How does DIY content attract paying clients or customers?
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In today's post, I want to discuss a really good question I was asked recently, about why I create content for other designers.
Before I dive into that, if we haven't met before, my name is Katelyn and I run Launch the Damn Thing®.
I am a graphic designer by trade, turned freelance Squarespace web designer, and now also an Educator, ––which ties into today's topic perfectly.
So let's dive right on in!
Why Designers Create Content for Other Designers
Screenshot of the question asked
I’ll start by reading one of the comments that inspired this discussion.
Someone in the Club recently, asked this question in the community, and honestly I realized it was something I’d wondered in the beginning of my business journey too, so I jotted it down for a topic to cover here with you too!
She said,
"as I go deeper and deeper into the web design world, one thing I keep seeing over and over that I want to ask about is why we as designers make so much content geared toward other designers. Okay, so I know that other designers love to follow other designers for tips and tricks. I also understand that will help your position on Google with content that starts getting more clicks and ranking higher, but the trend that I see with so many Squarespace designers is that their blogs, social media posts, emails, YouTube channels create the majority of their content for other designers. Is it just a byproduct that you get clients from this? I'm trying to figure out how this actually equals leads and more clients. Please help me understand this head scratcher."
Can you guess my answer?
Yes, and no. 😂
Whatever the assumed reason is, –that probably ain’t it. 😉
The Strategy Behind Content Creation
So let's dive in and break this down because what she suggested IS exactly what I'm doing, and I'm super intrigued that she noticed this was a trend in the web design industry.
First of all, you shouldn’t assume that educators like myself ARE actually targeting ONLY other designers in our content. For example, this Blog & my YouTube channel are not just targeting other people that want to what I do, it’s also helping other content creators using Squarespace (or Notion, or ConvertKit, or ThriveCart, or Dubsado, etc).
Creating content often naturally segments your audience into multiple separate buckets.
For me specifically, my blogging (and later YouTube-ing) ended up doing that kind of by accident, to be perfectly honest. I did NOT do this on purpose. It just kind of happened… and I was happy with it!
So lemme explain. 🤪
The Two Buckets
Bucket ❶ = DIYers
For DIYers in general, they're searching Google to solve a specific problem, right? So if you create content that answers one of those questions, they're going to naturally be able to find you or other posts like yours. Not all of them, of course, it takes time to build up a ranking with Google, but your goal of the post is to give them a quick win fo’ free.
The goal is for them to be able to answer their own question. They can DIY. They can solve it. This process over time is creating “Know, Like and Trust” with that audience and they're going to come back to YOU (who they know, like & trust) for more answers to more questions.
Eventually, that may mean that you could sell them a low ticket offer, such as a template or low ticket service like a consult call or website audit.
After a while, they may also come to you for low ticket services. For example, if they need something done and don't want to do it themselves, maybe that's a VIP Day instead of jumping straight into a large custom web design project.
At the same time, while these people are finding you on Google to solve their problems, over time, Google begins to understand that these people, that pool of people that are looking for DIY solutions, are finding value in YOUR content.
They're staying on your pages for a longer period of time. More people are clicking on you versus somebody else’s ‘how to’ post, and eventually that increases your rank on Google so they're going to show you to more people… and that cycle repeats and builds on itself.
So that's one bucket: the DIY people.
Bucket ❷ = New Designers
At the same time, because you are naturally teaching in that environment, you're also going to accidentally attract (potentially) the beginner version of you, right? Because you are teaching other people a skill they are searching for & hoping to learn themselves.
There’s a different reason that they want to learn that thing.
DIY people are doing it out of sheer necessity. Maybe they can't afford to pay for the service provider yet, but the people who want to learn it for the sake of knowing how to do it for other people, are learning it because they want to offer the service.
Totally different reason, but they're BOTH looking for the same material, ultimately. So if you produce the material, you're probably going to end up attracting both types.
How Content Converts: From Freebie to Client or Customer
A percentage of the total audience becomes the DIY people, and eventually maybe they decide that their DIY path is too hard; they lose interest in doing it for themselves.
They're trying to do something that they're just genuinely not very good at. That’s something that several of my custom web design clients have told me. “I have tried the DIY route, I hate it. I don't love it. I can't get it to look the way that I want.”
