messaging + strategy

3 Keys to Successfully Raising Your Interior Design Prices

Have you ever felt like you’re leaving money on the table by undercharging for your design service while also feeling afraid to raise your prices? You’re definitely not alone!

I think pricing our services is one of the hardest things we do as business owners. Not only is it daunting to figure out where the fine line is between profitability and bleeding money, but our inner critiques can get loud in those moments demanding to know, “Just who do you think you are charging that much?!”

In light of all that, I get why interior designers are hesitant to act when business coaches and industry experts encourage them to raise their prices. Even when you know you’re underpriced, it’s not always as simple as just slapping a higher number on your services.

Having been through raising prices with many of my interior designer clients (it’s all part of building a messaging strategy that supports their goals), I think it’s important to navigate this change in a way that makes it feel aligned for you in the value you deliver to your clients and in your mindset. Otherwise, you’ll struggle to present your new numbers confidently.

So what goes into a good strategy for raising your rates?

First and foremost, I like to check in with my client to see what they’re thinking and feeling. If I can see they’re struggling but a price increase is truly in order for their business, we talk through their mindset challenges. It’s often enough for them that I–as someone who knows their business and the design industry deeply–can objectively point to specifics about the amazing value they provide their clients and affirm they’re justified in charging higher rates.

If that doesn’t resolve their hesitancy, you have to understand that the clients who got you here, may not get you there. When trying to reach the next level in your business, raising your prices probably means shifting to attract a different type of client (unless you know for sure your previous clients are growing with you and will be willing and able to pay your new rates).

As a brand strategist and copywriter for interior designers, I know that raising prices is about much more than just the money. It’s about delivering value, creating a luxury experience, and cultivating a trusting, fulfilling relationship between designer and client.

In order to successfully raise your rates, you need to make sure you’re delivering a premium client experience and top-quality designs, but you also need to use your brand messaging to position yourself as a high-end designer worthy of higher fees.

1. Start delivering a premium client experience

When you begin to move towards a higher level of clientele, (the level of clientele that’s able and willing to pay premium pricing) it becomes all about their experience. For these types of clients, it’s a priority to not only provide a smooth, stress-free experience for them, but to go above and beyond to fully handle every aspect of the project that they want you to, because these clients place a TON of value on this!

They want their designer to be the person that stands in the gap for them; the person who will make sure their design project gets from A to Z, by managing all of the things that come up along the way. They want you to manage all of the aspects that they don’t want to, and they’re willing to pay you the big bucks to do it!

That’s because this level of clientele doesn’t want to sacrifice their lifestyle for an interior design project. This is more than just providing a white glove experience, or treating the client like a VIP. This type of client wants their designer to take ALL of the project stress COMPLETELY off their shoulders, so they don’t have to think about anything but enjoying their lives!

For some clients, this means minimal involvement in the beginning, and then they want you to fully take the reins from there. Others will want you to run every major decision by them throughout the whole project, because a higher amount of involvement is enjoyable or even comforting to them.

Whatever the case, it becomes your job to meet them where they’re at, and deliver whatever type of experience and relationship to their designer that they want.

This requires you to cultivate an elevated level of empathy, intuition, and communication with your clients. (Don’t underestimate the value of these skills!!) That way you can ensure their experience working with you is enjoyable, highly catered to their needs, and luxuriously stress-free.

2. Shift your competitive edge to providing excellent quality design and service, instead of the lowest price

As a designer, if your primary competitive edge is to have the cheapest prices around, then the only way to increase your revenue is to sell more and work more. (No thank you!!) And if you’re nonstop hustling and stretching yourself too thin, you don’t have the time or bandwidth to deliver superb quality or a premium experience.

And that’s not going to attract the luxury level of clientele that will pay higher rates!

As business owners, we’re always trying to work smarter, not harder, so you need a sustainable way of operating that allows your business to grow in revenue. Not to mention, you want to be known for delivering top-notch quality!

For a lot of designers this means taking on fewer, but better-aligned projects at a time, (especially if you don’t have a large team.) That way, you have the capacity to give more focus and attention to each client project, allowing for an excellent level of quality that you can charge higher prices for!

It’s a “slow down to speed up” kind of thing. Take on less client projects per year, so you can knock those projects out of the park. (But make sure the projects you decide to take on are in alignment with your business growth goals!) In doing so, you’ll allow yourself the time and energy to deliver a luxury experience and top-notch quality that you can confidently charge a premium for.

3. Use brand messaging that positions you as a high-end designer

In order to attract a luxury clientele, you need to position yourself as a high-end designer in all of your brand messaging.

The copy on your website, emails, and social media should all reflect the premium experience you’re offering, and speak directly to the needs and desires of your upleveled ideal client.

Recently, a design firm reached out to me because they noticed their website copy was no longer in alignment with where they were at. They had gone through a major period of growth, and had reached the next level of success in their business! (Cue the champagne!)

But their brand messaging needed to catch up – It was still speaking to their previous type of client. So we created messaging that’s on par with the higher level of clientele and projects they’re now attracting. They even let go of their old tagline that they ADORED, because we knew it didn’t quite fit their new clients!

Now that their website copy speaks to their current ideal clients, they’re able to easily attract more and more of them. And their business will continue to soar to new heights!

After helping many designers with this process over the years, I’ve gleaned some valuable brand messaging tips to use when raising your rates. Here’s what NOT to do, and what to do instead.

