate the objections they will raise in their mind and answer them. Be concise. Your enthusiasm should be apparent just like it would if you were getting excited talking to someone in person. I know it is harder with words on a page, but it can be done (without using exclamation points all over the place!!!)
Understand what the true benefits are of home staging and repeat them throughout your copy.
Repeat repeat repeat. Benefits benefits benefits.
Then, go through your copy and cut out any words you really don’t need. Words that don’t affect the meaning of what you’re saying
and that just makes it take longer to say what you’re saying.
Read it aloud to check the flow. Edit wherever you hear yourself sounding awkward, choppy, or if you get confused about what you’re reading.
Then, have someone else read it to make sure they understand everything as you meant it to be understood.
What next?
If you are reading this, you are obviously thinking about starting a home staging business. Something else you should consider is what will make people choose your home staging business. There are likely a handful of other businesses doing exactly the same thing within 100 miles of where you are based.
You can get home staging certification here from the Home Staging Institute. It is surprisingly affordable and shows potential clients that a third-party has been involved in your training, and you are not a casual hobbyist.
