What is the first thing to do when your business starts to slow down?

Facing a business slowdown? Your first move shouldn't be panic—it should be strategic competitor analysis. Jason shares a powerful yet underutilized approach that helped one Dallas designer develop an entirely new revenue stream matching or exceeding her design business income.

The conversation begins with a sobering reality check about social media reach. With Facebook delivering only 2% organic reach, Instagram 9%, LinkedIn 5%, and Twitter 3%, designers must shift their perspective on social platforms. Rather than viewing them as daily marketing necessities, Jason suggests using social channels strategically for competitor intelligence.

This comprehensive analysis approach starts by identifying your true competition—both those you recognize and those search engines define as your competitors. By examining what they post, how frequently they publish, engagement rates, and especially which ads they run consistently (those running 90+ days are definitely working), you'll discover gaps in the market where you can provide unique value.

The beauty of this approach lies in its versatility. The insights gained from competitor analysis extend far beyond social strategy, informing your website content, service offerings, blog topics, and overall marketing direction. By understanding what resonates with your audience and identifying where competitors fall short, you position yourself to thrive regardless of economic conditions.

Ready to implement these strategies and more? Jason invites listeners to join the Designer Discussions Academy, opening for enrollment in October. This membership provides weekly actionable steps to simplify marketing and boost business growth in the design industry.

Take control of your business future now. Remember, your potential clients learn 80% of what they'll know about you before ever making contact—will they find you or your competition when searching for their perfect project?

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• https://www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-141-What-is-the-first-thing-to-do-when-your-business-starts-to-slow-down

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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
Jason, miriam and Maria.
Today we're going to bespeaking with Jason about what
is the first thing to do whenyour business starts to slow
down.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason
Miriam and Maria, where we talkabout marketing, pr and business

(00:25):
advice for design professionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:30):
Thanks, maria.
This actually ties into whatyou talked about in the last
episode about why you need tobreak up with your social media
and, as you had touched on inthere, the reach is nowadays is
not what it was in the past, andyou had me share some
information in terms of what thereach is now, and it was

(00:51):
accurate as of April, the 10thof this year, and we had talked
about Facebook.
You only get 2%, instagram 9%,linkedin, 5% and then Twitter
right around 3%.
So that is to say, if you wereto post anything, only that
percentage of your audiencewould see what you post.

(01:11):
So obviously you need to putmoney behind it, and that's what
all of the social mediaplatforms are heading towards.
So where we are and what ourviews is is that, if you're not
going to put money behind socialmedia, really you need to use
it more so for brand awarenessand not as you have to post
every day.

(01:31):
But if you only post once aweek, that's really all you need
to do.
And so what I was going to talkabout today is what I actually
taught on in the academy, which,if you all have not heard about
that, taught on in the academy,which, if you all have not
heard about that, we have anacademy where we actually teach
designers and remodelers how todo a lot of this, and I'm going
to give a high level overview ofwhat I taught in the academy.

(01:53):
What I taught can actually beused and should be one of the
first things you do.
When a slowdown happens and weall have been hearing about
there may be a recession andwhat's happening with the
tariffs.
Nobody knows what's going tohappen with the economy, but you
can be proactive in settingyourself up for success no

(02:16):
matter what happens with theeconomy.
So what I had talked about,which I'm going to touch on
today, is to do a competitoranalysis over social media.
Now, you may think we justtalked about not really
emphasizing social media, but atthe same time, if you do a
competitor analysis on yoursocial media, you're going to

(02:37):
learn a lot of information thatcould be applied throughout all
of your marketing channels.
I'm going to give an example ofthat towards the end as well.
So when you're actuallyanalyzing your competitors,
you're trying to understand whatis working and what's not
working in your particularmarket.
You can look at what ads arebeing run from your competitor

(03:00):
to understand if they arespending money, what they're
spending money on.
And what I had touched on is,if you look at what they spend,
if they run ads for over 90 days, obviously the ad is working
because they're not going tocontinue to spend money.
If they're a savvy businessowner or if they're working with
an agency, they know after 90days if they're spending money

(03:23):
on anything it's working.
So that's one of the thingsthat you can learn just by
analyzing what's happening withthe competition.
You want to also look at whatare they posting?
Okay, what's the frequency ofit?
What's the engagement rate onit?
Even though the engagement ratehas gone down, if you have 100

(03:44):
either subscribers or followers,then only 5% see that, and so
if you have an engagement offour or five people, that means
almost 100 percent of youraudience that saw the post
engage with it.
So that's a good number.
Even though it may not lookgood, you have to understand how
many people actually saw it Ifeverybody that saw that post