Don’t go after clients who just want showy results. Instead, be mindful to cater your messaging towards those who value your time, creativity, and talent, and are willing to pay more for it!
Don’t make the mistake of talking about staying within the client’s budget or hint at saving them money. Instead, highlight the value you provide, especially how you make the process working together so simple and seamless for them!
Don’t use generic language that you think sounds high-end. Instead, draw them in emotionally with stories about what’s possible for their homes. Help them imagine what life will be like in the spaces you design for them!
Don’t stay attached to old messaging, as hard as that may be. Messaging that got you here, may not get you there, so be open-handed and ready to release anything that won’t work for achieving your new goals and pricing.
Don’t feel like you have to justify higher prices with larger scopes. Instead, think about your process and what you do for your clients beyond what’s obvious or expected. Then communicate how your clients will benefit from these things by highlighting them in your messaging.

Successfully charging higher rates takes an upleveled mindset, followed by strategic action steps that get you there. We can’t do the same things we did to get here, and expect them to get us where we want to be next, right??

If you’re ready to get your design business uplevel into motion, and don’t want to tackle the brand messaging part alone, I can help! It’s truly one of my favorite things to do!

Contact me here to schedule a no-pressure chat, so we can discuss your business goals and dreams. I’d love to hear about where you’re wanting to go, and see if I may be of service in helping you get there via your messaging.

Forget Ideal Client Profiles–What You Need is An Ideal Client & Project Checklist

11/19/24 by Deb Mitchell

Before starting Deb Mitchell Writing, I worked in-house for an amazing interior designer where I live. One of my most important roles was to take over their discovery calls. We joked that it was my job to help them decide who she would be ‘going to the prom’ with–and to ever-so-gently turn down the prospects who unfortunately weren’t a good fit.

As silly as our analogy was, I found it helpful to think of this as a match-making process. After all, she and her design clients would be spending a lot of time together discussing very personal decisions about their homes and their project budgets. Going beyond aesthetics and budgets to consider things like personalities and communication styles was critical for ensuring everyone involved had a good experience.

In order to help me process in real time whether each client and project was going to be a good fit or not so I could lead the conversation in the right direction, I created a checklist based on all the ‘boxes’ the designer wanted a client and project to check to be a good fit for her and her business goals.

Coming up with checklist items

Ideally, we’d all love a business filled with only the most perfect-fit clients and projects. But in the real world, things aren’t always so black and white. Being intentional about deciding who we work with takes critical thinking and strategy (neither of which come easily when we’re speaking to a prospective client who says they want to hire us!).

The key is to think it through ahead of time and capture it all in the form of an Ideal Clients & Projects Checklist you can have in front of you when you’re on that initial call.

In the case of the designer I worked for, we knew there were some items (boxes) that absolutely had to be in place (checked) in order for us to even consider the project. From there, we treated other boxes on a sliding scale, allowing us the flexibility to decide on a case-by-case basis when a project made sense for our purposes.

For example, say a project was in an inconvenient location. If it was definitely going to give the designer great photography for her portfolio and/or a potential press feature, we might decide to do it anyway–especially if the press was local or regional so it would get her in front of more of her ideal clients.

Or if the scope of a project was smaller than she preferred but the budget was generous for the spaces involved and the client had amazing taste, it might be a ‘yes’ in the name of creative fulfillment.

The dartboard analogy

Of course, we all want to work with clients and projects who “check all the boxes.” But realistically speaking, that’s pretty rare.

I like to think about ideal clients like a target on a dartboard. The clients and projects who check all the boxes are at the bullseye in the very center. They’re the smallest group. We aim for them in our messaging and marketing knowing that we’ll also land many (if not most) of our clients from the larger area just outside of the bullseye. These are the clients and projects that check most of the boxes, including our non-negotiables. For me, that means no newbies–they have to already have worked with a number of paying design clients–and if we’re doing their website copy, they have to give me the freedom to work with ALL the copy, not just their bio and service descriptions (btw, this is because I can’t get them the results they want otherwise).

If you get your messaging right and do a good job evaluating the checklist items on your discovery calls, you’ll cut way down on having to deal with bad clients. If one sneaks in, as they sometimes do, be sure to take the time to evaluate what you missed in the initial inquiry and conversations, then add that to your checklist so you’ll be sure to look out for it going forward. An experience with a client who was brand spanking new to the design industry is what led me to add the ‘no newbies’ item to my list. She simply didn’t know what she didn’t know yet and I realized I wasn’t comfortable having new designers invest with me to commit to messaging during a season of their business that’s inevitably steeped in rapid evolution and pivoting.

That said, one last thing about that dartboard of clients and projects: When we start our businesses, we work with just about anyone and everyone who’s willing to hire us. Think of this group as being represented by the third and largest circle on the board. They may check the boxes of being nice and great to work with but don’t get stuck in the trap of holding your business back in order to serve them. They helped get you where you are now, but they’re far away from your target and they won’t get you to the next level of growth you’re reaching for. If they ask, tell them about your new pricing and services. If they’ve grown with you, great! If not, they’ll understand and be happy for you and your growth. If they’re not happy for you, did you really want to work with them anyway?!

Implementing the checklist method in your design business

What I love about this method is that unlike an ideal client profile or avatar, it not only takes the characteristics of right-fit clients (and projects) deeper than mere demographics, but it also makes it super clear and easy to spot good fits and bad fits in real-life situations.

It also makes it possible to weigh and measure each situation based on what’s happening in the business at the moment vs. what our larger goals are. As you probably already know, these often compete with each other. It can get tricky when we’re presented with a project that’s great for the moment but may undermine us in the long run (think: a small project with a controlling client in a zip code you’ve been trying to break into when your goal is to focus on larger projects with clients who trust you fully).

I’ve implemented this practice in my business, with an Ideal Client & Project Checklist of my own that guides me in making great matches every time.

And now that I’ve realized how many of my clients struggle at every stage of business with deciding when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’ to clients and projects that come their way, I’ve started including this in their Brand Messaging, as well.

To get started, grab a free copy of my Ideal Client & Project Checklist template by filling out this form and personalize it for your needs!

