AS A DECORATIVE PAINTER, you may have all the talent in the world. But unless you are effective in getting the word out about your abilities, you won't have much success.    Of course, you're in this business because you love to create beautiful interior settings for your clients. You may not like the idea of taking time away from your work in order to promote yourself. But you have to give attention to promoting yourself if you want to keep a steady flow of business coming your way.

   Kelly S. King of the Kelly S. King Faux Finish Institute with locations in Omaha, Neb., Denver and Seattle shared several great ideas for getting the word out about your decorative painting business. In addition to being a decorative painting practitioner, King is also art instructor on the art and business aspects of the profession. One of the topics he always makes sure to tackle is the importance of marketing.

   As the cornerstone of any marketing effort, King recommended that decorative painters develop an excellent portfolio that they can show to perspective clients. "Make sure that you have practiced and are able to do everything you are showing in your portfolio," he advised.

   For those just starting out in the market, King stressed the importance of determining a pricing structure as a means of defining the market they will be pursuing. "You need to key in on the audience you are after," he said. "When you're just shooting from the hip and you haven't defined how much you're going to charge per hour, you also haven't defined your market."

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 to be in the market for decorative finishes than owners living in properties that are valued at, say, $75,000 or $80,000. To market to upper-end homeowners, King recommended purchasing lists from mailing houses that can provide names of homeowners in the desirable demographic.

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photographs of their work made into postcards for a mass mailing. They are not that expensive to produce, and because they depict something artistic, "people are less inclined to throw them away," Mabrey reported.

   King also recommended that decorative painters network with interior designers and architects. "Do a mailing to interior designers and architects, letting them know that 'we do decorative finishes, and this is the type of -work we specialize in,” King advised. In addition to a letter of introduction, King recommended including a packet of 8 x 10 samples in the mailing. “If you can spark interest by putting in a decent-size sample that indicates the type of finishes you can do, that's a good starting point," he said. "When you send designers a nice-sized sample in a big envelope, they are absolutely going to open it. Their curiosity is going to get the better of them."

   Another way to reach your targeted demographic is to advertise in local publications that attract higher-end readers, King said. For instance, local the lifestyle magazines and suburban newspapers in affluent neighborhoods are excellent methods of getting your name in the public eye.

      Gaining Referrals

business is also the cheapest-word- of-mouth advertising. This is where your talents as a decorative painter will be your best asset. Those who love your work will help spread the word about your talents. Effectively, satisfied customers become just about the best salespeople you can have.

   But King cautioned that referrals generally will expect the same pricing that you gave to the original individual. "If you start out doing cheap jobs, then you're going to get referrals for cheap jobs," King said. Conversely, higher end jobs will generally beget higher-end referrals.

yard signs are made of plastic-coated cardboard in plastic frames. They should be fairly straightforward-saying something along the lines of: "Faux finishing by Joe's Faux Painting. ..we specialize in unique finishes."

   King also recommended the use of door hangers around the house at which you are working. He pointed to the effectiveness of the "five-point role." In accordance with that rule, King recommended placing a door hanger at the homes on either side of the home at which you are working and also at the three homes that are directly across the street.

farming for specific groups of people, such as attorneys or doctors."

Cost-Effective Promotion  As you already can tell, promoting your services need not be an expensive proposition. There are actually quite a few inexpensive ways to get your name out as well.

   For instance, Mabrey stressed the value of using signs on your vehicle as essentially "a moving billboard for your business." Mabrey's car signs attract attention while she is driving down the road, when she stops at gas stations and even in store parking lots. "One person even used the store's intercom to track me down that's how badly they wanted to fmd a faux finisher," she reported.

this in memorable fashion recently. He was having lunch with a fellow decorative painter who happened to be wearing a T -shirt featuring his business identification. Someone came up to King's colleague during the lunch to inquire about decorative painting services. "Because he was wearing his T -shirt, he got the job," King reported. "I didn't have on a company T -shirt, so I got left out."

   Another key way to gain business, according to Mabrey, is to offer your services as a guest speaker to real es- tate, remodeling, interior design and other types of organizations. "Many organizations are looking for guest speakers, and faux finishing is a hot topic," she reported.

different types of effects that can be created and show samples of her work. These types of events allow her to project her professional expertise to the community and to gain many referrals in the process.

   While many decorative painters consider Designer Showhouses to be an effective way of building business, King offered this word of caution: Make sure you get value from them. "Usually I've found that the organizers of Designer Showhouses or Street of Dreams usually want the work done free or cheap," he said. "It becomes an advertising expense if you are doing it for free, so you want to be sure that you are getting your money back."

to stand their ground in exercising some control over what they would like to present. "Let them know that you want to be able to promote some of the finishes that you think are the most eye-catching and that will do you the most good," he suggested.

Tracking Results

   Not all forms of promotion work for every situation or every person. How can you tell which of these venues are actually working for you? The key, according to King, is to track results either using a computer or simply writing down information in a notebook.

For More Information Contact:

Preferred method of contact via phone or fax:

Atlanta Area
Telephone: 770-985-2285 
FAX: 770-913-8232
General E-Mail: donna@learnfaux.com Please allow 1 to 3 days for response when utilizing e-mail.  Please do not hesitate to phone.