Number One Referral Tool for Your Business

Struggling to generate consistent leads for your design business? The answer might be sitting right in your existing marketing toolkit. 

Email marketing has the potential to become your second most powerful lead generation tool after client referrals—even outperforming expensive SEO and PPC campaigns. Yet many designers watch their promising email efforts fizzle out as open rates plummet from 40% to single digits within months.

The culprit? Self-promotion overload. One world-class designer we worked with sent beautifully crafted emails showcasing her impressive portfolio for over a year, yet her open rate had fallen to just 8%. The solution lies in the 80-20 rule: dedicate 80% of your email content to delivering genuine value to your audience, with only 20% focused on your services—and even that promotional content should tie meaningfully to the value you're providing.

Strategic list segmentation is equally crucial, allowing you to personalize content for different audience groups—homeowners, manufacturers, other designers, or current clients. What once required hours of additional writing can now be accomplished in about 30 minutes per segment using AI tools. And don't overlook the technical side: authenticating your email domain ensures your messages actually reach inboxes instead of disappearing into spam folders.

By implementing these strategies, our Academy members consistently achieve open rates exceeding the industry average of 25%. Want to transform your email marketing from an ignored obligation into a powerful lead generator that works even while you sleep? Join our Designer Discussions Academy, where we tackle a new marketing challenge each month, providing hands-on guidance to grow your design business. Sign up through the link in our show notes to secure your spot for our October enrollment.

Transform your marketing with Designer Discussions Academy. In weekly face-to-face sessions, we equip busy business owners with cutting-edge PR strategies, marketing insights, and time-saving tools to not just work in your business, but on your business. Join us to outshine competitors and elevate your business.

Join us for our weekly live sessions and workshops: https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Designer Discussions is an educational interior design podcast on marketing, PR and related business topics. We also provide in-depth, actionable products in the Marketing Studio including time-saving templates and guides to help design professionals grow their businesses.

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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

Maria Martin (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions with
Miriam, jason and Maria.
Today we're speaking with Jasonabout your number one referral
tool for your business.

Mirjam Lippuner (00:12):
Welcome to the Designer Discussions podcast
with Jason, maria and MiriamTune in each week, where we talk
about marketing, pr andbusiness advice for design
professionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:28):
Maria, thank you .
So this is a topic we just wentover in the academy and so this
was on email marketing.
We spent a month actuallytalking about email marketing,
so I'm going to hand you somehighlights of what happened over
the month.
So, ultimately, maria saidreferral two.
That's apropos to what emailreally is, because outside of

(00:52):
referrals, which usually is adesigner's number one lead
magnet, email, if done right,should be number two, even over
SEO and PPC, because it does notcost a lot, it takes a little
bit of time, but if you'reconsistent at it, it will get
you leaked.
So what we talked about, I'mgoing to be high level, but if

(01:15):
you want to know all that we did, you have to join the Academy,
and I'll talk more about that atthe end.
But what we talked about I havefirst talked about why you need
to have an email list.
Ok, your email list is vital toyou growing because it helps
you like just like a referralcampaign.
It helps you even when you'reasleep, even with individuals

(01:40):
you know nothing about, becauseoftentimes we work with a lot of
designers that have gotten alot of jobs from email marketing
from individuals they didn'teven know it was people on their
list that shared the email witheither their neighbor, their
coworker or anything else, andthen that's how they reached out

(02:00):
to the designer and got the job.
So email marketing can work ifdone right.
First thing, you have tounderstand your why and your
audience.
Okay, knowing why you're doingemail and who the audience is.
So, is it your current clients,past clients?

(02:20):
Is it manufacturers?
Is it family and friends?
Is it other designers?
I can go on and on with thelist.
But who is the audience thatyou're creating the email for?
Once you know the audience, nowyou need to create the content
to that audience and to do thatyou need to use the 80-20 rule,
and I'm explaining a little bitabout the 80-20 rule.

(02:42):
We've talked with a lot ofdesigners that did not believe
in email and they said I've doneemail for X amount of months or
X amount of years, never gotany open rates or conversions or
anything like that.
Oftentimes, when we look at thecontent in their email, it's
all self-promotion.
One designer that we work withshe was a world-class designer,

(03:07):
did amazing work and sent theemail out for over a year.
Her open rate was under 8%.
Hardly anybody clicked on anyof the attachments in the email
and this happened over time.
When she first did the email,she had like a 40% open rate.
Then over months, it actuallydropped to 20%, then it dropped

(03:28):
to 10% and then when we lookedat it, it was at 8%.
You want to know the reason whySelf-promotion?
When we read the email, it wasall about her, what she did, all
of the amazing projects she did, but it never spoke to her
audience and it nevercommunicated value about what

(03:49):
they wanted to learn and whatthey wanted to know about.
It was all about her, what shedid and her amazing career,
which is amazing for a book, notfor an email campaign.
So you need to understand youneed to understand your audience
, who they are, and then writecontent that is aimed at them.

