Stop Random Acts Of Marketing In 2026

Tired of starting the year with big marketing goals and slipping back into guesswork by spring? We’re laying out a simple, durable framework to end random acts of marketing and build steady momentum into 2026, designed specifically for design and remodeling professionals who need results without burnout.

We break down the five pillars that keep your pipeline healthy: a rock-solid foundation with clear ideal client targeting and a trustworthy website, focused visibility where your clients actually are, real authority through case studies and PR, steady nurture that turns interest into action, and a clean sales process that converts projects without pressure. You’ll hear why short sprints on social, SEO, or ads rarely stick, and how a quarterly plan gives you time to execute well, measure honestly, and improve with each cycle.

Together we map practical examples you can copy: polishing your home, services, and portfolio pages; keeping Google Business Profile fresh with reviews and updates; setting a weekly rhythm on one primary social channel; turning finished projects into pitchable case studies; and launching a simple monthly email that educates and builds trust. We also dig into intake scripts, proposals that set expectations, and the accountability systems that protect your marketing time when client work gets busy.

If you’ve tried before and stalled, you’re not alone—and you’re not done. Steal the quarterly structure, apply the five pillars, and give each tactic enough runway to compound. Subscribe, share this with a colleague who needs a sane plan for 2026, and leave a quick review to tell us which pillar you’ll focus on first.

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

• www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-159-How-to-Stop-Random-Acts-of-Marketing

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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

Jason Lockhart (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason and Miriam.
Today we're going to be talkingabout how you can stop doing
random acts of marketing in2026.

Mirjam Lippuner (00:12):
Welcome to the Designer Discussions podcast
with Jason and Miriam.
Tune in each week where we talkabout marketing PR and business
advice for design professionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:25):
So hello everyone.
Nice to have you here.
This is one of the episodes wedo every year where we do an
overview of your marketing planfor the year.
And luckily enough, we actuallyhave a masterclass happening
right now on this same topic,which we'll talk a little bit
about at the end.
But what we're going to talkabout today is what are what are

(00:47):
the elements or what are thepillars that you need to be
doing now to have success in2026?

Mirjam Lippuner (00:54):
Yes.
So we're talking about how tothink about your 2026 marketing
without creating a huge planthat you'll honestly probably
never look back on.
Because we all know that thebeginning of the year,
especially January, usuallyfeels hopeful.
And by March, most people arejust winging it.

(01:17):
And I'm not even excludingmyself.
But our hope is that by the endof this episode, you'll have a
simple way to decide what tofocus on and how to get started
in quarter one of this year.

Jason Lockhart (01:32):
So what we're going to talk about is random
acts of marketing, what happenswhen you do it that way.
And then we're going to, youknow, talk a little bit about
the pillars that we have forthat.
But so what we find and what Isee a lot with design and
remodeling companies is thatthey do random marketing where
they'll start to do a certaintask, whether that be social

(01:53):
media, SEO, paid ads, orwhatever, they'll do it for a
while and they'll stop.
So they'll do it for a couplemonths and stop.
Or the other end, they'll do itfor a while, have success, get a
client, and then stop.
And so what happens when you doeither of these ways is that you
lose momentum because whatevertactic you use is going to take

(02:14):
time for it to have an effect.
So if you only do it for a fewmonths, it's hard for you to see
if it'll work or not.
I would say, at a minimum, anytype of marketing you do, you
want to at least allow sixmonths to see if it's going to
work or not.
If you do anything less thanthat, it's going to be hard to
tell.
Then at the same time, if youget a client and you stop, it's

(02:35):
going to be hard for you to pickback up because as you know,
everything changes.
So if you get a client now andthen a few months you want to
pick back up, nine times out of10, what you did before may not
work again.
So you'll have to relearneverything.
So stop all of the random acts,and we're going to talk a little
bit about how you can havesuccess with the pillars that
we're going to talk about today.

Mirjam Lippuner (02:57):
Yeah, and for example, like in the world of
PR, which is my specialty, I runinto people all the time that
they really want to getpublished, right?
And they think about doing it,but they don't actually take
action.
So but the issue isn'tdiscipline or laziness.

(03:20):
It's really that things justlive in their head and they're
they don't have a simplestructure that they can follow
to actually get it accomplished.
So that's what this frameworkand really everything that we
are teaching is supposed to do.
It's supposed to get you out ofyour head and into action.

Jason Lockhart (03:43):
What we had talked about in the master class
and what we're going to talkabout today is at a high level,
the five pillars.
When we talk about what you needto do for this year in your
marketing game plan, you need tofocus on the five pillars, which
are the foundation, thevisibility, the authority,
nurture, and sales.
So I'm just going to talk highlevel on each one of these.

(04:05):
But like I said, uh, if you wantto know more, we're going to
have a link where you can hearus go into detail to each of
these.
So on the foundation piece, whatthat is, is that's just looking
at where you start.
You've often heard me talk aboutknowing who your ideal client
is.
And we have episodes, and I'llhave a link in the show notes to
one of the episodes where wetalk about who your ideal client

(04:28):
is, going through that exercise.
And then once you know that,making sure you have your
branding in order, that itapplies all across all channels,
and then applying that to yourwebsite.
So that's your foundation inessence.
Then with the visibility, wetalk about making sure that
you're visible across allplatforms, but you don't have to

(04:50):
be on all platforms.
Again, you need to know who yourideal client is and reverse
engineer to help tell you whatplatforms you need to be on.
So those platforms where yourideal client is, you need to be
on those platforms and how youdo all of that.
One of the things, one of theones, no matter who your client
is, you need to be on GoogleBusiness Profile.

