How to stop doing random marketing in 2026

If your marketing swings from frantic bursts to total silence, you’re not alone—and you’re not broken. We’ve seen the same pattern in studios and remodelers for years: a few social posts, a one-off newsletter, a trade show, then disappearing when jobs heat up. The result is a lead drought that shows up right when you’re busiest. We’re changing that with a straightforward, design-first framework that turns scattered tasks into a system you can run even on a packed calendar.

We break down the five pillars every design or remodeling business needs: foundation, visibility, authority, nurture, and sales. Foundation starts with your website as the hub you control, supported by practical SEO and a complete Google Business Profile so you’re visible in local search. Visibility is about consistent presence where homeowners and builders already look. Authority builds trust through PR, media mentions, and awards that shorten sales cycles and raise perceived value. Nurture keeps relationships warm with value-first emails and thoughtful check-ins that turn single projects into repeat work and referrals. Sales ties it all together with a clear path from inquiry to signed agreement, backed by simple steps and follow-ups that convert.

You’ll hear real stories that prove small changes move fast. A designer who lived on Facebook rebuilt their foundation after a six-week shutdown and stabilized lead flow. An academy member who felt intimidated by PR landed a Forbes mention within a month once they focused. A celebrated interior designer revived “dead” email by switching to an 80-20 value mix and watched opens and conversions climb. We finish with a quick-start plan for 2026: pick one pillar for Q1, set one action you can complete, and choose one person to keep you accountable. No 60-page plan. Just momentum you can feel.

Ready to ditch random marketing and build a system that holds up under real-world workload? Listen now, then subscribe, share with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help more design pros find us. Want deeper support? Grab the link in the show notes to join our live masterclass and map your 12-month plan together.

If you would like to get the links and show notes for this episode, click on the link below:​

• Master Class Link

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Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY

Episode Transcript

Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions.
Today, Jason and I are going totalk about how you can stop
doing random marketing in 2026.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason,
Maria, and Miriam.

(00:20):
Tune in each week where we talkabout marketing PR and business
advice for designprofessionals.
Hey everybody, and welcome backto Designer Discussions.
I'm Miriam, the PR pro of theteam.
And Jason's here with me too.
It's so good to have you withus.

Jason Lockhart (00:42):
Yes, hello.
I'm Jason here heading up themarketing side of things.
And we're going to talk alittle bit about a plan for
2026.

Mirjam Lippuner (00:50):
Yes, and we're super excited about this because
we're going to talk aboutsomething that's on a lot of
people's minds right now.
How on earth are you going tomap out your marketing plan for
2026 when you're alreadystretched thin and running a
design and remodeling business?

Jason Lockhart (01:10):
I was just going to say we see this every year
on the marketing side.
People are starting to plan atthe end of the year, but then
they don't have a real structureon what their goal is at the
end of the next year.
And that's where we like tohelp you start is to say, where
do you want to get to, and thenwe can reverse engineer and get
you there.

Mirjam Lippuner (01:29):
Yes.
Our goal really is to sketchout a simple structure for 2026
and nothing fancy.
Our um motto is always to keepit simple and actionable.
So it's not a 60-page marketingplan or anything like that,
just helping you make a fewdecisions that will make your

(01:49):
life easier next year.

Jason Lockhart (01:52):
And we're going to talk a little bit about that
on this podcast.
But at the end, we're going toalso talk about a masterclass
that we're hosting to give moreinformation on this and to also
talk about how we can reallyhelp you in the masterclass and
beyond in the academy.
Let's start talking about whatwe're going to talk about here
in 2025, heading into 2026, andhave a reality check and what

(02:16):
actually sounds familiar to alot of the audience listening
now.

Mirjam Lippuner (02:20):
Yes.
And we see a lot of what wecall a random act of marketing.
For instance, like an instantburst of posts on Instagram or a
newsletter that goes out onceand then never again, maybe a
trade show participation ormaybe one press release with

(02:42):
sadly zero follow-up.
Then everything goes quiet whenprojects get really busy.
That happens a lot.

Jason Lockhart (02:51):
And then what we hear on the marketing side is
all about leads.
And when the leads start to dryup and slow down, everybody
starts to starts to panic.
And that's when they start tocall on us on the marketing
side, say, yes, we need to youto inject us with a whole lot of
leads, not understanding thatyou got to have the foundation
in place before you get to leadgeneration.

Mirjam Lippuner (03:13):
Yeah, it's I frequently have people tell me
that they think about marketingand PR for that matter, almost
every single day, but they justdon't end up doing it.
And it's not because they don'tcare, um, but it's because
there is no plan in place thatactually make it to make it

(03:36):
feasible.
It just is all overwhelming andalways feels like you're
starting from scratch.

Jason Lockhart (03:42):
And we hear that a lot on the website side too.
I hear a lot that people wantto have their website perfect,
but there is no perfect website.
You just gotta get it out thereand you gotta optimize and
update consistently becausethat's what the search engines
are is looking for anyway.
You're gonna never have aperfect site like you never have

(04:03):
a perfect project.
It's always a work in progress.

