What Design Editors Wish You Knew About PR
Before You Start
Do develop a publicity program and incorporate it into your regular marketing plan.
Do know who you are and what works for you.
Do define your target audience.
Do look to a PR firm for help.
Don’t try to do it all yourself.
Don’t hire a PR firm whose standards of excellence don’t meet yours.
What’s the Story?
Do be critical when evaluating your own work.
Do realize that not all projects are worthy of coverage.
Do start looking at your design as part of a larger human/societal story,
Do consider off-beat projects that may differ from what you’re accustomed to seeing.
Do conceive stories that may not focus solely on your company or projects but are part of a larger trend.
Do offer relevant expertise on trending topics with work examples to back it up.
Do offer to write a byline piece in trade publications.
Don’t submit a byline before discussing it with the editor.
Don’t submit projects for publication without clearance from your client and photographer.
How to Tell It
Do study the range of outlets in which you’d like your work to appear.
Do study the content of each outlet to make sure that it features the kind of work you do and reaches the audience most beneficial to you.
Do obtain editorial calendars.
Do write a short, informative description of the work including your challenges and solutions.
Do emphasize what makes your project special.
Do invest in professional photography.
Do negotiate editorial, social media, and marketing rights in perpetuity with the photographer.
Do take clear scouting shots if you can’t afford professional photography.
Do include full contact info on all correspondence.
Do be prepared to have additional information and images ready in case editors decide to run your project at very short notice.
Do schedule media outreach to coincide with project milestones: commissions, entitlements, topping outs, ribbon cuttings, etc.
Don’t make promises you can’t keep.
Don’t be disorganized.
Don’t use “archispeak” or hyperbole in your text.
Don’t share what didn’t make it into the project.
Don’t tell editors to go to a website to see images; attach or link to Dropbox.
Don’t expect an overnight response.
Don’t forget that nothing is “off the record.”
How to Behave (Media Etiquette)
Do doublecheck that names are spelled correctly in correspondence.
Do give credit where it’s due to collaborating architects, lighting designers, landscape architects, contractors, etc.
Do meet media deadlines.
Do be patient in awaiting a response.
Do keep trying—rejection might not be a judgment on the quality of the project, but on its “fit” at that time.
Do request a correction only if there is a misspelling or factually incorrect statement.
Do follow up once.
Don’t follow up twice.
Don’t pitch an editor before studying the outlet, its subject matter, look, and tone.
Don’t waste editors’ time with ideas that are not applicable to their audiences.
Don’t request a correction if you just don’t like what was written or think it could be phrased differently.
Don’t inundate an editor with an entire portfolio of work.
Don’t confirm one story with two competing outlets.
Don’t expect to control every word and aspect of a story.
Don’t take rejection personally.
Don’t give up.
In Conclusion
Do contact Taylor & Company for more information.
