Many interior designers and other home industry professionals are starting to get leads from ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI search platforms. Today, I'm sharing how to capitalize on this shift and take charge of your own AI rankings. When you optimize your interior design website for AI search, you harness the power of future success online. Here's what you need to know...

Resources

👉 Get email marketing and blog posts for your business: www.socialitevault.com

👉 Grab your plan for Marketing without Social Media: www.katethesocialite.com/marketing-plan-for-interior-designers

📌 Timestamps

0:00 Introduction: Optimizing Interior Design Websites for AI

1:00 What is AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization)?

02:04 Do Interior Designers Need AIO?

02:30 What Is EEAT and How Does It Relate to My Website SEO /AIO?

04:20 Website SEO Best Practices for AI Optimization

07:36 Detailed Service Page With Pricing

10:17 Your Blog Posts AI Must-Haves

11:40 How to Know if Your Site Ranks Well on ChatGPT and Other AI Platforms

After 11 years of marketing to interior designers, I'm finally going to High Point Market. Meet me on October 25th at 2 PM at "The Point" in the heart of Market. I'll be speaking on a panel moderated by LuAnn Nigara alongside business coach Andrea Liebross and interior designer / home stager Whitney Vrendenburg of Nested Spaces.

This one-hour panel is your invitation to get out of your own head by thinking bigger and more unconventionally about your design or staging business. Each woman on this panel did something out-of-the-norm to get where she is today, me included, and this is your choice to join us in being wildly, confidently different in the way you run and scale your business.

Join me at HPMKT25 on October 25th for a panel discussion about business growth, mindset, and marketing. Click here: www.highpointmarket.org/event_details_modal/7db93502-e5e4-4503-8897-c509fcea0274

Resources

👉 Get email marketing and blog posts for your design, organizing, staging, or window treatment business: www.socialitevault.com

👉Grab your plan for Marketing without Social Media: www.katethesocialite.com/marketing-plan-for-interior-designers

Whether you're creating an email newsletter, a blog post, or writing verbiage for your website, you need to snag my simple formula. Those of you who are familiar with Donald Miller's Storybrand concept will find this to be a lighter, more digestible version of Storybrand that has been tailored to the home industry.

In fact, the marketing trifecta I'm sharing with you today is the same formula we use when creating email newsletters, blog posts, and website copywriting for our clients.

Resources

🎯 Get email marketing and blog posts for your business: www.socialitevault.com

🎯Grab your plan for Marketing without Social Media: www.katethesocialite.com/marketing-plan-for-interior-designers

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction of the The Great Marketing Trifecta

1:44 The Idea Section

4:48 The Evidence Section

5:46 The Action Section

7:05 Example Newsletter: Turn Your Spec Home into Your Forever Home

11:16 Website Copy Example: Luxury Home Organizing and Concierge Moving

16:42 Conclusion and Call to Action

Search engine optimization (SEO) for interior designers and related industries has remained a mystery for years. It has felt unapproachable due to how expensive it seems to be and the trust factor has remained fairly low due to a chronic lack of results.

It's time to fix that!

Today on The Kate Show, I'm sharing SEO fixes that any interior designer, home stager, or home organizer can go implement right now. Some of these fixes are faster and easier, while others will require some research and intentional effort.

Resource:

🎯 Get an SEO audit or makeover for your interior design, staging, window treatment, or organizing website: www.katethesocialite.com/seo-for-interior-designers

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction and SEO Requirements for Website Pages

7:47 Keyword Research and Content Optimization

9:18 Frequently Asked Questions and Call to Action

11:24 SEO Best Practices and Common Mistakes

16:51 Keyword Monitoring and Ongoing SEO

20:04 Evaluating and Improving SEO

23:02 Final Thoughts and Recommendations

Is your website bringing you the right leads? Or any leads at all? If not, a lack of search engine optimization (SEO) could be to blame.

Today, I'm walking you through our SEO transformation process. If you are hoping to DIY your SEO, you'll learn a lot from this episode. If you're trying to find someone you can trust who 1) knows SEO and 2) knows the design industry and 3) doesn't charge ongoing fees for silly things like "keyword monitoring," you're going to love this.

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction to SEO Services for Interior Designers

2:25 Common SEO Issues in the Home Industry

8:02 How The Socialite Agency Transforms SEO for Interior Design Businesses

9:55 The Actual SEO Workflow (7-Step Story Brand Framework)

14:06 How to Optimize Website Elements

16:22 Tracking SEO Success (Recommended SEO Tools)

Does this story sound familiar? A homeowner contacted you and seemed like a great fit. You spoke to them on a Discovery Call, which led to a paid onsite consultation where you discussed budgets, timelines, and their needs and wants.

