What Expensive PR Agencies Don’t Want You to Know About Getting Published

As a Public Relations agency, we all operate within one common good—and that is to help individuals and businesses achieve growth by reaching new and bigger audiences through creative, attention-worthy, and relevant content. This is the heart of what we do in this discipline.

For interior designers, getting published is an indispensable marketing tool for brand growth. It is a designer’s dream to be featured on the pages of design magazines, and be seen or quoted on design websites. Your name circulating the press and the media strengthens your presence not just in the industry as an expert, but it opens a floodgate of opportunities for you, plus a stream of great revenues. Do you know that a company that’s been seen on national or regional press has the potential to triple their income, or even more? It’s no wonder thousands of people all over the world tap into the power of media and the press—via Public relations companies—to achieve this feat. 

For small and medium-sized design businesses, there is an ongoing impression that you have to allocate a huge amount of marketing budget to have a PR initiative going on for your business.

But what if you’re just starting up? What if you’re still in the stage of growing your business, looking for better quality leads, searching for a new audience—and simply wanting more exposure in the regional and national press?

It would be nice to have a PR agency do all the leg-work for you, but what if you just can’t afford to have one for now? Does it mean getting published will remain just a dream until you finally get the funds to employ a PR firm? 

Can I get published in design magazines even if I am not represented by a PR agency?

I am an individual designer and I want my work to be featured in design publications—but if I reach out directly to them, will they pay attention to me?

The answer to these burning questions is YES.

YES, you can get yourself published in design magazines without any PR agency representing you and your design business—and YES, the media, and the press will pay attention to your pitch even if you are not a PR agency.

Hold on a minute—what’s a PITCH? This is what you communicate to the publication—a description of your story and an explanation of why it should matter to an editor. A good pitch can spell the difference between getting noticed by editors—or getting trashed-- so you better know what to write in that email.

So if I can reach out directly to publications and get myself published, what are PR agencies for—and why do some of them charge so much?

There is certainly no scam in a PR agency in the first place, in fact, we are a PR agency as well. We all operate in one goal: to drive business growth to our clients. There are many kinds of Public Relations agencies and they do all the leg-work for their clients to achieve targeted results, and those things can mean cost. You pay for ease, experience, knowledge, and a myriad of many advantages of having yourself represented by a PR firm.

But for those who do not have enough to hire one but dreams of seeing themselves in the pages of interior design websites and magazines, we don’t want that dream to stop for them simply because they cannot afford it for now.

Public Relations is for all.

Getting published is for all.

“So you’re saying, I pitch my own stories, projects, expert opinions and recommendations to the media—and they can get me published?

It is. Think of it this way:

Flip the coin on this question and see it from the perspective of a publication. The media needs stories. The media needs CONTENT. Every day, editors scour the world for fresh, interesting, note-worthy things, designs, and ideas to write about. So with the right story angle and timing, what makes it so impossible for you to be published?

There are some given complexities in getting your first story successfully published, but the reality is that setting yourself up to interior design magazines or websites is NOT rocket science. You, however, need to be aware of the processes, strategies, and rules you should heed on to—and they’re definitely worth a try.

Therefore, Interior Design PR was born. It is the ultimate resource for new and established interior designers to get published in some of the best media outlets with a wealth of comprehensive guides, templates, and contacts all in one place. If you’re going on an exploit to get yourself published by reaching out to the editors directly, think of us as your arsenal—all the things you need to know, all the tools you need to use—we put them all in one place for you to use.

Interior Design PR is for designers with $0-2M in annual revenue longing to get a PR initiative running for their business and get themselves published in design magazines and websites. If this sounds like you, then you got yourself an ally.

If the ultimate goal is to land that spot in the pages of say, House and Garden, Veranda, or Dwell, what exactly should you have in your arsenal? You’ll need these:

☑  An understanding of how Public Relations is done (the do’s and don’ts—the to-do’s and what-nots)

☑  A clear-lined PR strategy (your ultimate gameplan)

☑  Some really, really good pitches (coz you’re going to need to know what to say, right?)

☑  Professionally-taken photography of your projects (an interior designer must-have)

☑  Editorial contacts (the people you’ll pitch to)

Wait—are you saying that if I have all these things, I can actually rock my first adventure towards getting my first feature published?

Yes. But you’re going to need a winning strategy. There are smart ways to get ahead to contact the editors and publications—ways that had been proven to be effective even by agencies.

“Getting published is hard.”

“Reaching out to the media is complicated.”

“Public Relations is costly.”

“I’m a designer. I really don’t have time to do PR.”

“I don’t know anyone in the media. How on earth would they pick my pitch?”

These are normal thoughts that occur in the heads of hundreds of designers—and they all make sense. But when you think about the growth you can achieve with one story, you’ll know that it’s one thing you MUST do.  

And yes, you heard it right. Just ONE STORY.

One story can put you in the spotlight.

One story can reach—and inspire thousands of people.

One story may land you your first multi-million deal.

The difference between now and these milestones is just one story. You only have to let go of your limitations, arm yourself with the right PR tools, strategies, and knowledge, and make your first pitch. At Interior Design PR, it is our dream to get you out there—so all you have to do is to trust the process, get you published for a fraction of the cost as a full-service agency.

The quickest way to gain notoriety, exposure, and inquiries is to have their interior design work published. Brand visibility, awareness, a wider audience—these are drivers to growth—and all interior designers and design businesses aim for all these things.

Are you ready to try and get published? We can help.