Why do architects, design firms, engineers, and builders need PR?
1. PR agencies free you to focus on your core business.
Outsourcing PR, corporate communications, and media relations affords architects, designers, contractors, engineers, and product manufacturers more time to do what they do best. We are all specialists in our fields. PR agencies specialize in messaging, branding, marketing collateral, and media relations, skillsets that are often lacking internally in built-environment industry companies. Even a robust business development team is usually either not equipped with the skill set and contacts, or puts most of its attention toward RFPs, as it should. Also noteworthy is that many people aren’t comfortable tooting their own horns publicly. PR agencies specialize in promoting corporate and personal accomplishments. There is more credibility, after all, when someone else expresses your assets than you doing it yourself.
2. PR raises your profile.
Human attention spans are short in our information-overload age. PR agencies ensure their clients remain relevant, valued contributors to the thought-leadership conversation. When a company’s public profile or “brand” is dark or only active in limited communications channels, the door opens for competitors to shine. In a media-saturated society, you can be conspicuous by your absence. PR raises your profile among existing and potential clients, possible employees and partners, and the industry at large.
3. PR agencies are in constant contact.
Effective PR agencies are in almost daily contact with both their clients and myriad media outlets. The modern media landscape is constantly changing, and we stay current on editorial staffs’ transitions and needs. Increasingly, stories are created by freelance writers, as fulltime media positions contract. We stay abreast of freelancers’ tastes, expertise, and the outlets they currently contribute to.
In addition to knowing who to contact for a story, a good PR agency will also be a resource for the media. Based on long-term relationships, proactive outreach, and pitching compelling stories, media know to turn to Taylor & Company when working on their articles and research.
We also track media outlets’ procedural preferences. For example, some outlets will only consider previously unpublished projects—even counting inclusion on project partners’ website galleries as “published.” We’ll align communications teams for the architects, interior designers, engineers, contractors, and subs to prioritize media outreach. This ensures that we don’t nullify a top-tier opportunity because a contractor unknowingly submitted project images and narrative to a niche publication catering to their trade.
Can’t we hire someone in-house for the same or less than we’d pay a PR agency?
At first glance, this could make sense on a spreadsheet. Deeper investigation reveals that agencies provide a team of professionals to cover all communications bases. PR pros are also constantly searching and connecting with new media outlets. You are hiring us for our expertise, connections, and discernment, just as your clients come to you for your creativity, experience, and talent.
Many PR professionals often started in media as writers and editors. They have insights into how and why story ideas are selected for publication. They also are adept at the different types of writing needed for various purposes, whether for news releases, project fact sheets, biographies, blogs, media outlet bylines, keynote speeches, White Papers, project narratives, social media posts, advertising copy, etc.
Another benefit of a PR agency is the diverse team members with multiple specializations. Social media specialists track digital trends, best practices, ongoing developments and message optimization for SEO and AEO/GEO. Those with graphics and photography backgrounds help a firm crystalize its branding look and feel, and assist with project photography, determining what views are necessary to tell the story. With a fulltime in-house hire, a firm gets one skillset. With an agency, it gains access to broad-based communications skills.
Will it get us work?
Closing deals involves variables that exceed PR agencies’ functions. These include quality work in the firm’s portfolios, competitive bids, and personal chemistry with potential clients. The interval between first point of contact and signed contract can span multiple years, making specific efforts difficult to credit for successful project commission. In some instances, PR efforts are directly trackable—a project feature receives media coverage or an industry award, and a potential client promptly contacts the firm. PR raises awareness to feed potential clients into firms’ marketing pipelines. It bolsters your reputation with current clients and makes potential ones aware of your work.
Productive client/PR relationships begin by defining marketing and business development goals. The PR agency then works with companies’ in-house marketing and business-development people to develop a growth strategy. For example, if a company is preparing an RFP for a project in a specific city, the PR agency might pitch the local media outlets on their client’s previous expertise in that market or typology. This builds familiarity that ideally tips the scales during the project’s partner-selection process.
Isn’t word-of-mouth the more reputable way to gain new business?
Word-of-mouth referrals are highly effective—who you know is often more important than what you know. Recommendations and stunning project portfolios get firms’ feet in doors. In the current market, where several firms bid on a shallower pool of available projects, effective PR elevates companies from “one of many” to “the go-to expert.” Even if there are many subject-matter experts among your competition, not all of them are pursuing media exposure. Thus, being proactive can cement your reputation as the leading voice. Establishing thought leadership in this manner includes bylined articles in industry outlets, conference panel seats, and podcast interviews. The resulting coverage elevates the firm in SEO and AI AEO/GEO answer-engine rankings.
Why is a specialist firm better than a generalist firm?