Awesome! You went back to your office positively elated, put together the proposal, and sent it to them.

And then...they ghosted you. They won't respond to your emails. They won't call you. A month later they might reach out - to say no to the project.

"It's not a good fit right now."

"It's more than we wanted to spend."

Or to quote the people-pleasers, "We might reach out again in a few months." (But will you, Karen? Really?)

You are frustrated and discouraged. The proposal aligned with what they said they wanted to spend. What went wrong?

Today on The Kate Show, I'm explaining why leads keep ghosting you and how to prevent it from happening again. Stream this episode on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Timestamps:

0:00 Lead Ghosting: Understanding the Problem

3:26 Improving Your Process and Marketing

6:13 Effective Proposal Presentations

8:29 Handling Bundle of Hours Projects

8:59 Setting Expiration Dates for Proposals

9:50 Increasing Perceived Value

11:48 How to Follow Up with Ghosting Leads

13:53 Email Script for Leads Actively Ghosting You

17:37 Your Process & Marketing Strategy Going Forward

As an interior designer, window treatment professional, home stager, or professional organizer, you might not LOVE the sales process. You might cringe when your clients experience sticker shock over your very reasonable quote. You might wonder why they never reply to your proposals.

Today's guest on the podcast will set you on a path to sales that doesn't feel gross - plus it actually works!

About the Guest

Kathy Cragg Pace is a beacon of growth, empowering window treatment and design sales professionals to thrive by replacing outdated “closing” tactics with authentic connections and irresistible client experiences. With decades of experience—leading her own award-winning design franchise to nationwide sales teams, and influencing $450 million in sales—Kathy helps businesses reimagine their sales approach and address client hesitations with ease and confidence.

Through her courses, tools, and coaching, Kathy guarantees results and shares free resources at KathyPace.com. Let her 7-Day Sales Challenge guide you to a thriving future in design sales.

Resources:

Kathy Pace Website: https://kathypace.com

7-Day Sales Challenge: https://kathypace.com/kate

Topics Discussed

1. Does being salesly and relying on elevator pitches ever actually work? Might be a trick question... ;)

2. What does old fashioned sales look like for the home industry and what parts of it don't work?

3. What does modern sales look like and what are its key differences from the old ways of selling?

4. What is your advice to a home pro who HATES selling but needs to make a profit?

5. What is a Signature Selling Experience? How does it incorporate the Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

6. Could you describe how an interior designer or workroom owner could implement this in a real life selling situation? (Feel free to share any client success stories!)

7. What type of home pro is a good fit for what you teach?

8. Where can home pros learn more about what you teach?

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction and Guest Overview

2:47 Kathy Pace's Unique Sales Approach

7:13 Old-Fashioned Sales Methods vs. Modern Approaches

9:50 The Importance of Personalized Client Experiences

21:58 Selling Transformations Rather Than Products

28:41 Handling Resistant Spouses and Money Conversations

41:49 Kathy Pace's Resources and Courses

48:38 Final Thoughts

Remember this: If someone is offering website design but not SEO (which always includes copywriting, because where else would those keywords come from?), the end result is not a complete website.

If this describes you, don’t freak out. Here’s a quick way to know whether your website has proper onsite SEO that will help you be found in Google.

What is SEO? Search engine optimization, or SEO, determines how highly ranked your website is in search results. It’s a combination of copywriting / keywords, loading speed, and user experience.

Copywriting for SEO: Your headlines should contain keywords that are specific to your services, location, and / or ideal client. Most headlines are too vague, which is a shame, because that is the first thing Google and humans will read. Also, copywriting must first and foremost highlight your ideal client and their pain points, then provide a solution (your services). This is a great way to naturally use the right keywords in your body text.

Images for SEO: Every image on your website should be compressed to around 500 kb or less. Each image file name should be changed to contain the service provided, the location of the project, and the type of project. For example, a file name could be “interior designer Charleston modern white navy kitchen remodel.”

User experience for SEO: Basically, this refers to the design of your site. Your home page should contain these key 11 elements. Your about page should include your first-person bio. Testimonials should be sprinkled throughout the site. Your services page should list no more than three offerings.

What about Google Ads? Long story short, your website SHOULD be bringing you clients without relying on paid ads. If you have a great site and good SEO but still no leads, you still have options to help fix that organically.