(05:10):
And there's a little bit we talkabout there.
Then the authority piece that'suh heading into the PR, making
sure that you have your namerepresented the right way.
Because if you have a good namein the industry or in your local
area, nine times out of 10,homeowners or your ideal, I
ideal client will find you andwant to work with you because

(05:33):
you have that good name outthere in the industry.
Then on the nurture piece, wetalk about how no matter what
you do, you need to nurture yourprospects.
Because I've heard over andover, over 80% of the
co-prospects that reach out toyou, they need to hear your name
over seven times, at leastseven, ten or more times before

(05:55):
they even respond.
So making sure you have sometype of nurture in place,
whether that be a CRM, whetherthat be email, and we talk a
little bit about that, buthaving some type of nurture in
place.
And then the last one is sales.
So once you have all that inplace, how do you sell your
services?
Making sure that you have yoursales process in place so you

(06:16):
can convert the prospects intoprojects.

Mirjam Lippuner (06:20):
Yes.
So what does this look like inpractice?
And how are you supposed to usethese pillars um for next year?
So what we recommend is not tothink in days or weeks.
So don't think it's like, oh,tomorrow I'm gonna uh post, uh,

(06:41):
I don't know, schedule 10 postsfor social media or um, like not
even in weeks, you know.
Don't say, oh, next week Ireally am gonna focus on SEO,
you know.
But think about it in quartersbecause a quarter is a much,
it's a longer time frame and youit gives you actually the
opportunity to get things done.

(07:03):
So for example, instead oftrying to fix your website, your
social media, your emails andsales, all in January, you
decide, okay, my first quarter,I'm gonna work on the
foundation.
Like in second quarter, I'mgonna work on visibility, third
quarter, I'm gonna work onauthority.
And Q4 maybe is about nurtureand sales.

(07:27):
So in practical terms, whatcould this look like?
So a firm uh might potentiallysay, okay, in quarter one, and
it might start in January, ormaybe you start in February.
It's like you can decide yourown marketing year, so to speak.
There's never a bad time tostart.

(07:48):
Um, the best time is alwaysright now or next month.
Um so maybe in quarter one, youfocus on the foundation and you
start with your website.
You you update your home andyour services page, maybe your
portfolio.
You make sure that your sitereflects your current work and

(08:08):
your location.
It has all the basic must-havesof a website that Jason talks
about actually in a lot of thetrainings that we do.
So that's number one.
Maybe quarter two is visibility,and you don't have to go in this
order.
Like you pick the order that'smost relevant for you.
But maybe for visibility, youpick one main platform and you

(08:34):
set a simple weekly postingrhythm.
This could be Instagram, maybeit's um Instagram and Google um
business profile.
You could combine the two andyou focus on keeping your Google
business profile updated, whichis the number one thing that
Jason always talks about in thiscategory.

(08:58):
When it comes to authority,maybe that's your third quarter.
And you say, okay, these threemonths I'm really gonna honker
down and I'm gonna focus on PR.
Maybe you create a fantasticcase study or two that you can
um use on your own channels andpitch to the media.
And maybe you say, okay, I wantto at least pitch um one

(09:22):
regional or niche media outlet.
It could also be that you wantto get some quick press and get
some of those um press logos foryour website.
And then last quarter, you can,if that's uh what what um what
works for you, you do nurtureand sales.

(09:42):
You could do both at the sametime.
You start cleaning up or settingup monthly email newsletters.
And maybe you take a look atyour sales call script.
Like when people call you first,what how do you respond to that?
You know, do you have astructure?
Or you update your proposaltemplate.

(10:03):
Those are some of the truly mostbasic things that you can do.

Jason Lockhart (10:09):
Okay.
If you heard me earlier, I hadtalked about us having a
masterclass.
So in there, we go over allthese elements in detail.
So I might have that link in theshow notes.
But what I want to emphasize,whatever it is, whether you
listen to what we have for theplan in our masterclass or you
listen to somebody else, youneed to have some type of
accountability to make sure youimplement whatever it is you do.

(10:32):
Because if you are going to havesuccess in 2026, you need to
make sure that you have a planand you have some accountability
to help you implement.
That's an aspect of what we havein the master classes.
We talk about that and we helpyou iron that out and we have an
option at the end to help youwith the accountability piece.
So listen to that.
Like I said, I'll have a link tothat in the show notes, and we

(10:55):
would love to have you there.

Mirjam Lippuner (10:57):
Yeah, and I just want to say if you have
tried before and you havefailed, don't be discouraged,
right?
It's like we've seen this withum students in our academy
program and in other real-worldexamples.
It's like sometimes you have totry a few times, you know, maybe
you just weren't ready when youtried to get press coverage, or

(11:21):
maybe you're so frustrated withyour website and it's so
outdated you don't even want toget started.
But try again.
You know, I really I wouldencourage you just to try again
and and seek the help that youneed.
Maybe it's from a colleague,maybe it's it's from a family
member, maybe it's from a grouplike ours, but just find what

(11:45):
you need so you can moveforward.
And if it didn't work the firsttime or the second time, doesn't
mean it won't work the thirdtime.
So don't give up and and give ita shot.
Yeah, like Jason said, if we canhelp you in any way, if you want
to let us know what you want tofocus on in your first quarter,
we'd love to hear it.

(12:06):
Also, if you have any questions,always feel free to reach out to
us.
And we hope to see you back hereagain in two weeks on Designer
Discussions.

Jason Lockhart (12:16):
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Designer
Discussions and all of thehelpful information.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review, and share it with
your friends.
We look forward to having youback next week for more
information on the podcast andthe marketing studio.
Visit designer discussions.comand follow us on social media.