At the end of the day, as business owners, the reason we shouldn’t work with certain clients isn’t because we simply don’t like them. It’s because they’re looking for something that we’re not best at giving them, be that a project experience we don’t provide, a service we don’t offer, or a result that we know we’re not best at creating.

And while you may feel pressure to say YES to every prospect who comes your way and is willing to pay you, working with misaligned clients is just setting yourself (and the client) up for an unsuccessful experience.

For this reason, I advise all my clients to make an “ideal client checklist”. And if we work together, creating your Ideal Client & Project Checklist is included as part of my Brand Messaging services.

Once you have a list of what’s important to you in a client and a project, it serves as a boundary to help you stick to your goals. It keeps what you’re trying to build for your business at the forefront of your mind as you vet your prospects.

You need to align in more ways than simply an agreement to a transaction. A well-thought out checklist is about setting yourself (and your client) up for the best possible experience, creating a business you truly love full of fulfillment and joy, and avoiding people and projects that could cause miserable setbacks and stress!

Are you settling for clients and projects that aren’t best for you simply because you haven’t thought about what you really want and need?

You may make money that way initially, but it’ll end up costing you in the end. You’re allowed to want more. And quite frankly, you deserve more!

(The exception to this is early on in your business or any time you find yourself really needing to bring in some money. In those cases, I recommend compromising on aesthetics over working with a client who doesn’t value you and/or who’s going to make your life miserable! In other words, even if a project isn’t aesthetically fabulous as long as you’ll be paid fairly, go ahead and take it but don’t have it photographed.)

How to craft your ideal client & project checklist

If you want to Get In The Room™ with amazing clients who’ll help you create a joyful, profitable interior design business you love, your ideal client checklist needs to include more than just the obvious (that they have the budget to work with you and that they want to hire you).

After all, making a bad match at the start makes for a bumpy road ahead with some very uncomfortable conversations with your client along the way at best and an unsuccessful project that leaves everyone involved unhappy at worst.

Avoid all of that and lay the foundation for an enjoyable, successful, and profitable project, by making sure your checklist puts other key aspects of a healthy working partnership front and center, as well.

To do that, first get clear on what your business needs and wants are right now and in the near future.

Ask yourself:

What do you need most right now from your business?
What are your business goals for the next 3-5 years?
What type of clients and projects will help you meet those goals?
What kinds of clients and projects do you need to start taking, stop taking, and/or continue taking in order for you to advance to the next level in your business?
What types of clients leave you feeling drained?
What types of clients light you up and inspire you?
What types of clients tend to give you the best feedback about your design work and processes (NOT about saving them money or ‘going the extra mile’ for them)?

Getting really intentional about your goals, and how you want work to feel, is an essential part to creating an ideal client checklist that moves your business in the direction you want it to go. How amazing is it that we have the power to mold our businesses into whatever we want it to be?!

Don’t forget to factor in your personal life.

I’m serious about this. Most entrepreneurs don’t take into account what’s happening in their lives outside of work when they set goals for their businesses. But personal demands on our time and energy can greatly affect what we can realistically give to our businesses.

For example, if you’re raising young kiddos you may have less capacity for design projects than if your kids are older and more self-sufficient. There are many clever ways to package and price your services to support your needs while helping you achieve your business goals.

Your personality is also something to consider. If you tend to be more introverted, for instance, you can put processes in place that cut down on the time you need to interact with clients, vendors, etc. to protect your energy.

Create your own checklist

Every designer’s checklist is going to be a little different; your ideal client checklist will depend on your personality, your business goals, what affects you emotionally in your work, and how you work with people.

That being said, here’s a general template to get you started:

Matching energy levels (Do you prefer high energy or super chill vibes?)

Similar communication style (Is it buttoned up and professional, or warm and casual?)
Aligned values (like caring about investing in sustainable products vs. that not being a priority)
Potential to give you great photography

An ideal client and project checklist acts as a touchstone for you as a designer. It’s something you and your team can use to vet prospects and–most importantly–keep you laser focused on saying ‘yes’ to the types of clients and projects that are best for your business and thinking twice about all the rest.

Putting my own ideal client checklist in place is the best thing I’ve ever done in terms of assessing if prospects are a good fit or not! I’ve learned you have to get really clear on exactly what it is that you want, in order to take intentional steps towards it.

Pumped up to create your checklist, but don’t want to go it alone?

When we work together to create your brand messaging, helping you create your Ideal Client Checklist is part of the process! We’ll customize one that’s individual to you and your business.

The first step to working with me is my Message Level Up service.

Contact me for a free discovery call or send me an email to see if we’d be a good fit!

How to Never Waste Money on Hiring the Wrong Writer for Your Brand (Spoiler Alert: Hire a Copywriter!)

9/04/24 by Deb Mitchell

If you’re like most of my clients, you probably wrote the copy for your first website yourself–and you certainly won’t get any shade from me for that.

In fact, I think it’s important to spend time working with paying clients at the start of your business before you invest money in developing your brand message. There’s just too much learning and evolving that happens in that first year or two of being in business to be able to solidify messaging.

But once you’ve been in business for a while, the time will come when you realize that your original messaging and copy needs to go. It makes total sense that as you evolve as a person, designer, and business owner, your brand messaging will need to evolve with you. You always want the voice of your brand to reflect where you currently are while also reaching to the next level you’re aiming for. And so, as you uplevel, your brand messaging needs to grow, as well.

You may even find yourself at that point right now and thinking you don’t want to DIY it again. Even if you had the time (which you don’t!), you know you don’t have the expertise to take your messaging and copy to the next level. You’ve been there, tried it yourself, and now you know it’s an outside job!

But once you decide it’s time to hire someone to write your website copy for you, it then becomes a question of WHO you should hire.

Believe me, you don’t want just any writer to be responsible for the words of your business (the one that you’ve worked SO HARD to build!).

