Marketing automation for creative businesses
You make beautiful work for clients, then have no time to show it to the next one. Maggie, your AI CMO, turns your projects into case studies, LinkedIn posts and Instagram updates every week, and you approve every one.
Free to start · No credit card · 30 free posts
Used by 600+ users and trusted by teams at
aeglesriphal.com
moonlakespa.com
shop.theteagroup.com
clo100.com
logtrics.io
mymorez.com
nextidal.com
otisapp.com
storaitelling.com
theheatpumps.co.uk
web-translations.com
exposeai.tech
orielipo.com
whitelabelcrowd.fund
elliptic.co
med.moonlakespa.com
netdex.co.il
orawellness.uk
reenest.com
syngage.ai
thepenthouseliving.com
zengolf.studio
imaintain.uk
rebuildingsociety.com
aurasocial.world
goaimex.com
moneyparents.com
newgenrenewables.uk
osmosisai.co
saunders.ac
teeza.app
thursdayclub.com
Why creative businesses struggle to keep their marketing going
Client deadlines always win. Your own website and feed wait for a quiet month that never quite arrives.
Feast, then famine
When you're busy there's no time to market the studio. When the work dries up, you start posting again and wait weeks for it to bring an enquiry. The gap between the two is where studios struggle.
Your portfolio is two years old
Your best recent projects sit in client folders and on a hard drive. The website still leads with work you've outgrown, and new clients judge you on it.
Selling yourself feels awkward
You'd rather talk about the work than about yourself. So posts get written at midnight, rewritten twice and often never published at all.
Referrals don't scale
Word of mouth built the business, but it's unpredictable. People searching for an illustrator, a designer or a studio near them find the ones who explain what they do and post regularly.
A big project just wrapped, and its story is out by Friday.
Your studio has just handed over a new identity and packaging range for a local coffee roaster. The client is delighted, the files are archived, and your website's newest case study is from last spring.
You enter your studio's website into cmo.so. Maggie reads it and writes your brand profile: branding, packaging and illustration for independent food and drink businesses, the founders who hire you, how you work in small, close collaborations, the larger agencies you're sometimes up against, and your warm, curious voice. You correct one thing: you no longer take on website builds.
You share a few lines about the roaster project and the photos from the shoot. By Wednesday the drafts are waiting: a case study for your website on how the packaging came together, a LinkedIn post about designing for small food brands, an Instagram carousel showing sketches through to the finished bags, and a Google Business update for people searching for a design studio nearby. You approve three and add the client's thank-you quote to the case study.
The posts go out at the times you set for each channel, each reported back with its link. While you're back at the drawing board, Maggie is already planning posts on your process and the questions new clients ask, and Search Console in cmo.so shows which pages people are finding.
A studio manager for your own marketing
Each of those problems has an answer, and you still decide what goes out under your studio's name.
Every project becomes a case study
Share a few notes and your photos, and finished work becomes a case study on your website: the brief, the thinking and the result, written for Google and for AI answers. Published to WordPress, Shopify, Wix, Webflow or any site through the cmo.so API.
Case studiesPosts in your voice, not a sales pitch
Enter your website and Maggie builds your brand profile: what you make, who hires you, how you work, your competitors and your voice. Posts talk about the work the way you would, and she learns from your edits.
Brand profileLinkedIn for the people who hire studios
Founders, marketing managers and art directors hire creative studios, and many of them are on LinkedIn. Regular posts on your process, your projects and your point of view keep you in mind for the next brief.
LinkedInInstagram and video in beta
One project becomes a post for each channel in its own style: carousels and process shots for Instagram and Facebook, short clips for TikTok and YouTube (all in beta), and a professional write-up for LinkedIn.
Every channelSteady through busy months
Topics are planned and queued ahead, so your marketing keeps going while you're deep in a project, and you're not starting from zero when it ends.
Always onFound by people searching nearby
Regular Google Business posts keep your studio visible to local businesses looking for a designer, an illustrator or a photographer, with buttons that take them to your contact page.
Google BusinessYour marketing team, in your pocket
Real screens from the cmo.so app on iPhone.
From your portfolio site to a steady stream of posts in four steps
Enter your website
Maggie reads it and drafts your studio's brand profile in minutes.
Check your profile
Correct your services, the clients you want more of and the work you no longer take on, and choose your channels.
Review the drafts
Case studies and posts arrive with pictures. Approve, edit or skip each one.
Let them go out
Approved posts go out at each channel's times and every one comes back with its link.
Why not just…
The usual ways creative businesses look for the next client, and where each one runs out.
…rely on portfolio platforms and referrals?
They help people who already know where to look, but your work sits beside thousands of others, and referrals come when they come. Your own website and channels bring people who searched for what you do.
…write it all yourself on a Sunday?
