Deb Mitchell Writing

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Design or Copy: Which Comes First When Getting a New Website???

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Interior Design Copywriter Deb Mitchell Writing

It’s a more important question to ask than you might think.

Maybe you, like a lot of business owners, think it’s only natural to hire a designer first. That way, you’ll have your website all mapped out so you’ll know what copy you need when you go to a copywriter – right?

Not so much.

As a copywriter for interior designers, all-too-often I find myself having to give my website copy clients the bad news:

The site they had a web designer meticulously create for them needs changes. Lots of changes.

While it’s not the end of the world (at worst the web designer might charge you some steep change fees) it usually means a cranky web designer who would love to bop me over the head for creating all of their rework and a cranky you for not being as close to the finish line as you’d thought..

All of that unpleasantness is easily avoided, though, IF you follow my advice:

Have a copywriter write all your website copy before you even discuss your site with a website designer. 

In fact, designers almost always prefer to build a site around actual copy. Not having it all done and at the ready can stall your project. Your designer may even need to move you to the back of her project queue so as not to delay her other clients, as well.

Actually, the truly perfect scenario is hiring both your designer and your writer at once and having them work together on crafting your site. I’ve forged great relationships with a handful of amazing web designers and developers for exactly that purpose and the results are always outstanding.

It’s like when you have an interior design client who brings you in to weigh in on their house plans only after the architect has drawn them up.

Painful, right?! If they’d only hired you first, you wouldn’t be stuck having to choose between trying to shoehorn your ideas into the existing plan or recommending costly changes.

Just like you, I’m looking to help my clients achieve the best possible end results. That means I need to be able to weigh in on choices like page layouts and where copy is and isn’t needed.

Maybe we need to visually map out your process so your prospects get the picture. Maybe we need to clean up your portfolio or add a press page. Whatever it is, there’s almost always something that – because I know the interior design industry so well –  I’ll think of that your web designer won’t.

The bottom line is, you and everyone else involved will be so much happier (and your website will be done quicker and better) if you work with a copywriter first.

Gearing up to get a new website? Let’s chat!

All the best,

4 Steps to Slaying the Marketing Beast for Your Interior Design Biz

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Interior Design Copywriter Deb Mitchell Writing

 

In my last blog post, I talked about how utterly overwhelming and intimidating the “marketing beast” can be.

Even when we know how important it is to be constantly marketing our businesses in order to stay in business, making marketing a regular task seems totally impossible. It’s like putting “Raise great kids” or “Save the rainforest” on our to do lists.

Too much. Too hard. Too everything.

But in the interest of helping you tame the marketing beast (aka, eat the elephant, take a journey of 1,000 miles, insert other making-something-daunting-feel-achievable metaphor here), I’ve broken the mega-concept of marketing your interior design business down into 4 simple steps.

1.     Have something to say – because you can’t sell what you can’t put into words

2.    Stand in your prospects’ shoes to test your message for clarity and appeal

3.    Be strategic about what, when, where, and how to say it

4.     Make it all easier by planning ahead

Admittedly, this isn’t a 5-minute process. I’m not trying to make what’s actually a majorly important responsibility for you as a business owner seem easy peasy.

I just want you to see marketing for what it really is – talking about your business clearly and confidently with your prospects at the front of your mind at all times.

The point is, in order to stop the cycle of either doing nothing to market your design business (and as a result being subject to waiting passively for your phone to ring) or on the flip side, throwing major money and/or time at marketing efforts you’ve heard might sometimes possibly kinda sorta work for others, you’ve got to get your head around what marketing effectively looks like for you and your business.

Think about it – even big corporations scale, focus, and strategize their marketing efforts based on what they’re trying to achieve and who their prospects are – so why shouldn’t you?

You don’t have to do what everyone else is doing – and you shouldn’t. But you should make well-thought-out decisions about what you need to communicate to the world about your business. And by ‘the world’ I mean carefully selected online and offline marketing channels!

Just like my philosophy on effective writing, I believe effective marketing happens mostly by thinking it through before you commit anything to paper/website/blog/email sales funnel.

I know this probably brings up loads of questions for you –

“How do I know what I need to say in my marketing?”

“Even if I come up with a marketing message, what do I do with it from there?”

“How do I make sure I’m communicating to the right people?”

“How do I plan my marketing? What does that even look like?!”

Even so, asking those questions is progress over thinking of marketing as just one giant ball of WHAAAATTT?!

These are still really big questions, though, and truth be told, the answers are very personal and specific to you, your prospects, and your current business goals.

That’s why I’m creating a solution to help you answer all of that and more in a step-by-step system created just for interior designers.

I’ll be unveiling more in the coming weeks about this awesome resource that I truly think will change your marketing (and your design business!) forever.

I can’t wait to share it with you, but all of the techie stuff isn’t totally ready to roll yet. Once it is, you’ll be able to pop it in your shopping cart and get started right away. Eeeeeeee!!! I’m so excited!!!

I’ll be posting a link to get it soon, so keep following me on social media and on the blog. Oh, and tell your designer friends too. No keeping something this fab to yourself!

All the best,

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