That may seem super obvious, but I’m pointing it out because I find there’s often a disconnect with what it truly takes to write truly good copy. A lot of smart, well-intentioned business owners simply don’t know that there’s a massive difference between writing and copywriting–and that a professional copywriter is the only kind of writer that can give them the transformational results they’re looking for.

So how is copywriting different?

Copywriting is much more than just ‘good’ writing. It’s a strategic marketing and advertising profession that requires extensive training and practice. Copywriters need to be great writers who also understand the psychological aspects of marketing and communication, and know how to navigate best practices for standard and digital marketing.

It actually isn’t like any other form of writing. Being a good writer is only a starting point, but it’s only part of being a good copywriter who can write effective copy.

That’s why I cringe a little when designers tell me things like, “I’m a pretty good writer so I think I can handle my copy myself,” or “My web guy says he used to write movies so he can write the copy.” (True story!)

It’s not that I think these folks are going to write BAD copy with misspelled words and commas in all the wrong places. It’s that they don’t know what I know about copywriting, including methods of subtle persuasion, psychological and emotional strategies, and even how to leverage SEO and UX/UI principles. Even if they write copy that sounds fine, they aren’t going to be able to create copy that does everything it can and should do to attract their ideal clients, earn their trust, and give them a meaningful experience that moves them to reach out.

It’s no different than when people tell you they’ll handle their home’s design themselves. Even if they have great taste, they aren’t trained professionals with all of the knowledge and resources you have at your disposal. While you’re equipped to help them achieve all their goals and then some, their own abilities can only get them so far.

Good copywriting is about more than just sounding professional & polished

Taking it even further, I don’t just believe you should hire a professional copywriter–I believe you should hire a professional copywriter who specializes in writing for interior designers.

This is because there are so many nuances involved in marketing for the design industry. It’s luxury but it’s also high-touch and highly personal; it’s a service but it also involves selling products; it’s your personal lifestyle brand but it also needs to center around your clients’ wants and needs (not to mention the many regional nuances in aesthetics and home markets).

There’s no room for error here. You can’t hire a pro writer who’s used to writing for law practices and accountants and expect them to understand you and your clients. No matter how good they are at what they do, this is different. What you need from a writer is highly specialized.

You wouldn’t go to a heart surgeon to get a facelift or a house painter to commission a piece of original art, would you? Then why would you hire someone who doesn’t specialize in the design industry for your brand’s website copy?!

Even if you try to bring them up to speed on your needs, they’re not likely to be able to create messaging that sounds authentic to you and resonates perfectly with your ideal clients as they wrestle with writing for an industry they’re not familiar with.

While any professional writer worth their salt should be able to give you web copy that’s professional and polished, that’s just barely scratching the surface on what you actually need.

Truly good interior design copywriting is about:

Having a deep understanding of the nuances of marketing for the interior design industry and leveraging that knowledge to your advantage in your copy.
Strategically creating messaging that clearly and authentically articulates your values and who you are as a designer, so that you’ll attract clients and projects that are aligned with you on a deeper level (this makes for happier, more successful projects for everyone involved!).
Implementing integrity-filled, subtly persuasive messaging that gets right-fit clients to say ‘yes’ to hiring you, while subliminally deterring wrong-fit clients from inquiring
Using strong empathy skills to understand your ideal clients, speak their language in your messaging, and connect with them on a deeper level, forming lasting relationships with them BEFORE you’ve ever even spoken with them

Your brand messaging plays a MASSIVE role in how you experience working in your business. The words on your website can (and should!) do so much more than just sound pretty. If written with expertise and skill, they have the power to attract ideal clients who are excited to pay top dollar for your services, and to repel wrong-fit clients who would end up being a nightmare to work with and costing you money in the end. This kind of messaging is truly make or break when it comes to building a profitable business you love vs. unintentionally building one that drains the life and profit out of you!

Good copywriting isn’t about stopping at sounding polished and professional. It’s about getting you in the room with the right people–your ideal clients. Because that affects everything else in your business and your life!

4 ways to tell if a copywriter can give you killer copy for your interior design website

So now you know you need a trusted expert who knows your industry and your ideal clients really well–what they’re looking for in a designer, what they need to hear to trust you, and what language to use to connect with them. You want to be 100% sure you’re investing in the right writer and not just wasting your hard-earned money!

But with the stakes so high, how in the world do you figure out who the best person is for the job? Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered with 4 questions to ask any writers you’re considering to help determine if a copywriter is right for you.

Before hiring someone, look at samples of interior designers’ websites they’ve written copy for and ask yourself:

“What does your process look like?”

If it doesn’t involve asking you lots and lots of questions to understand exactly who you are, what your goals are for your business, and what your ideal clients really care about when it comes to hiring an interior designer, RUN! Even the best writers aren’t mind readers so if you want copy and messaging that reflects the ethos of your brand, they need to get everything about your business out of your head. Otherwise, they’ll be writing an essentially fictional representation of what they think your brand should be (in some ways, this is what PR writing is but it won’t help you connect with your ideal clients in a meaningful way and get you hired).

“Can you show me examples of your work with other interior designers?”

Sometimes amazing examples might not be on a writer’s website because they were hired as ghost writers, BUT they’re permitted to show you the work individually offline. And like you, we writers don’t always get our most recent projects up on our sites in a timely fashion! Look for clear, compelling brand messages; a strong sense of the type of client the designer wants to work with and the kinds of projects they’re looking to attract; and an easy to follow hierarchy of messaging throughout the site, with no confusing or conflicting messaging and not poorly organized information because a confused prospect never buys!

“What kinds of clients and projects do you most love to work with?”

If they love working with newbies but you’ve been in the biz for 20 years, it may not be a great match. The same goes if they like writing only for new websites but you’re looking to get new copy for your existing website or if their process requires more time from you than you’re able to give.