(04:09):
This is where the 80-20 rulecomes in.
80% of the content in youremail needs to be about value to
your email list, your audience.
The other 20% could beself-promotion.
The other 20% could beself-promotion, but the 20%
self-promotion needs to be tiedinto the 80%.
For example, if you have havean audience that is homeowners

(04:34):
and they're wanting to know whatis the typical cost of a home
remodel, ok, and you actuallyhave an article, or you have
with a homeowner that had budgetconstraints, that you were able

(04:56):
to design within what they hadand design an amazing project.
So that ties in because Ayou're actually talking about
the budget constraints, wherethe initial 80% was about what's
the typical cost of a homeremodel, and you showed in the
project you told a story in the20% how you did the project

(05:17):
within the budget constraintsand you did an amazing project.
So, even though you're notupfront saying this is what we
did we're amazing designers.
We did X, y, z you'reexplaining that 20% into the 80%
value.
That's what you have to do.
If you do that, over time youwill get more people wanting to

(05:38):
hear what you have to say,because they're now listening
and reading about the value youprovide and now they're now
listening to what you have tosay in a 20% and making action.
That's the one thing that wesaw over all of designers that
we've worked with in the pastthat have done email is that
they never adhere to the 80-20rule.
So that's the first thingadhere to that 80-20 rule.

(06:01):
Next, you want to look atsegmenting your lists.
Now this may sound like a lotof work and, to be honest, a few
years ago, it was when, if youhave designers, you do an email
for them.
If you have homeowners, anemail for them, vendors and
manufacturers an email for them,you have current clients an

(06:22):
email for them, and then it'smaybe all around the same topic
but it's slightly altered to theaudience and you may say, man,
that's a lot of work.
I got to do all this writingand content for everybody In the
past, like I said, it was Nowwith AI.
It's a lot of work.
I got to do all this writingand content for everybody in the
past, like I said, it was nowwith AI is simple.
You could put that copy into AIand tell it how you want to
structure that, but this newaudience and the information you

(06:45):
want to provide in there, itwill spit out content to you
that you can edit, make it yourown for the next audience.
Honestly, what we went over inthe academy we showed them how
to spend about a half hour tochange that one email segment,
that to another list and send itout.
This actually helps your openrate because now you're

(07:07):
personalizing the content and,at the end of the day, in terms
of SEO email, whatever it is,what has happened today with AI
has created a lot of noise, butit's emphasized personalizing
content, and when you canpersonalize your email, now you
have more people wanting to openthe email, wanting to engage

(07:29):
and ultimately convert.
One of the other items we talkedabout is making sure your email
goes through.
One of the ways is to look atyour domain.
What you want to do.
You want to make sure yourdomain name, wherever you're
sending the email out from, isauthenticated.

(07:50):
So this is easy to do.
Talk with your email serviceprovider, your ESP.
Ask them have theyauthenticated your domain for
email?
So DMARC making sure the DMARCrecords are there, making sure
you have the DAIM records.
Now, this may sound odd and youmay not understand, but talk to

(08:12):
whoever sends out your email.
Whoever your email serviceprovider is.
Ask them have theyauthenticated your domain name?
If not, ask them if they caneither do it or help you.
Some providers will actually doit automatically on your behalf
.
Others will walk you throughthe process, but this is vital.

(08:37):
This ensures your email getsthrough the spam filters and
into an email box, as opposed tospam.
So if you have not done this,you may have a large aspect or a
large portion of your emailsheading to spam, and you may not
even know it.
So making sure your domain nameis authenticated is vital.
Okay, like I said, we had talkedabout all of this in the

(09:00):
academy, and what we also did iswe worked with each of the
members.
We looked over all of theiremails and helped them to get
over a 25 percent open rate,because that is what the
industry average is about a 25%open rate.
When we worked with them lastmonth, our goal was, within 90

(09:23):
days, was to have each of themhave an open rate over 25%.
That's something we can helpyou with as well, but all you
got to do is join the academy.
If you're interested, I'll haveall the information in the show
notes and this is just one ofthe topics that we talk about
monthly in the academy.
This is just one of the topicsthat we talk about monthly in

(09:44):
the academy.
Like I said, last month it wason email.
We're going to be talking aboutAI, web design, er, regional
press and the like.
So if you're interested injoining the wait list that will
open in October, look in theshow notes so you can add your
name and email there and we'llbe happy to have you OK.
So that's what I wanted to talkabout on this episode and we

(10:05):
hope to hear and see you in twoweeks on Designer Discussions.

Mirjam Lippuner (10:09):
Your business is unique and your marketing
should be too.
Discover how to personalizeyour approach for SEO, pr and
beyond, to attract more of theclients you love to work with In
our Academy membership with usDesigner Discussions podcast
hosts.
As your personal coaches, weshow you how to customize your

(10:29):
marketing With weekly livesessions and exclusive community
practical resources and expertguidance.
We're here to simplify yourmarketing and boost your
business.
Sign up atdesignerdiscussionscom or follow
the link in the show notes.

Maria Martin (10:46):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Designer
Discussions and all of thehelpful information.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review and share it with
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We look forward to having youback next week.
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