Boutique firms normally have longstanding relationships with industry influencers in both the client-facing and public-facing media: design and construction reporters and critics, home writers, webinar bookers, podcast hosts, and lecture schedulers. Specialists already speak the language, requiring less coordination and a shorter learning curve prior to achieving results. As a specialized firm, Taylor & Company knows the AEC business and culture, so we don’t need to learn it on your time (and money). Further, specialists typically have lower overheard than national, multi-location generalists, potentially offering better value.
What’s the difference between advertising and public relations?
Public relations focuses on earning media coverage through relationship-building with journalists and industry influencers. Execution involves shaping public perception through storytelling. Unlike advertising, where a company pays to convey its marketing message to the media outlet’s audience or through paid social campaigns, PR is “earned” media, which is seen as five to seven times more credible than paid advertising because an editorial team with subject-matter expertise chose to cover a particular firm, product, or project.
Editorial coverage also has “longer legs” than advertising. People bookmark articles for reference later; digital ads can rotate or disappear after a certain period. For businesses in the built-environment segment, PR efforts spotlight project milestones and case studies, expert insights from the firm’s staff, implementation of new technologies, project award wins, staff honors, and firm achievements such as significant anniversaries, promotions, and hires.
Advertising only works if done consistently, meaning many placements over a long time period. The financial investment in an advertising program is considerably more than one in a PR agency. Thus, advertising is both less effective and more expensive.
Do you write the articles?
In general, the PR agency doesn’t write the articles. The media outlet’s editors, writers, reporters, and freelancers do. We collaborate with them to fulfill their needs in several ways. For outlets with robust editorial staffs, we pitch story ideas and provide project information, biographies, fact-checking, images, and any other required assets and assistance. Increasingly, many media outlets have downsized their editorial staffs. For these, we offer our decades of pre-PR editorial experience to supply outlines, drafts, and even copy/paste articles, customized for each outlet. These include “bylined” articles, which appear written by the client and are usually done in collaboration with the PR agency.
Do we pay the PR agency each time an article appears or only when an article appears?
Neither. We work on a monthly fee range, depending on the services needed. Through that set monthly fee, we perform all the services, including pitching stories to the media. The article placements are part of the service we provide. Clients invest in our services of strategically pitching and managing stories. Sometimes, it takes multiple pitches to land a story.
What about paying the publication?
Pure, earned editorial does not involve a payment to the outlet. Sponsored editorial, often called “advertorials,” are paid for. The idea is that it is an ad, yet appears as editorial. There are media outlets that contact architects, designers, builders, and even clients, offering “free” coverage in exchange for list of build-team partners. This is a bait-and-switch scheme, as actual coverage is dependent on the project team buying a requisite amount of ad space. Further, these publications often have limited circulation and unverifiable readership numbers. We do not engage in these arrangements, as the sales people act as though you encouraged your partners to spend money on your behalf, thereby possibly souring your relationships. We request that our clients simply forward these pitches to us so we can respond and your time is not wasted. On occasion, we will be successful in getting the publication to waive the buy-in requirement and run the story anyway.
Increasingly, book publishers ask contributors to purchase the pages that will feature their projects, or commit to buying a minimum number of copies to offset printing and production costs. As a trusted advisor to our clients, we look at each opportunity individually and assess its worth.
What’s your approach to ongoing PR vs. campaign-based PR?
Ongoing representation is much more effective, as it entails a holistic, strategic approach and leverages all PR agency assets. We also continually seek opportunities and respond to direct inquiries. If project or campaign based, we must act with blinders on. Thus, if an opportunity arises that the firm would be perfect for, but doesn’t correspond to that individual initiative, we would not be able to go forward with it.
Where does Social Media fit in?
Social media is “owned” media, meaning it’s a channel you control to shape and share your own narrative. It gives brands and individuals the opportunity to define their voice, highlight their expertise, and engage directly with their audience. PR firms play a key role in this process by helping refine that messaging, ensuring it aligns with broader communications goals, and developing strategic content that resonates with the right demographic.
How do you measure success? What KPIs should we expect?
Firms engage in PR and Marketing Communications programs for various reasons: bolster business development, general awareness, recruitment, etc. We measure success by placements and opportunities. The results of our work are media hits, awards won, speaking engagements attained.
What Is PR’s ROI?
Metrics exist for estimating the value of earned media. Pre-digital era calculations were straightforward. Print publication professionals typically calculated editorial value as five times the cost of advertising, factoring in the implied expert endorsement from the publication’s editorial staff. Editorial space is more valuable than advertising because it’s finite and is curated as the most valuable information distilled from numerous pitches and possibilities. In contrast, print ad space is there for anyone who pays. So a two-page editorial feature in a publication that charges $10,000 per ad page would represent $100,000 of overall value: $10,000 (page rate) x 2 (pages) x 5 (editorial endorsement). Digital-age metrics skew the editorial multiplier to reflect outlets’ perceived credibility or authority of voice. This multiplier often ranges from 3 times to 10 times the value. Recent benchmarks indicated that strong PR campaigns deliver 200%-400% ROI on average.
