A Content Strategy that Gets Results
Results by Design
It takes more than just a creative mindset to be a successful interior designer – you need the risk-taking tendencies of an entrepreneur, the financial prudence of a small business owner, and the organizational savvy of a seasoned corporate leader. Design Manager is a full-service SaaS platform that empowers designers with the financial and project management tools they need to manage their operations. It’s the most comprehensive interior design software of its kind.
Our Role
The Challenge
Design Manager Came to us with a Challenge:
Their user base was a group of loyal, mid-career and high-profile designers that they wanted to be more engaged with. But they also wanted a way to reach designers just starting out in the industry; entrepreneurs ready to launch their own businesses.
Two targets, two opportunities.
The Solution
Strategic Content
A two-pronged problem requires a two-pronged solution. We knew that we needed to produce content that spoke to both groups, while maintaining Design Manager’s distinctly authoritative, yet informational tone.
The Blog
Product Marketing, Inspiration, and Industry Advice
To engage their current users, we took a blog post that Design Manager had recently created, and emboldened it with a formal strategy, a content governance structure, and writers with a passion for the industry. We managed an editorial process that brought high-quality, consistently published content to the Design Manager site, which created value for SEO purposes, as well as for users.
The blog’s content is strategically executed through three editorial pillars:
- In-depth tutorials on Design Manager’s software: These informative, engaging blogs are one part easy user manual, one part product marketing tool.
- Inspirational design tips from industry leaders: Spotlighting leading voices in the field, these blog posts give designers valuable information and examples to aspire to.
- Nuts and bolts on running an interior design business: Straightforward advice on topics ranging from the macro to the micro, these are trusted resources for designers.
The Pillar
Combining Topical Authority with SEO
To reach new users in the early stages of launching their own design firms, we got to work on a pillar piece of content called “How to Start an Interior Design Business.” Utilizing the most effective elements of skyscraper content and 10X content principles, we crafted a definitive, informative piece of content rooted in SEO and written with the quality and depth of a premium download. Built to command this umbrella search term, the longform article would reach newcomers to the field and function as a low-cost way of getting new users into the top of the Design Manager funnel.
Getting Results
A Big Lift
Since its publication, Design Manager’s blog visits have increased over 300% and it accounts for over 20,000 website sessions per year, which is almost 20% of the website’s total traffic. The first two blog pillars effectively turned Design Manager into a leading news source for interior designers. And the third was more popular with users than even we anticipated—these detailed tutorials draw rave reviews from Design Manager users, functioning as engaging, easy-to-consume, yet highly detailed lessons that break down various aspects of the software.
“How to Become an Interior Designer” goes far beyond what a single blog post could accomplish. Concepted, structured, designed, and written with SEO top of mind, this piece is a valuable resource to new users and continues to thrive, frequently appearing in the first page of Google’s search results for “How to Start an Interior Design Business.” It has become one of the primary inlets on Design Manager’s website for acquiring new contacts, doing exactly what it was built to do—bring new interior designers into the Design Manager fold.
Our content has become a vehicle for promotion and collaboration, propelling us forward as thought leaders within the industry.
