Professional landscape designers meet their prospective clients in many ways – referrals from past clients, flyers and brochures, presentations at trade shows etc., but almost without exception, they all maintain an active online presence using a combination of websites and social media activities.
Websites
Here are some examples showing how landscape designers publicize their services on the net.
Tip: Creating content for your online presence takes a lot of time and we suggest that you start on this task quite early in your landscape design journey.
Social media
Social media activities are also an important way to build a profile. Posts on Instagram, Pinterest etc., are most helpful. Click on the image below to view an Instagram page maintained by a designer based in Florida.
Check out your competitors
One of the best ways to start is to look what landscape designers in your city are doing online – simply google ‘landscape designers in my city”. That will quickly reveal some examples. Here is an example of a Google Search from Seattle in Washington Sate USA.
Create content early on
You can employ the services of a professional web developer or use a free tool such as WordPress to build the site yourself, but one thing you will need is content so make sure that you photograph as many gardens as you can, concentrating on those that you find appealing.
This is also a good time to work on your plant knowledge. Here is a link to a website we maintain to support an application called SppDb (SpeciesDatabase). Students in this landscape course can email us and get a free copy of this application.
Exercise 2
Please tell us how far you have progressed in gathering material to promote your design studio by writing a brief paragraph on your reaction to the material here. Email: info@gcadplus.com
Exercise 3
Please send us a screenshot or copy of your SppDb plant database similar to the image above. We want to ensure that you have begun building a base of knowledge about the species you will work with.