“Uh oh, I don’t think my last website was designed with SEO in mind…”

Timestamps:

0:00 The Issue of Luxury Branding Experts Advising Against Copywriting and SEO

3:04 Basics of SEO and Copywriting

6:14 Images and User Experience for SEO

7:21 Google Ads and Organic Traffic

10:49 Client Email on Conflicting Advice About the Importance of Copywriting and SEO

20:08 SEO Stats and Best Practices

23:48 Effectiveness of Email Marketing

25:43 Challenges with Luxury Branding Experts

26:32 Final Thoughts

Getting more of the right clients for your interior design firm doesn't happen by accident, nor does it happen overnight. Today on The Kate Show Podcast, I'm talking with Porsche Williams of The Prototype, and she's spilling all the secrets on lead generation for luxury interior designers.

About the Guest

Porsche Williams is the CEO of The Prototype, a business concierge firm specializing in client experience and lead generation for interior designers. Passionate about streamlining business growth, she helps designers attract ideal clients, nurture relationships, and scale confidently while staying focused on their creative vision.

Through The Prototype’s expertise in client experience and lead qualification, Porsche ensures that designers can design freely and manage effortlessly, allowing creativity and operations to work hand in hand. Since 2020, her team has supported luxury interior design and architecture firms across the U.S., Canada, and Australia and partnered with IDS, ASID, Business of Home, MyDoma by Studio Designer, and more.

Now, she’s bringing her expertise to The Designer’s Guide to Reliable Lead Generation, a course designed to help designers build a scalable, stress-free lead generation system while strengthening relationships and driving long-term growth.

Porsche is a wife, a mom of two, and a champion of helping designers run their business, their way—without the overwhelm.

Learn more about her online course for interior designers here: The Designer’s Guide to Reliable Lead Generation https://www.theprototype.net/tdg

Topics Discussed:

1. What are the most common issues that prevent interior design firms from growing? A lack of clients is more of a symptom. What are the actual underlying problems?
2. If a designer is just starting to get her systems in place, what should her first few steps be?
3. What specific online automation or management tools do you recommend for designers?
4. When your team handles discovery calls for interior designers, what information does the designer need to give you ahead of time?
5. Because you are doing the discovery calls, at what point (and how) is the designer brought into the new client relationship?
6. Could you give us a general outline of the ideal lead follow-up process?
7. How does your firm help designers connect with referral partners?
8. Tell us about your course: Who is it for, and what will they gain from it?
9. Tell us how people can buy your course or get on the waiting list.

Timestamps:

(0:00) Introduction and Guest Overview

(2:47) Common Issues Preventing Interior Design Firm Growth

(5:46) First Few Steps a Designer Should Make to Get Her Systems in Place

(9:39) Time Management and Estimating Time

(13:06) Tools & Systems: Project Management, Auditing, Organization, CRM

(28:04) General Outline of the Ideal Lead Follow-Up Process

(33:17) Building and Maintaining Referral Relationships

(44:29) The Designer's Guide to Reliable Lead Generation Course

(50:16) Final Thoughts

If you were hoping for an episode that tells you exactly how much you should be charging for your design, staging, or organizing services... This isn't it. It's next level. Once you've worked out your pricing with your business advisor, bookkeeper, or someone else who understands your business financials as well - if not better - than you do, the next step is to select a pricing strategy, not merely set a price and call it a day.

However, did you know that juxtaposing multiple pricing packages can make one package look better than the other - but it's often causing you to sell something you don't want more of?

For example, did you know that charging a flat rate versus an hourly rate has a certain stigma attached to it? And did you know that you can influence whether people will feel delight at your proposal or utter sticker shock and betrayal just by the pricing strategy you choose?

The right pricing strategy removes the pressure to offer a "better deal" than your competitors because you are instead able to position yourself as the BETTER FIT for your ideal clients - a total boss move.

Let's dive into it.

Stream The Kate Show Podcast wherever you get your podcasts, and watch on Spotify or YouTube.

Resources You'll Love

• Why I deleted my business social media: https://www.katethesocialite.com/just-kate
• Get a marketing plan for your home industry business: https://www.katethesocialite.com/marketing-calendar
• Get a complimentary 1:1 marketing audit LIVE with Kate: https://calendly.com/socialite/socialite-vault-inquiry

Timestamps:

(0:00) Pricing Strategy Introduction and Overview

(2:26) Defining Pricing Strategy

(4:28) Bad Pricing Strategies

(13:09) Good Pricing Strategies

(22:19) Pricing Strategies for Service-Based Businesses

(25:51) Delivering Proposals Effectively

(28:14) Final Thoughts on Pricing Strategies