“What kinds of changes have your clients seen in their businesses after working with you?”

If the only thing a writer can promise you is new copy, something’s wrong. A good copywriter will be able to point to transformations and growth in their clients’ businesses such as attracting more and better clients; being able to articulate more clearly and confidently about their business on- and offline; attracting attention from the press; earning speaking engagements, etc. Copywriting is a marketing and communications service that helps you level up your interior design business in multiple ways, making it well worth the investment!

I hope that clears up any confusion you may have had about the differences between writing and copywriting, as well as shedding light on why hiring a pro who specializes in the interior design industry is the best way to never waste money on hiring the wrong writer for your brand again!

If you’re looking for an experienced pro copywriter who specializes in the interior design industry to help you level up your website messaging, I’ve got you!

Contact me here to get started with a free chat about your needs and goals, and to determine if we’re a perfect fit!

How to Become Fluent in Your Ideal Client’s Language

8/09/24 by Deb Mitchell

When one of my sons was in kindergarten, he came home telling me a story about a girl in his class. As he was describing the girl’s clothing, he referred to her as wearing a “topless dress”. Since I knew topless dresses didn’t exactly meet the dress code standard at his school, I was curious to figure out what he actually meant by this!

As I got him to explain more, I figured out that the girl was actually wearing a skirt, but his 5 year old mind had adorably and hilariously decided it would best be described as a “topless dress”.

While a skirt technically IS a topless dress, I had to teach him that the correct word we use for that item of clothing is “skirt”.

The language that we use is super important, and as cute as his mistake was, I didn’t want him setting off any alarm bells by incorrectly describing his classmate’s clothing!

As a copywriter for interior designers, I know that the first step toward connecting with your ideal clients is to speak their language in your online presence. Because connections are formed between people who feel like they’re on the same page–like they’re “speaking the same language.” And in the case of your clients, they first need to be able to even find you online and using the same language they’re using to search for interior designers is critical.

Metaphorically speaking, if they’re searching for a skirt, but you’re calling it a “topless dress” on your website, they won’t be able to find you!

For example, when I first started my writing business, I must have tried every possible iteration for ‘writer’ on my website (‘freelance writer,’ ‘website writer,’ ‘interior design writer,’ ‘marketing writer’). Even though I knew I was a copywriter, it wasn’t until I learned that most website designers direct their clients to hire a copywriter that I realized my people were actually looking for me using that terminology. Making the switch to describe myself as a copywriter and providing copywriting services for interior designers was a game changer for attracting my ideal clients!

If you’re not using the keywords on your website that they’re typing into their search engine, then your site won’t even pull up for them, and that initial connection won’t happen!

Once you nail down the right keywords and they DO find you, speaking your ideal client’s language in your website copy will also build a deeper connection to you.

You know that amazing feeling you get when you finally find a trusted professional that can help you? It’s like a doctor who listens to what you’re experiencing, adds their experienced take on the matter, and presents you with solutions to address the problem. You feel so much relief and comfort knowing that you’re in the good hands of an expert who hears you and who can guide you.

That’s exactly how you want your ideal clients to feel while reading your brand messaging. And in order to spark that deeper connection, your marketing materials need to be using language that resonates with them. You need to talk like you’re already listening to them.

Now, to be clear, I’m not just talking about tone or brand personality here. I’m also talking about your choice of words!

When you’re trying to grow your business by attracting the attention of your dream clients, you can’t risk miscommunication. Connecting through language is essential to getting you in the room with these people. And getting in the room with the right people is how you create a business that you love.

You have to translate “business owner language” into your ideal client’s language

It’s important to stay true to the brand personality that feels authentic and original to you. You want to speak in your own voice, and write the way you speak. You don’t want to sound like a copycat version of someone else!

But the words you use to talk about your business and describe your aesthetic are usually different from how your clients think and speak. So while you want to choose website messaging that beautifully captures who you are, it must also be wording that makes sense to your ideal clients.

This means that for your messaging to be successful, it’s critical that you find a way to translate the language you use as a business owner into the language of your ideal clients.

I know it sounds complicated, and quite frankly, it is. Which is why you need someone with marketing expertise who’s fluent in both languages, and can effectively do the translating for you.

Empathy is the key to learning your ideal clients’ language

So how exactly do you figure out your ideal client’s language? My best piece of advice is to think of empathy as your secret weapon!

Use empathy to put yourself in your client’s shoes, and really think about where they’re coming from. You want to consider things like:

What are their worries, fears, likes, and dislikes when it comes to hiring an interior designer?
What do they know and what don’t they know about working with a designer?
Which of your brand’s values can you highlight that actually matter to them, as well?
Is there anything specific or niche about the home market they live in?

Speaking to all of this in your messaging will create major points of connection by helping your prospects feel seen and heard by you–especially if you express it all using words they can readily understand.

When I’m creating messaging for interior designers, I use empathy LIKE CRAZY! Empathy allows me to pick up on important nuances other writers may miss. I’m using empathy to listen for what my clients care about, how they run their business, and what will make them happy and fulfilled. And at the same time, I’m also using empathy to put myself in their ideal client’s shoes, and think about what type of language THEY need to hear. It’s an empathy-fest around here 24/7!

When you work with me, I translate your design business owner’s language into the language of your ideal client. I work to preserve who you are and what you care about but I also troubleshoot the words you love from all angles to make sure we get it right. Because I know that sometimes a turn of phrase that sounds good in your mind, may land differently with your client and cause problems in your working relationship. And that’s definitely not what we want!