(04:04):
engaged with it, and you seethat consistently.
Now you want to take a look atwhat are they posting about.
Are they posting about projectsthat they're doing?
Are they posting about industryinformation?
Are they posting about theirteam?
Are they talking about any ofthe community service that
they've done?
See what they're actuallyposting about and what the

(04:26):
consistency of that is, becausethat'll help to tell you some
information.
So what I had touched on, too,is that you want to look at at
least four to five of yourcompetitors.
You want to take two or threeof the competitors that you
automatically know.
So you're going to know fromjust being in the business in

(04:47):
your own area for a while whoare your two to three top
competitors.
That's who you want to have inanalysis.
You want to also look at whothe search engine defines as
your competitor.
So what you want to do, youwant to head to either Yahoo,
google or any of the searchengines type in the service that
you provide and who are the topcompetitors that ends up on

(05:10):
search.
If they are not the same onesthat you automatically know as
your competitors, you need toadd them to the list, because
even though you may not viewthem as a competitor, the search
engines do.
That's what you want to definefirst is who are my competitors
in this industry for the sameservices that I offer?
Then you just want to look atare they advertising or
marketing to the same servicesthat are offered?

(05:30):
Then you just want to look atare they advertising or
marketing to the same audience?
You can easily look at that bylooking at their website,
looking at their social mediaaccounts to see, okay, do they
offer the same type of servicesI do?
If they do, then they areactual competitor.
If they do not, you may notwant to include them in that

(05:52):
list.
But assuming that you have fouror five now, you can look at
their social media accounts, notjust one.
Don't just look at Facebook.
You want to look at Instagram.
You want to look at LinkedIn.
You want to look at Twitter,all of the accounts that they
have.
You want to look at thatbecause some of your competitors
may post on Instagram but notFacebook.

(06:13):
Some may post on Twitter butnot Pinterest or vice versa.
So you want to look at theirwebsite and all of the social
media accounts that they areconnected to and then look at
the post on all of thoseaccounts.
And then look at the post onall of those accounts, because
as you look at that, you'regoing to find some good
information that will help.

(06:34):
No-transcript, but if you donot have that much time and you
just want to speed up theprocess, do at least a 90 day.
Look back at their post on allof the platforms that they're
connected to.
Do that for all four or five ofyour competitors.

(06:57):
I guarantee you you're going tolearn information that will
help you out.
I had talked earlier about aclient that we had worked with.
I'm not going to name her name,but she's a famous designer
here within the Dallas area.
We worked with her and did thesame analysis for her.
She found out a lot ofinformation that a lot of the

(07:17):
designers in this area were notdoing.
She was able to do a gapanalysis, which is, in essence,
looking at all information,seeing where there are gaps in
the industry, where there aregaps either in the service or
anything that anybody'sproviding and where you can add
value.
So she found gaps in theservice providers that were her

(07:39):
competitors, where she can addvalue.
She was able to capitalize onthat.
She actually opened up a newincome stream that made just as
much, if not more, than herdesigner business, and that was
all from the competitor analysis.
This may be like a mundane task,but if you take it seriously

(08:00):
and you analyze the competitors.
Like I said, analyze the onesthat you already know two to
three and then look at who thesearch engines define as your
competitors.
Analyze their social media andtheir website and you're going
to find gaps in this informationand inconsistencies.
What this is going to also tellyou, if they are posting and

(08:21):
have a lot of engagement, youcan analyze to see are you
posting with this sameinformation to your same
audience and is this the type ofcontent that you can add value
to, and this is not only forsocial media.
This is you can have this onyour website so you can add
blogs.
You can add this to the contentof your newsletter.

(08:44):
There are different avenues thatyou can use this information to
apply to all of your marketingstrategies, not just social
media.
This is an amazing analysisthat you need to take seriously.
Maria, and I taught this in theacademy.
If you have not heard about theacademy, go to the link that

(09:04):
I'm going to have in the shownotes so you can learn more
about it, because we're going tobe opening it up for the next
session in October and you willbe able to participate, because
it's going to only open inOctober and we're going to close
the doors and you need to beinvolved, because we have a lot
of designers in there that arelearning a lot applying it and
growing their business.

(09:25):
So if you want to be a part ofit, look at the link that I have
in the show notes.
Okay, that's what I want totalk about today, and we hope to
see you all here in two weekson Designer Discussions.

Maria Martin (09:35):
Did you know that your client learns 80% of what
they will know about you beforethey ever contact you?
Now imagine when your potentialclient searches for the perfect
kitchen remodel.
Will they find you or yourcompetition?
We can help you make sure it'syou.
Our Designer DiscussionsAcademy membership with your
favorite podcast hosts provideweekly steps to simplify your

(09:59):
marketing and boost yourbusiness.
Sign up atdesignerdiscussionscom or follow
the link in the show notes.
We hope you've enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review and share it with
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(10:21):
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