So they end up coming back to me for the service because maybe they learned something helpful from my blog beforehand. They’ll also know that I provide web design services because I’ve TOLD them so in the posts. They already trust me because I've helped them solve problems on their own and now they're ready to pay me just to do it for them. So that ends up bringing me a client kind of by accident, even when the goal had been JUST to help them solve a problem on their own.
The other part is that if you have your system set up for freebies, for example, for a DIY audience you could also potentially add them to a funnel that could lead them toward some sort of paid product or service that you offer, which would be the natural next step in the process. In other words, what would they need to know or do next, after whatever they learned in that freebie?
Let's say you have a freebie that is really good at bringing you potential leads and clients. If they sign up for that freebie and then you send them an automated email a week later that says, “just checking in to see how [that thing] is going! Did it work for you? If it didn't, book a call here & we’ll walk through it together.” Maybe the call costs, I don't know, $100 or something, so they’d be paying for your time & expertise to help them troubleshoot the free thing you gave them.
Potentially, that DIY person who got free content could turn into a client anywhere from a low ticket offer (a templated product), or even a low ticket service (VIP Day) or a high ticket service (custom web design).
It totally depends on where they are in their business journey, and you just don't really know who you're going to attract, ––unless you are really strategic about the type of content that you produce, who exactly will be looking for that content, & in what stage of their business/buying process they’re in.
Consistency & Strategy are Key to Building an Audience
Consistency Keeps you Top of Mind
Now let's talk about the content schedule. If you're consistent over a long period of time ––and we're talking 6 to 12 months here, because this is a long game–– the content builds on itself.
It's not going to be an overnight success story, though. You're not going to publish posts for four weeks in a row and then start getting 100,000 page views per month. It's just not going to happen that way!
BUT, if you're consistent and you have a predictable schedule, in that people that come to your website know that every Tuesday, there's going to be a new post, or every other Tuesday there's going to be a new post, (whatever the schedule is as long as it's predictable), you’ll stay top of mind with your audience as it grows.
So create & post interesting, high value content that actually solves a problem, and make sure it also solves a problem in a different way than other people that have already solved it.
For example, my website tends to be very detail-oriented with a lot of step-by-step guides, but I also tend to be very casual and friendly as I talk about it and walk you through it.
I have lots of screenshots, actionable tips throughout, a table of contents in most posts, helpful resources & links everywhere that’s relevant, and relatively skim-able sections in the post to help you find the bit you’re most curious about. Now I also have videos that go with many of the blog posts. So you can read it if you want to, or you can watch the video if you prefer that.
So my blog has a lot of high value, interesting content. Even if the topics themselves are dull, I try to always throw in a GIF, some imagery (screenshots, examples, code snippets, etc), to break things up.
Strategy Keeps your Content Relevant for the Right People
The goal is make sure that your post topics match actual searches that real people are looking for answers to, especially when you have an edge on that topic –whether it’s how you present the information or your special secret sauce to fix it faster/better/etc.
For example, the question “how do I contact Squarespace support?” will be an upcoming blog post topic because I have been asked that question so many times, and I keep saying the same thing over and over again. It would be MUCH more helpful for me if I created a piece of content where I can be like, “this is the guide. Go read or watch that.”
So that's the kind of content you're trying to produce. If you create high value, interesting content that answers questions people are actually looking for, then you need to be doing keyword research to help you learn what people want to know BEFORE you create any content. Without that, you're just going to end up creating an audience for/of yourself. 😬😂🤦🏼♀️
The small portion of that audience is going to turn into either a client or customer for you IF you tell them how, which leads me to the next tip!
Monetizing Your Posts Reminds Them How Else you Can Help
You do need to monetize the blog posts, if you want to help offset the effort you put into creating all that free content. Basically, there needs to be some sort of call to action in each post. You can't just provide the solution and be like, “well, that was fun! Hope it works out for ya!” and expect to get clients from that.
Leaving them hanging without planting that seed is not going to tactfully suggest anything of the sort to that person ––who was not at all thinking at that moment, “I'm going to hire her for my next problem.” You need to plant that seed yourself and let it grow on its own.