For example, here are just a few common language mistakes I see interior designers make:

“We’re a collaborative design firm” – I see this one all the time! As a designer you might say this to mean you work well with other industry pros, like contractors, architects, and builders OR that you have a team and you all work together on behalf of your clients. You may even mean that you work closely with your clients upfront as you get to know them and their tastes and lifestyle needs. That’s all well and good but prospects can interpret this to mean you welcome collaborating on the entire design with THEM! So if you keep attracting clients who micromanage you, or who send you pics every weekend of the ‘amazing piece’ they just found for the design, you may want to delete this word from your website and vocabulary!
“We work with your project, no matter how small” – Another common one I see! Unless you truly mean that you’re happy to put everything else aside to help someone pick between two potential backsplash tiles for $50/hour, you really shouldn’t say this. Prospects don’t know why it’s important to some designers to adhere to minimums (let alone that a ‘small’ project to you actually means a $20,000 powder room).
“We make sure to work within your budget” – While I get that you may say this to mean you’ll be a good steward of your client’s investment, there’s just way too much room for interpretation here. Prospects can (and do!) think this means you’ll be able to make any amount they bring to the project work for the scope of their project. If you’ve ever been hit with a prospect who wants you to furnish their entire living room for $5,000, this could be the reason why (also, HGTV, but that’s another topic altogether!).

These examples may not be as off the mark as my kindergartener’s “topless dress” verbiage, but still! Really thinking about how the words you put out there will be received by your ideal prospects can truly make all the difference in who you attract.

Pay attention to the language cues your current clients give you

Getting to know your ideal clients on a deeper level is a building process that can take time. But with each client project comes more experience to draw from, and you’ll begin to understand these people–and the language they use–more and more.

You can start learning their language by taking notes on who they are and what they say.

Pay attention to how they respond to you in real conversation. Think about how your clients react to the things you say. What makes them lean in and excitedly say, “Oh yeah, I get it!!” vs. what tends to leave them with a confused look on their face? Pull language from these points of connection to use in your brand messaging, and stay away from the wording that tends to cause a visible disconnect.
Pay attention to the off-the-cuff words they use to describe your work. (Particularly in casual modes of communication.) Look for these clues in their texts and emails to you, instead of their official testimonial. For example, if they send you a text exclaiming, “I just saw the new living room. I love how light and airy it feels!” Boom – now you’ve got some great descriptive words to describe your aesthetic! You know that “light and airy” could really resonate with new ideal prospects, because this is the type of language your current clients are using to describe your work.
Pay attention to what they care about. Are your ideal clients people who love to go to the classical symphony, or are trendy music festivals more their vibe? Are they seasoned art collectors, or are you introducing them to original art for the very first time? You’ll need to speak very differently to these distinct groups of people.

As an interior designer, if you aren’t aware of the importance of thinking through your ideal client’s lens, you may end up trying to write your copy with words from your own head. Or you’ll end up cherry-picking phrases from other people’s messaging, which won’t sound truly authentic to you. Neither of which are speaking in a way that resonates with your ideal client!

However, when you translate your messaging into language your ideal clients understand, you’ll start attracting more of those clients. Recently, a designer I’m working with emailed me in the middle of our website copy project to say she was already noticing a huge change in more aligned inquiries, just based on the first pieces of messaging we started putting out there! I’m telling you, this stuff really works!!

So my question for you is – Are you absolutely sure you’re speaking the language of your ideal client on your website and messaging? If not, I can help!If it sounds amazing to have someone come in who’s fluent in design business language and the language of your ideal client, contact me here and let’s talk about it!

It’s About the People, People! The Secret to Creating a Fulfilling, Profitable Interior Design Business You Love

7/12/24 by Deb Mitchell

Let me ask you a question. Have your clients ever said anything like this to you?

“I don’t understand how you and the other 3 designers I’ve been through on this project can’t get it right.”

“This experience has been worse than bearing my husband.”

“I thought you were good at this, why can’t you figure out what’s in my head?”

“I would’ve thought that for $1500 you would’ve given me so much more than this.”

Believe it or not, these are all things interior designers have told me their clients have actually said to them. Yes, I’m for real!!

As you can probably imagine, working with the people behind these quotes wasn’t exactly a walk in the park for my clients. In fact, most of them were nightmare clients that made my clients miserable.

If you’ve ever experienced a nightmare client like this, then you already know how awful and stressful of an experience it is. It can take a toll on your confidence, and make you question your abilities. It can even make you start to wonder if you picked the wrong career! But the problem isn’t YOU! It’s just the wrong-fit clients affecting how you feel in your business.

And here’s the thing – there’s an abundance of great business advice out there. But all the best business tips and tricks in the world won’t make you happy in your business if you’re working with people who treat you badly!

After a decade of seeing my designer clients through all the many highs and lows of their businesses, it’s glaringly obvious to me that what makes or breaks their entire experience is their clients. You can have the best business model, be the most talented designer, have all the right logistical pieces in place, and still be miserable and unprofitable in your business if you’re not attracting the right kinds of clients.

If you want to build a profitable, fulfilling, design business that you love, it’s all about working with the right-fit people!

Right-fit clients and wrong-fit clients create two totally different business experiences

We all have past experiences–whether professional or personal–with people who’ve affected us negatively. We know how emotionally and energetically draining it can be to interact with someone who nitpicks, criticizes, micromanages, steamrolls, or just plain doesn’t seem to value us.

It’s no different in your design business. If you’re (unintentionally) attracting clients who push back constantly, put you on the defensive, and/or try to make you feel terrible about yourself and your work, you’re going to be miserable. Even the tasks that are usually super easy breezy for you will feel like you’re pushing a boulder up a hill.

If I had a dime for every designer who cried on calls with me because their clients were TERRIBLE! It breaks my heart for them!

Too much of this and you’ll end up hating your business altogether. Not to mention, you’ll be spending so much time and energy trying to please those wrong-fit clients that you’ll be leaking money left and right!

