How to Write A Press Release For Your Interior Design Company
Public Relations (PR) is a great way to grow your interior design business. A good PR campaign will help you promote your services and get in touch with new customers, present you as an industry expert, share your best work and really build a name for yourself.
This starts with a solid press release.
A press release is an announcement (made these days almost exclusively by email) related to your company and sent to journalists and editors. It is a great vehicle to share a specific and exciting piece of information about you and your company that is going to happen or has happened already. The goal is to be picked up by journalists or editors and to be published in their media outlets.
Getting published in magazines, newspapers, or even getting your story on television can have a huge impact on your company. It is one of the best ways to promote your business. If it isn’t as impossible as one may imagine, it sure does need to be well prepared. The main reason is that journalists and editors get hundreds of emails each day and yours could easily be forgotten.
In order to stand out and be successful in your PR campaign and avoid losing precious time and energy on press releases that won’t even be read, make sure to keep in mind these following tips.
Before sending a press release:
There are a few things you will need to get done before actually sending your press release to increase drastically your chances of success.
Invest in good photography
When you are pitching one of your projects, the quality of your photography is going to be a key element. Invest in professional photoshoots to capture the essence of your work.
Know the publications
It is important to spend time researching the different publications that will be a good fit for you. Your goal is not to be published no matter what or to send your press release to as many editors as you can. You want to be in touch with the right publications at the right time.
Look into your niche: who are your clients? Then research which publications and media outlets share that same audience.
This will help you for multiple reasons. First, it ensures you that if you get published your work will actually be in front of people who will potentially be interested in your work. There is no point getting in front of an audience that has little or no interest in what you are doing. The second reason is that it will help you get the attention of the editor faster and it will increase your chance to get published. Editors and journalists won’t be interested in information that does not concern their own audience.
Build lists
Create multiple lists of targeted publications. One that is more global and general for your company and one per project that you want to pitch. Depending on the style, the focus, the angle of each project you may target different publications.
Think ahead of time
Sending a press release is a mature decision that is planned ahead of time and not rushed. Publications have different deadlines and they have their own specific editorial calendars. Knowing when to best pitch a magazine is going to be key. You will want to get in touch with the editor right when they are planning their content on the topic you are covering.
Let’s say they are planning on covering “Modern Beach Houses” in May and you have a great project that will fit perfectly that topic. You will want to get in touch with the editor right when they are in the planning phase and looking for information, not after they already found all their sources.
You can find more information on the editorial calendars on their website, as well as their deadlines. Remember that an online publication will have shorter deadlines than a print magazine that needs to finalize the content before it goes out to print.
Timing is everything right?
When sending a press release:
When you are ready to send your press release, there are different important elements that you will want to include and pay attention to.
Intriguing, exciting headline and subject line that will attract the curiosity of the editor while giving information on what you will be talking about.
Answer the 5 W: who, what, why, when, where - by answering these key questions you will make sure to not forget important information.
Make it time-relevant or unique: why your project, why now. Remember journalists and editors get a lot of requests.
Keep the publication and your audience in mind at all times. The angle you will choose will depend on them. What are they interested in?
Add one quality picture. Avoid PDF and other files. For more information or pictures you can add a link to a drive (Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
Share in a couple of sentences a bio about who you and your company are that you can include at the end of the press release.
Keep it short (max 500 words) and make everything essential.
Include your contact information and social media handles
After sending the press release:
Once your press release is out, make sure to be responsive. If you get a follow-up email response asking for more information, make sure to treat this email as a priority and respond as soon as you can. Don’t let this opportunity go.
If you don’t hear anything, you can send a follow-up email to the editor to remind them about your press release. If this isn’t an urgent matter, give it some time between 1 or 2 weeks before following up.
Are you ready to see your name published in your favorite magazine? If you need support writing your press release or sending it to the right publications, let us know. We are in contact daily with leading publications and have long-lasting relationships with editors in the interior design industry. Click here to schedule a Complimentary Brand Consultation.
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