PR FOR INTERIOR DESIGNERS WITH CAROLINE PINKSTON + RVT PRESS

In celebration of our recent press mentions in Texas Highways + Country Living and feature in Cowboys + Indians magazine , we’re talking all things press and media.

Over the ten years we’ve been in business, the press we’ve received has been one of the biggest factors for our growth and status in our industry. It’s been an incredible honor to have been and continue to be featured and want to share what we’ve learned along the way. In addition, we asked PR expert, Caroline Pinkston to give her tips to interior designers and brands on the importance of press and how to get it.

Click the links below to take a peek at our previous Media + Press blog posts and scroll down to read Caroline’s article for help in getting your self, your business and/or project in the news.

OUR PAST BLOG POSTS ON MEDIA + PRESS

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CAROLINE PINKSTON

Caroline Ittner Pinkston has over 13 years of industry experience with expertise in public relations, partnerships and influencer marketing for a diverse array of lifestyle and consumer brands. Caroline earned her PR chops in New York City at award-winning public relations agency, Edelman. In 2010, she moved to Austin, started her own company and quickly became the go-to for brands, designers, influencers and the media alike.

She’s worked with the Oscar’s, MTV, Architectural Digest, Camille Styles, Madewell, The Identite Collective, Uchi, J. Crew, Los Angeles Times, and the list goes on.

Caroline is currently getting interior designers and home brands noticed and connected to the right people, while managing and executing partnerships with advertisers and media outlets.

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Photo: Ashleigh Amoroso

So what is PR for Interior Designers? 

There are a few ways that I pitch my clients for media placements. 

First is expert pitching.  Even if my client has only designed their own bedroom, they would be considered an expert in the interior design space.  So for example, if Elle Décor is working on a story about skirted sinks, an editor would let me know what questions they want answered, I would bring the opportunity to my clients, they draft a few thoughts, and I send it over for consideration.  

Another story angle I get a lot of requests for is project round-ups.  So in a similar vein, the Wall Street Journal recently was working on a story about brightly colored ceilings. The editor came to me and asked if I’ve got anything for consideration, I took a look at my clients portfolios and submitted any images that might work. 

Finally, the most fun and exciting feature to pitch is full home tours.  In the past, outlets would be open to one-room tours but I’m getting more and more feedback that editors are looking for full homes (which includes about 4 rooms, kitchen, bath and then living and / or bedroom).   A room can definitely still be featured but we usually have to get more creative on pitching it, finding a unique and interesting angle to get editors attention.

So why is all of this important? 

Getting into press doesn’t automatically mean you’ll immediately get a ton of new business requests.  The rule in marketing is a client needs to see your brand 8 times before considering a purchase, and in interior design, that number is even higher because it is such a personal and expensive choice.  But recently, I have had a few clients tell me that they’ve gotten new business requests from a single published image (featured in Good Housekeeping), and another recently told me she got a call after being quoted in an online Southern Living round up piece. 

So it definitely helps generate new business requests, but in addition, having a site like Architectural Digest refer to you as an expert in your field, provides a third party validation that has more credibility than an advertisement, which everyone knows you pay for.  

Additionally, digital coverage really amplifies your SEO.  When a site that gets millions of readers a month links back to your site, it will dramatically increase your visibility on Google. 

Finally, and most importantly, if you have a full home tour in an outlet like House Beautiful, you are able to increase your pricing, because a third party (House Beautiful) is saying that you are talented, and you're now aligned and associated w/the status level of an outlet like House Beautiful.  And you are reaching a new audience, that has the budget to pay higher prices. 

So how do you get a media hit? 

You can hire a publicist but you can do a lot on your own as well, it just takes time,  which I’ll share right now:

1. Only submit professional photography.  Digital editors are pumping out a lot of content right now so they will be more inclined to feature you if you have the professional images ready to go in the initial email. 

2. Once you have the images, don’t share them. I know it's really hard because you’ve worked on these projects for years at this point but if you are set on a full home tour, don’t share any quite yet.  A lot of outlets want to be the ones to break the images first, that includes your social media and your website. 

3. Do your research - find homes and designers that are similar to you and see where they have been featured and find who the writer is.  You can find this online or you can buy magazines and look through the mastheads (publicists pay for a service that has access to these emails, so if you hire PR, they won’t have trouble finding email addresses).  Find a few writers and google their names, find their emails and follow them on social media. Once you follow them on social media, engage, and be friendly.  Often writers will post on IG Stories or Twitter and say “I’m looking for an interior designer for a story.” If you submit yourself for consideration, be respectful of their deadlines and get back to them with a quality reply so they’ll want to use you again. 

4. If you want to pitch a full home tour, here are the steps to take:

   1. Find the editor's email address

   2. Write a paragraph about the project, include any interesting details about the owners, any anecdotal stories, like we had to design around a load bearing wall or the client really wanted to incorporate her grandmother's rug,etc. 

   3. Include any well known vendor

   4. Put a hero image in the body of the email and a link to Dropbox or Google Drive w/the full tour. 

   5. Now wait. Give editors 2-3 weeks to get to your submission, they are receiving hundreds of emails a day and it might take them some time to get back to you especially if they aren’t familiar with your email address. If you don’t hear back from them or it is a decline for any reason, keep going.  

Ok so you got a media hit.  What do you do now? 

1. Thank the editor.  Send them a thank you email and a handwritten thank you note if you can. It goes a very long way these days in the digital world that we live in.

2. Share to social, and when you do, tag the outlet and the writer. Recently, I've been hearing from so many writers how important it is to tag their personal accounts, and how they are much more inclined to work with a source again if they know they will be getting a personal tag. Also tag your vendors, as they get very excited when they’re featured in media and they’ll often reshare. 

3. Add it to your website - add a press page, and then on the home page, a button that says “Seen in XX magazine” 

Finally, don’t discredit the local press.  So many of my clients have gotten so many new business requests from local features. People often want to hire designers that live in their city, so those hits can go a really long way.  Ideally, you’d want a full home tour to get featured first nationally, as some national outlets won’t touch projects that have already been covered, even local coverage, then follow that up w/a local article.

**Caroline’s roster stays very full, but if you’re interested in being added to her wait list, she can be reached at caroline@carolinepinkston.com.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON WAYS TO BUILD YOUR BUSINESS, CHECK OUT OUR BUSINESS, BRANDING + SOCIAL MEDIA VIRTUAL WORKSHOP.