It works for a few weeks, then a deadline arrives and the posting stops. Maggie writes ahead and keeps your schedule full while you're on client work.
…pay a marketing agency?
SEO and content agencies often cost around £1,000 a month, which is a lot for a small studio, and you'd still brief them on every project. Maggie writes and publishes every week from £15 a month.
…write it with ChatGPT?
You still brief it, rewrite it to sound like you, add the pictures and post it yourself. Maggie remembers your studio and voice and puts posts out on schedule.
Cut the £5,900/mo marketing bill to £15/mo
Everything a marketing team does, done by Maggie.
| What needs doing | Without cmo.so | With cmo.so |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time marketing hire | £3,000/mo | Included |
| SEO and AI search (GEO) agency | £1,000/mo | Included |
| Content writer, AI-assisted | £500/mo | Included |
| Social media manager, freelance | £800/mo | Included |
| Designed pictures for every post | £300/mo | Included |
| SEO and GEO softwareRank tracking, site audits, AI visibility | £250/mo | Included |
| AI writing and image tools | £50/mo | Included |
| Working hours | Office hours | 24/7 |
| Total per month | £5,900+ | From £15/mo |
Typical UK costs for a small business in 2026, with AI already cutting freelance rates. Estimates only; your own quotes will vary.
- 5 social posts, 30 once verified
- 15 Maggie messages a day
- Upgrade any time
- 12 posts a day
- 150 Maggie messages a day
- All channels
- 96 posts a day
- 1,000 Maggie messages a day
- All channels
Per website, billed monthly. Blog and social posts share one allowance; your best plan sets how much you can talk to Maggie across all your websites.
Marketing automation for creative businesses: your questions
Still unsure?
What is marketing automation for creative businesses?
It's software that does the repeating work of marketing a studio or creative practice: turning projects into case studies, writing blog and social posts, making pictures and publishing them on schedule.
With cmo.so, Maggie does all of it from your website, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
How do creative businesses get more clients online?
Creative businesses get more clients online by showing recent work clearly, explaining how they work and who they work for, and posting regularly where the people who commission them spend time, such as LinkedIn and Instagram.
Maggie turns your projects into case studies and posts every week, and Search Console in cmo.so shows which pages bring people to your website.
How much does marketing automation cost for a creative business?
There's a free plan with no card needed. Paid plans are per website and billed monthly: Air at £15 a month covers two posts a day, which suits most freelancers and small studios, and Pro at £45 a month suits a studio posting on several channels.
Founding members get lower prices for good on every plan until 1 January 2027. You can cancel any time.
Which channels should creative businesses start with?
Most start with case studies on their own website and LinkedIn, because that's where clients check your work and where many people who commission creative work spend time.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube are in beta and suit visual and process content, and Google Business helps local clients find a studio nearby. Each channel has its own posting times and queue.
Can it use my own photos and artwork?
Yes. You can add your own project photos and artwork to posts, so people see the real work, and you choose which images go with each post.
Where a post doesn't need your work, pictures can be made in your brand's look, and you can swap or skip any picture before you approve.
Will it sound like me, or like a marketing robot?
It starts from the voice in your brand profile and learns from every edit you make, so drafts get closer to how you talk about your work.
You read every post before it goes out, and you can rewrite any line.
What about client confidentiality and NDAs?
You decide which projects to share and what to say about them. Only give details of work you're allowed to show, and leave out client names when an agreement says so.
Nothing is published until you approve it, so you can check every case study against what the client agreed.
Can cmo.so help sell prints, products or workshops?
Yes. If you sell prints or products on Shopify, WordPress or WooCommerce, posts can link to them, and Google Business posts can carry events such as a workshop or an open studio.
It never changes products, prices or stock, and it doesn't take bookings, so buyers still order or book the way they do today.
Does it help us show up in AI answers?
It helps, though nobody can promise a mention. Maggie writes pages with clear, quotable answers to the questions clients ask, such as how a branding project works or what it involves, which is what AI tools draw on.
AI visibility in cmo.so shows how Google's AI answers currently describe your studio, so you can follow the change over time.
Is it safe to let AI post for my studio?
Yes, because nothing goes out until you approve it. Approvals are on by default, and you can keep them on for every channel or let a channel you trust run on autopilot.
Social channels connect through each platform's official sign-in, so cmo.so never sees your passwords, and cmo.so never sells or rents your data.
I run a studio and a personal practice. Can cmo.so handle both?
Yes. If each has its own website, add both to one account and each gets its own brand profile, voice, channels, schedule and approvals.
In Me → Team you can add a studio manager or a collaborator, using presets such as editor or manager.
Show your latest work before the next quiet month
Enter your website. Your brand profile and first week of posts are ready in minutes, and nothing goes out until you approve it.
- Free plan, no card needed
- You approve every post
- Cancel any time