Mirjam Lippuner (04:06):
Yeah, so if you're listening and nodding
along, it doesn't mean thatyou're behind and you're
definitely not lazy.
What's missing is structure.
You have tactics, but you don'thave a system.

Jason Lockhart (04:18):
And that's exactly what we're gonna talk
about today, helping you lay outa system for where you need to
be in 2026 and beyond.

Mirjam Lippuner (04:26):
Yeah, and today we're gonna look at it uh a
little bit differently.
Basically, the way we thinkabout marketing for design and
remodeling businesses boils downto five individual pillars.
And if it's new to you, don'tworry about it.
It's super simple.

Jason Lockhart (04:44):
Number one, the first pillar is actually the
foundation, and that's where westart.
And I always say your hub isyour website, so you have to
start with the website.
And then once you have that inplace, now you get into SEO and
then optimizing that for leads.
And then that's where you growin terms of the foundation.

Mirjam Lippuner (05:05):
The second pillar, and you can almost think
about these like as a pyramidwhere one piece builds um on the
other.
But the second pillar um isvisibility.
And this is all about how youshow up where people already
spend time.
So think about your socialmedia channels, your Google

(05:26):
Business profile, which Jasontalks a lot about, local search,
maybe some directories.
It's all about how peopleremember that you exist.

Jason Lockhart (05:36):
And the third pillar is what Miriam does a lot
of is the authority piece.
And that's about PR mediamentions, design awards, and all
that.
So that's we're helping youunderstand how to get those, and
once you have them, how toshowcase them so you can have
the visibility and the authorityuh that you need.

Mirjam Lippuner (05:58):
And pillar number four is nurture, which
means it's the ways you stay intouch with people who already
know you exist.
So think of email newsletters,follow-ups, check-ins with past
clients.
It turns one project into areal pipeline of opportunities

(06:20):
for you.

Jason Lockhart (06:21):
And uh then last one is sales.
And that's where, yes, you havethe marketing in place, but you
have to carry it through toactually turning the prospect
into a project.
And that's where the sales comein.
And that's what we talk a lotabout is how to get the prospect
in, and then once you have themin, be able to market the right

(06:42):
way and sell them on whatyou're doing to turn that into a
project.

Mirjam Lippuner (06:47):
Yeah.
So when we look at a firm'smarketing, we don't ask just
simple questions like, are youon Instagram or um, do you have
a newsletter?
We ask that too eventually.
But we really ask how strong isis your foundation?
And we look at the differentpillars and we identify which

(07:09):
one of them is the weakest rightnow.
And that's where we start.

Jason Lockhart (07:13):
And then we have you think about where do you
want to be at the end of 2026?
Do you need more marketing andhow you think about that?
What aspects of the marketingyou need, and then how do you
execute that to have the successthat you want to have by the
end of the year?

Mirjam Lippuner (07:31):
Yes, and we'll walk you through that in just a
little bit.
But before we do, um, let's getgrounded with a couple of real
examples so this is not sotheoretical.

Jason Lockhart (07:42):
Let's actually talk about a few case studies
that we've had.
And on the foundation side, Ilike to tell a story about
having a website, and that'swhere you need to start.
So we actually had a designercome to us in 2019 that uh was
in a panic because they dideverything on their Facebook
profile, and they drew all oftheir traffic to that profile,
and they didn't have a websitebecause they didn't think they

(08:04):
need one.
What ended up happening is theyran ads and their profile was
shut down for six weeks and theywere in a panic.
So that's why we had to createa website, and that's why I
always say your website is yourhub, because that's the one
thing you control.
We don't own Instagram,Facebook, or all these social
media platforms.
You own your website.
So that's why I always saystart with your foundation of

(08:26):
your website.

Mirjam Lippuner (08:28):
Yeah, absolutely.
That's good advice.
Um, my um standout example umis of a company that was part of
our academy program, actually,not for one year, but for two
years.
And it's about visibility andauthority, which are um my core
areas of expertise.
And in the first year, theywere just so overwhelmed and a

(08:52):
little bit intimidated.
They didn't do anything of thePR tactics that I teach in the
program.
And then the second year, theintimidation factor had had
shrunk and they startedimplementing what I was
teaching.
And within the first month,they got a mention on Forbes,

(09:12):
and they were just blown away.
And it just goes to show thatwhen you make a decision and you
focus on something and you takeaction, you really can get
results really quickly.
So that was super exciting foreverybody.

Jason Lockhart (09:27):
Another example on the nurture side that I want
to talk about is we have aclient.
Well, we had a client in theDallas area that was a
well-known interior designer.
And she did not believe inemail marketing because it did
not work for her.
And she used email marketingfor a year.
But when we analyzed it and welooked at it, we saw that in her
email it was talking a lotabout her and how great of an

(09:50):
interior designer she was.
And she was having a low openrate because nobody will care
what you have to say until theyknow you care.
And so that's why we had torestructure everything into what
we call the 80-20 rule, whereit's 80% value, 20%
self-promotion.
From there, she started to getmore people to open up the email
and then eventually theystarted to convert.

(10:11):
So over time, we nurtured themand they turned into paying
clients.