You’ll know you’re working with the wrong-fit clients if they:

don’t value you or your services
try to micromanage you
don’t trust your design advice or decisions
limit your creativity
are slow to pay you and question your fees
make you cry

On the other hand, when you’re set up to attract clients who are the right fit for you, your business (and life!) is a whole other ballgame. Taking your business goals, differentiators, and personality into consideration to figure out what kinds of clients you need to attract means you get to run a business that’s in alignment with everything about who you are and what you want–not just what others are saying you SHOULD do.

Messaging and marketing that get you in the room with clients who are the right fit for you will change the game, giving you a business you’re in love with again, filling your days with ease and flow, and letting your creativity and profitability soar! It’s ALL about the people!

Though the specifics of right-fit clients vary for every designer, they all…

value your time and treat you like a professional
respect and trust your expertise and experience
are good communicators
appreciate your creativity and love your ideas
pay you on time and without question

There’s a night and day difference between running your business with right-fit vs. wrong-fit clients, right?! I so want the better, easier, more profitable one for you, my friend!

Tailor-made brand messaging is the gamechanger you need

If you’ve followed me for a while you know I feel strongly about creating custom brand messaging for all my clients–and this is why. It’s the key to getting in the room with the right clients!

When your brand messaging is focused on addressing the needs of your ideal clients in language that resonates with them, you can’t help but attract them!

And we’ve already established that working with ideal clients = a design business you love, right?!

When done right, tailor-made brand messaging will:

Show who you authentically are – so that prospective clients get an accurate feel for you online. They want to hire a designer they can vibe with; someone who feels like “their kind of person,” who shares their values, and whose design style they love. The better you showcase who you really are in your messaging, the more you catch the attention of aligned clients!
Speak to the needs of your ideal client – so that they feel seen, heard, and understood by you on a deeper level. They want to entrust their home to someone who really understands their needs and who they can communicate with. The more effectively your messaging communicates this, the more on target you’ll be with attracting your dream clients!
Conveys the value you bring to your ideal clients’ projects – so that they aren’t left guessing why your fees are what they are, but instead start their projects knowing you’re worth every penny and more!

All in all, the right custom messaging is the tool to getting right-fit clients who’ll allow you to build a fulfilling, profitable, interior design business that you love.

My unique approach to creating brand messaging that gets you in the room with the right clients

My approach to creating effective messaging is a tried and true system that centers around your authenticity and your ideal client.

My goal is to get you in the room with good, kind, respectful clients who’ll trust you and value your work, and the way to do this is to work your business strategy and messaging around THEM.

But first, we have to deeply understand who those right-fit clients are for you. What do they value in their homes? What are they looking for in a designer? What kind of language can we speak to earn their attention and trust?

Once this is nailed down, I shine a spotlight on these clients in your messaging. Even when the messaging is about you, I angle it to show how it benefits them. We’re not trying to write a resume or an IMDB bio here, folks. This is all about your ideal clients and how you’re the right designer for them.

My Message LevelUp service is the first step. This is a deep-dive session where I ask you all the right questions to get everything out of your head and get a 360° view of you and your business.

Then I create a detailed written report called the Message LevelUp Roadmap, where I define your best messaging opportunities. I advise you on what to start doing and what to stop doing with your brand messaging, so that you start attracting your ideal clients like moths to the flame!

You’ll get a ton of value out of this service alone, but most clients opt to have me help them apply the recommendations to their messaging, web copy, and other marketing and communication touchpoints.

So, my question for you is – Which kind of business are you running right now?

One that you love or one that’s draining the life out of you?

If it’s the latter, and you’re ready to change that by getting in the room with the dreamy-fit clients you deserve, we should get in touch!

Schedule a call with me to learn more and see if a Message LevelUp session would be right for you!

Differentiate to Dominate: A Game-Changing Brand Strategy Approach for Interior Designers

4/04/24 by Deb Mitchell

Let’s face it – The interior design industry is a crowded marketplace and you need all the help you can get to stand out in it.

When prospects come across your website, the last thing you want to be is forgettable. You want the messaging of your brand to stand out, make a big impression, and grab the attention of your ideal clients so that you can own your market and dominate the field!

When I was in middle school, I went through a fashion phase that was inspired by the pages of Seventeen magazine. While everyone else was sporting edgy hair band tees and jeans, I was the girl in preppy sweater sets and loafers. You can imagine how much I stood out – Everyone knew who I was. Not so great in middle school, but EXACTLY what you want in the design industry!

I see a lot of designers falling into the trap of sounding like everyone else. They feel pressure to use the same designer-y words that other designers are using, because they think this keeps them on par and professional. But staying on par with what everyone else is doing is no way to stake your claim in the industry!

You want to show your ideal clients that you’re the absolute perfect designer for them, and that’s not going to happen by using vanilla-sounding language. You’re never going to stand out by wearing the same “hair band tees and jeans” as everyone else; you need to figure out what your “sweater sets and loafers” are, and nail that down in your messaging!

The better your brand messaging captures the magic of your unique essence, the better it’ll match you with the clients that fit your vibe.

And figuring out how you can authentically stand out from the crowd, is how you start to dominate the market.

Why differentiation is the key to brand messaging that stands out

If you asked me for a tried and true way to make your messaging “YOU”, I’d tell you the key is to focus on differentiation.

When I work with designers to create their website copy, uncovering their differentiators is my number one priority!

So what exactly are brand differentiators? They’re the features of your business that are unique enough to set you apart from the competition and resonate with your ideal clients.

Differentiators often show up in areas like:

Your aesthetic
Your background
The client experience you deliver
Your personality
Your processes
Your service offerings/specialization
The ideal client you serve

After working with interior designers for nearly a decade, I know differentiating yourself might feel a little daunting. As much as you want to stand out, you may also feel pressure to have a website that looks and feels just like everyone else’s–especially the big names in the industry (if I had a dollar for every time a client told me they want their site to be ‘just like Kelly Wearstler’s!’).