At the end of the post, it's always a good idea to sign off with some sort of related call to action, such as, “if you had trouble figuring this out, I have a service for you” and link a button to send them in that direction if they’re ready. Or, “if you had trouble with this, I have a template and these other blog posts that might help!”
Guide them through the experience and give them related material that they may actually be interested in. That's going to actually help them get the shit done, right? And that's kind of the whole point!
You're trying to help these people! 😃 You're NOT trying to sell for the sake of selling. You're helping, and then maybe it's also a sale because you helped first.
Keyword Research with SEOSpace
If you want help with keyword research, I highly recommend that you go check out SEOSpace*. They're the “Yoast for Squarespace” and are super DIY-friendly. Their SEO tool will help you get that research done more effectively at an affordable price, with an incredible amount of support in their community.
Their tool literally creates an interactive checklist for you, and they keep releasing awesome new features that help with keyword research itself.
By the way, this post is NOT sponsored, but I am a customer (and affiliate), and they are one of my favorite tools for Squarespace websites, specifically, because it does only work with Squarespace.
They also have a array of free webinars or workshops, pitch-free, and one of those is actually solely on how to do keyword research. It’s a great free workshop that’s about an hour long. He answers questions at the end of the replay, but it's genuinely helpful.
So definitely go check that out and then download the tool because it's going to save your website’s life. 😂
Transitioning From Designing to Teaching
Next let's talk about the transition from service provider to educator or coach.
Now you understand why I’ve created DIY friendly content, with the expectation that it magically brings clients, because that's kind of the natural progression. I've not been aiming at teaching other designers specifically, but that kind of just comes with the territory. So now that you understand that, let's talk about the pivot I’ve been making towards education since 2022, because her initial question was, ‘why does it seem like designers are always teaching other designers?’
I started blogging in 2015. I switched over to Squarespace in 2016. I repurposed the whole first year of my blog content and rewrote all of them from 2015 and 2016. They were AWFUL. Then I republished them one at a time in 2017, with better copy.
Even though those are some of my oldest posts, many of my posts that are 5+ years old now (but still relevant topics) are still functioning for my business and still being looked at, clicked on, read through, etc.
As it turns out, I like to teach! That's genuinely something that I enjoy doing. And because I seem to be pretty good at it, I'm attracting more people that want to learn from me. Over time I've just realized, this is something that I wanted to expand in my business; I wanted to pivot a little bit and start taking on more of an education role because I really enjoy being in the weeds and helping other people like me.
So I've already kind of accidentally begun to attract other designers. Why? Because they want to learn, from me, the things that I’ve perfected (so to speak). The processes that I use or have gotten really good at, that I've nailed down and am ready to share, because I've been practicing those things for years and they're shareable now! They're template-able at this point.
And so if I am able to help other designers that are in the first 2 or 3 years in their business, then I would love to do that! Because that just basically saves them a whole lot of legwork, headaches, struggles, strife, ––all of the things I muddled through in my business-beginnings.
So that's kind of where the transition happened for me. You do it for long enough and you're helping the DIY people, you're bringing in content, you're bringing in an audience, you're bringing in DIY people, potentially also clients all along the way, and then eventually you're also at the same time helping other people that are just like you, that want to do what you do, but they're just at the very beginning stages, while you're still a few steps ahead.
At this point, because I enjoy it, I have added education to my business; so I am teaching other designers as much as I’m NOT teaching other designers.
That’s why & how it actually happened, for me!
How does this help YOU?
I hope that's been helpful for you to get an idea of how the content creation process can actually bring you clients, whether they're DIY people or business owners that have no intention of DIY-ing anything at all with no time, no desire, none of the things.
Strategic content creation can cover both ends of the spectrum, the low ticket offers and the high ticket offers.
If you had an “a-ha!” moment while you were reading through this, please leave a comment below and let me know what triggered that?
Share it with me/us!
I'm always curious to know about your “a-ha!” and “Ohhhhhh, I get it!” moments. 😁
If you're curious about my creative process, definitely go check out this content creation post next. Where I literally walk you through my whole content creation process from organizing my ideas, tracking them through the various statuses, how I publish them, what softwares I use,–– all of the things and what that schedule actually looks like for a solopreneur.
That's all I have for you in this post; I will see you in the next one. Bye! ✌🏻
