Why your competitors are stealing your clients (while you stay silent)

The uncomfortable truth: while you’re perfecting your portfolio, your competitors are building relationships through content. And it’s costing you clients.

Clients are human and like us, they’re often reactive to problems. So when they need a designer they reach for someone visible.  That thinking is supported by the UTTL research What clients think. It documents a sobering reality: 64% of clients couldn’t name three design agencies apart from their current one. Meanwhile, 90% don’t follow designers on social media, however 96% are active on LinkedIn for business purposes.

The designers getting noticed today aren’t necessarily the most talented. They’re just the most visible.

The cost of silence

You’re invisible to ideal clients. When potential clients need design help, they find the designers who write about the problems they’re facing. Your portfolio sits unseen while competitors who share their thinking get discovered.

You compete on price alone. Without context about your thinking process, clients can only compare you on deliverables and cost.

Your work can’t speak for itself if no-one knows who you are.

What we see successful designers doing 

The designers building sustainable practices share three things consistently:

1. Problems, not process

Instead of: “Our design process includes research, strategy, and execution”
They write: “Why 73% of shoppers abandon checkout (and how design fixes it)”

2. Client challenges, not design techniques

Instead of: “Why we chose this font”
They write: “Why your customers can’t find what they’re looking for on your website”

3. Business outcomes, not creative methods

Instead of: “Our approach to brand development”
They write: “How poor branding is costing you 40% of potential sales“.

The simple formula that works

Don’t not write because you think it’s too hard.
Try this formula:

Problem + Insight + Action = Client attention

Problem: Start with something your ideal clients are losing sleep over
Insight: Share your perspective on why this matters
Action: Give them something practical they can do immediately

For example: Recent research found 73% of shoppers are willing to pay more for sustainable products. This trend is increasing year-on-year, but the truth is many businesses haven’t yet caught up. That’s an opportunity to get ahead by ensuring design solutions include sustainable packaging and all communications emphasise ethical standards.

What client wouldn’t find that insightful? 

So what?

Start writing about the problems you solve, not the methods you use. The designers thriving understand expertise without visibility equals invisibility. And invisible designers don’t get hired.

We’re seeing this pattern accelerate across the industry.
Are you experiencing the same visibility challenges?

As always, happy to discuss further, just email Carol.

---

Carol Mackay

Want more insights like this? Subscribe below. (And tell your friends 🙂)
The Design Business Review is Australia’s only online design management magazine. It’s professional development information written specifically for Australian designers by Australian designers. Best of all, it’s free.

Want more?

These articles talk about working in a competitive field:

1. Five signs your studio is actually a production house — maybe the design business you’ve got isn’t the one you set out to build
2. Case study – how we helped a designer find their niche — an insight into what we do
3. The biggest isue facing Australian designers  – understanding the problem is a step toward the solution

About Carol

After 30+ years running a design studio, I accumulated a pretty special network of fellow designers. One thing most have in common: a need for more information about the ‘business’ side of design. Most are impatient with any task competing for time spent doing what they love – designing so they wanted more info about how to work more efficiently and effectively.

Not me. I love that intersection between design and business. I built a career working with Ombudsman schemes, the Emergency Services sector and the Courts. My special power has always been an ability to use design to translate the difficult to understand or the unpalatable message.

I now use exactly the same skills with creative business owners. I translate the indigestible into bite-sized chunks of information. I share insights, introduce tools and embed processes to help others build confidence business decision-making skills. More confidence makes it easier to grasp opportunities. More confidence makes it easier to recognise a good client from the bad.

Outside DBC I have mentored with Womentor, AGDA The Aunties, and most recently Regional Arts NSW.
And I’m a proud volunteer and board member of Never Not Creative.

Always happy to chat, I can be contacted here.