Get Your PR & Marketing Ready for Prime Time in 2019
March 21, 2019
Hello again! Get your PR and marketing ready for prime time in 2019. We recently attended the B/A/D Talk at the Boston Design Center, an initiative of New England Home magazine, sponsored by Kochman Reidt + Haigh Cabinetmakers.
The panel included Katherine Nolan, Director of Marketing at Patrick Ahearn Architects; Michael Lee, Michael J. Lee Photography; Kyle Hoepner, Editor of New England Home magazine; and moderated by John Kilfoyle, President of United Marble Fabricators. The topic was: Get Yourself Out There. The panel gave great tips on how to present your company and services through public relations and marketing. Although both PR and marketing create buzz and exposure to your work, they are different in methodology. Social media tends to straddle both ways of reaching your audience today.
But let’s back up. Who is your target audience? Before you can do any PR and marketing in a focused and intentional manner, as Kyle Hoepner recommends, you must do your homework and understand who you want to reach. Who do you want to work with? Who has hired you in the past? How did they find you? You need to know this information in order to build on it, or, if necessary, throw it out with the baby and bath water!
My friends, the brilliant PR and communications team at Sharp Orange, have taught me the first two questions to ask: who do you want to reach and what do you want them to do?
Once you know who, the next step is to figure out how.
Where do your prospects aka potential clients hang out? Are they Facebook users? Instagram followers? Twitter users? Do they read shelter magazines? Open email blasts? Attend design events?
As Michael J. Lee said, while it might be nice to have 1,000 or more followers, what good is it if they don’t engage with you or would never become a client? Do they like your posts? Comment? Reach out and ask to meet you?
Ultimately, we want our PR and marketing efforts to lead to more traffic on our websites that can be converted to sales, right? The goal is to get hired, isn’t it? That is the return on investment, ROI, that everyone is always talking about. We’re not spending all of the time, effort and money it takes to create our brands simply for recognition. The recognition has to lead to something bigger…income! profit!
How to Get Noticed in a Busy World
We are a visual species. Most of my clients work in the design industry which is heavily visual. That’s not to say that words don’t count – they do. But let’s talk about photography for a minute. Instagram is all about the image. Most blog posts get more likes if they include great photography.
As Michael Lee pointed out, architects, builders and interior designers are selling “lifestyle.” The magazines don’t show how we actually live in our spaces with kids’ toys on the floor or dead flowers in the vase. No, they show the fantasy of what people imagine they could have if they hired this architect or that interior designer.
If you have a limited budget – or an unlimited one – spend your money on quality, professional photography. That includes styling the space because as Michael Lee says “the camera see space differently than the eye.”
Great photography will get you noticed. It will help you get published. It will be great for social media, your website and blog and email marketing. Professional photography will help you win awards.
And, as Michael Lee points out, show the work you want to do more of and not the work you want to leave behind. Tired of building decks? Then stop posting deck photos!
Your Website is Your Virtual Home
Although there is much more to say on the subject, your website is your virtual home. There are many ways to create an engaging website but you must make sure your website is working for you! Is it optimized for search engines? That’s SEO. Are there calls to action (tell me what to do!)? That is CTA. Make it very easy for people to contact you! Your name, company name, email and phone number should be easily found. Nothing frustrates people more than having to search and search for that vital information!
Link to your social media sites and any projects that have been published. Put testimonials on your site. Let other people recommend you and broadcast your talents for you. Blogging is not dead! Use photography, video and words – yes, Google loves words – to convey your message. Tell stories! People love stories. Your audience wants to get to know you before spending $5 or $5000 or $500,000.
Last words for Marketing & PR
Be memorable. Connect with people. Be kind and authentic.