Or, you may worry that if you differentiate yourself too much, you might scare away certain clients, and you don’t think you can afford to do that just yet.

If that sounds like you, I get it, but I also know that these fears are unfounded. You’re far more likely to lose business by failing to stand out from the crowd in the first place than you are by repelling a few potential clients (who aren’t a great fit for you anyway!) because you differentiate yourself.

When you have killer brand messaging that’s built around your differentiators, that’s when you see your business really start to reach new heights!

Every designer has differentiators–no exceptions

Think you don’t have any real differentiators? You’re not alone. I’ve worked with many designers who started out thinking they weren’t special or unique in any way. But in nearly a decade of working with designers, I have yet to meet a single one who didn’t have their very own unique key differentiators.

Whether big or small, everyone has something that can make them stand out and attract the attention of their ideal clients. It’s just a matter of uncovering what that is and working it into their brand messaging.

Differentiators attract ideal clients and deter wrong-fit clients

One of the things I love most about leveraging differentiators in my clients’ brand strategies is that they pull double duty! First, differentiators put out a welcome mat for your dream-fit clients. When your messaging is crystal clear on who you best serve and why, it’s like lighting the way for your ideal clients to find you.

Secondly, and just as importantly, your differentiators also put up a big red stop sign for the clients that are less than ideal for you.

Again, even though it may seem scary, this is a good thing because wrong-fit clients tend to suck up your valuable time and can be difficult to please. They can even wind up costing you money in the end.

How to Figure out Your Differentiators

Because the approach I use centers around differentiation, we focus on finding all the ways–big and small–that you’re different from other designers, and how you’re the perfect designer for your ideal clients. While my process is pretty extensive as we dig deep into your background, your goals, and your talents to find your unique differentiators, it all boils down to two basic steps.

Step 1 – Understand your ideal clients on a deeper level

It’s not enough to know that your ideal clients have the budget to afford your services and that they want stylish, functional spaces. You need to understand your clients on a deeper level so you can better speak to their needs in your marketing. When you’re able to connect in this way, showing them you really understand them, you get hired.

Things like what your ideal clients are looking for in an interior designer, what scares them about hiring a designer, and what makes you the ideal designer for them, are what you’re looking for here.

Another important thing to think through is how your process and services match with what clients in your area are looking for. For example, is there a lot of new construction underway in your area, or is remodeling existing homes more so what’s happening? Do other designers in your area advertise a fast-tracked, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am approach to design while you offer a true white glove, concierge-level service clients there are clamoring for?

The last thing you want is to lean on differentiators that your market simply won’t support so make sure you’re leading with what clients near you are looking for.

Step 2 – Determine what makes you unique

Sometimes designers assume that if they want to stand out, they have to create a super specific niche.

But I’m here to tell you that even if you don’t specialize solely in designing playrooms for children of rock stars or using your Ph.D. in astronomy to create designs that capitalize on night sky views, no worries.

Differentiating yourself doesn’t have to mean niching at all. You can still stand out based on what’s authentic to you.

When I’m brainstorming with my clients about their differentiators, I’m asking questions like:

Is there something unique or counterintuitive about your designs?
What do you give your ideal clients that they wouldn’t get with another designer?
What do your ideal clients have in common with each other?
Is there something unique about your background or experience?
Is there one project type you prefer over others?
What part of your business’s client experience are you most proud of?
What positive feedback do you consistently receive about your work?

This 2-step approach works because it relies on who you actually are, and what you really want for your business; not what other designers are doing. It’s rooted in getting you in the room with the right kinds of clients who’ll value and appreciate you–and most importantly, who believe you’re worth every penny!

Some Dos and Don’ts of Interior Design Brand Differentiation

After years of experience working with interior designers, I’ve got differentiation down to a science. Here are some tips for using it in your own brand strategy.

The Don’ts

Don’t try to be different just for the sake of being different. This will only lead you down a path of focusing on the wrong things, leading to inauthentic vibes that won’t feel good to anyone. Your clients will be turned off, and you won’t be proud of your messaging.
Don’t try to reinvent the wheel. The terminology you use for your services and processes can and should be similar to the market standard so clients can have an apples-to-apples comparison. This is one area where trying to look different can actually diminish your credibility. Potential clients may get confused, or worse, conclude that you don’t know what you’re talking about because you’re speaking a different language from other designers they see online.

The Dos

Do keep your ideal clients in mind at all times. It’s all about the client. I’m not joking. Keep them at the heart of your messaging at all times, including choosing your differentiators. What differences matter most to them? What do they care about? If you think you have a differentiator but it doesn’t make any difference to your ideal clients, it won’t be valuable in your messaging.
Do communicate your differentiators with confidence. Don’t be afraid to really shine. Your confidence is what makes you stand out, commands the attention of prospective clients, and makes them feel like they’re in the capable hands of a trustworthy professional. Many of the designers I work with are lovely, humble people and they struggle with feeling ‘braggy’ when highlighting their uniqueness in their messaging. But if there was ever a time to toot your own horn, it’s in your brand messaging. Plus, being worried you might be bragging is a sure sign you have absolutely nothing to worry about!

When you use my “Differentiate to Dominate” brand strategy, you stand out in all the right ways. You position yourself to get in front of your perfect-fit clients and lay the foundation for a lasting connection with them. I believe in this method for good reason–I’ve seen it help my clients dominate their market of the industry again and again for over a decade.

Are you ready to uplevel your brand messaging by uncovering your differentiators, but don’t want to go it alone? We need to talk! Contact me to chat about working on it together! And in the meantime, check out my Easy Guide to Finding Your Brand Differentiators.

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