Mirjam Lippuner (10:17):
I love that example too.
And if you've noticed, likethese are all stories where they
didn't try to fix everything atonce, right?
They picked one pillar and madea few focus changes and then
stuck with them.
And that's what generated theresults.
And that's really the mindsetthat we would encourage you to

(10:40):
use going into next year.
So if you're listening andwondering, okay, what can I
actually do with this?
Let's walk you through a tinyversion of a plan that you can
sketch out after listening tothis episode.

Jason Lockhart (10:56):
Step one, what you want to do, you want to look
at what in the first quarter of2026, what do you want to
accomplish?
What is the first pillar thatyou want to do?
Okay.
And then we want to analyzewhere you are now, what have
what have you done in the past,had success with or not?
Because at the end of the day,it's about implementing this.
You can actually implement thegoals by the end of the year.

Mirjam Lippuner (11:19):
Yep, exactly.
So if just as a reminder, sothe pillars are, right?
The foundation, visibility,authority, nurture, or sales.
So if your website is outdatedand we see this quite a lot, I
would say, and you cringe alittle when people just ask for

(11:40):
your um for your website so theycan check you out online.
The foundation's probably yourfirst stop.
And if nobody can find youonline, then it might be
visibility.
So you've been doing good workfor years, but no, you haven't
had any kind of press at all,then it's probably authority.

(12:01):
And if you tend to lose touchwith clients that you've already
had, you might want to investum some efforts into nurturing.
And if you have leads and bringthem in, but you don't convert
them, you want to work on yoursales.

Jason Lockhart (12:16):
Step two, once you have the pillar that you
want to work on, now you want tohave an action step for that
pillar.
So say you choose foundation.
Now you want to say, okay, do Iwant to optimize my website and
how do I want to do that?
If you already have yourwebsite and it's optimized
correctly, you can look at,okay, now I want to look at SEO

(12:37):
for not at the large scale ofSEO, but Google Business
Profile.
Is that optimized and what youneed to do there?
So that's what you can do, andthen have that as the initial
step to lead you into action.

Mirjam Lippuner (12:51):
So if you choose authority, which is which
heavily leans on PR, maybe youhave a super exciting project
that you've just finished andyou can put together a little
package and send it to theeditor of your regional magazine
to uh turn it into a nicefeature for yourself.

(13:12):
So that would be one of thethings.
Or um we talk a lot aboutgetting quick press.
So maybe you go look back atsome of the previous podcast
episodes we did and you learnhow to get quick press and um
decide to focus on that for amonth.
Maybe you'll land a feature inForbes too.
Who knows?

Jason Lockhart (13:32):
Then on a third step, what you want to look at
is how do you stay accountable?
I like to use we all get thatgym membership, and then by
February is just sitting on theside.
How are you going to keepyourself accountable to what you
do?
That could be a person in youroffice that you talk to, that
could be uh your significantother, that could be somebody on
your team that can help you,that you let them know what the

(13:54):
steps are you're planning to dowithin your marketing efforts to
keep you accountable.

Mirjam Lippuner (14:00):
Yes.
So if all they do after thisepisode is choose one pillar,
one action, and one simpleaccountability measure, you're
already ahead of most firmsgoing into 2026.
And we can speak to this fromexperience.
So you don't need to perfectyour entire year-long plan in

(14:22):
January to start with one thing.

Jason Lockhart (14:25):
And just think of it like building a house.
So you start with thefoundation, then you put up the
walls, then you do everythingelse.
So you don't do everything atonce.
So start with that one step andthen help that move you forward
to the next step.

Mirjam Lippuner (14:41):
Now, if you like this way of thinking about
your marketing and you want abit more structure around it,
we're actually doing somethingreally special in December here
at Designer Discussions.

Jason Lockhart (14:53):
We're going to be hosting a live masterclass
where we go over these fivepillars and talk about the
framework to actually help youimplement that over the next 12
months in 2026.
So you have a roadmap toaccomplish the goals you set out
for.

Mirjam Lippuner (15:07):
The master class is specifically designed
for design and remodelingbusinesses.
So we'll talk about realexamples from your world, not
generic marketing theory.

Jason Lockhart (15:19):
So if you want to join us, look at the info in
the show notes where we'll havelinks to all the information and
how you can join us live.

Mirjam Lippuner (15:28):
Yeah, and it's going to be December 11th and um
December 13th, one at night andone during the day.
So hopefully one of those timesworks for you if you're
interested.
And just as a reminder, um yourhomework for today, um, if you
whether or not you choose toattend the master class, is pick

(15:50):
your pillar, your marketingpillar for the first quarter of
next year.
Pick one key action and tellsomeone about it to hold
yourself accountable.
That alone will shift how youwalk into 2026.

Jason Lockhart (16:06):
So we appreciate you hanging out with us today,
and we hope to see you in themasterclass.

Mirjam Lippuner (16:12):
Yes, and we'll hope to see you back here in two
weeks for another episode ofour Designer Discussions
podcast, also.

Jason Lockhart (16:20):
All right, see you then.
We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review, and share it with
your friends.
We look forward to having youback next week for more
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