Easy PR for Architecture Firms (Get Started to Get Published!) with Ellie Senior | 065

Are you missing out on one of the most cost effective ways

to market your architecture practice?

I'm joined by copywriter Ellie Senior to discover the benefits of PR.

We'll cover everything from how to find the right publications to

target, what content is newsworthy, and how to write an eye catching,

engaging press release in this episode of Architecture Business Club.

The weekly podcast for small firm founders who want to build their

dream business in architecture and enjoy more freedom, flexibility,

and fulfillment in what they do.

I'm John Clayton, your host.

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And if you have any questions, just email John, that's J O N

at architecturebusinessclub.

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Now let's discuss how you can get started with PR.

Eli Senior is a creative freelance copywriter specializing

in authentic storytelling for small independent businesses.

Through websites, case studies, award submissions, press releases,

and more, Eli has helped many architecture practices communicate more

effectively with potential clients.

Leaving them to focus on the design work.

Ellie writes regularly for the KL Home Design and Build magazine, showcasing

talented architects, developers, designers and tradesmen through

detailed features and advertorials.

For those looking to connect, she can be found posting regularly on

LinkedIn where are timely tips on all things content are popular with

many in the construction industry.

Ellie, welcome to Architecture Business Club.

It's a pleasure, John.

Thanks for having me here.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

It's great to have you here.

Ellie, I know that we, uh, we've got a shared love of water sports.

I'm well, not at the moment for me.

I must admit, confess I'm a bit more of a seasonal kayaker, but I, I do

enjoy going kayaking on the rivers near where I live in Norfolk, but you

were into some water sports as well.

Do you want to tell me about the stuff that you like to do?

So for me, uh, it's all about the boards.

Um, I think my first love is windsurfing, which is if you imagine, uh, like

a surfboard, but with a sail so you don't have to do the paddling bits.

Uh, so I love that.

I think it's just, it's so exhilarating.

Um, and especially now as an adult, I think there's so little opportunity to.

Kind of scare yourself a bit, excite yourself a bit, you know, in day to day

life, so windsurfing really fills that for me and distracts me from the day to day.

Um, and then if it's not windy, I love to get out on the river too, but on a

paddleboard, um, you know, it really gives me that space to just relax and,

and get a bit of exercise as well.

Um, um,

love it.

It's so peaceful out on the river.

Um, how difficult is it to actually, as a newbie to stand up on a On a board.

Right.

Is it, is it quite difficult to do?

I think it is a bit challenging if you're not used to

anything like that to start with.

We always recommend, uh, people sort of kneel to begin with, so

on your knees and when you're comfortable get up on your feet.

But having said that, my, um, mum and dad who are in their 70s now, they both

quite recently took up paddleboarding for the first time, um, and they managed to

do a whole session without falling in.

So I think if they can do it, I'm sure, I'm sure anyone can take it up.

Oh, that's amazing.

So cool.

Do you think I can have like family outings now?

Can't you with

it's lovely.

Yeah, we take my little daughter and son as well.

And yeah, we're all out there on the river.

Oh, nice.

Uh, so Ellie, we're going to talk about PR.

So, that's public relations.

If, if people aren't familiar with the, what the acronym.

actually means, but I think pretty much everybody's probably heard

of people use that phrase PR.

And we're going to talk about so that architecture practices

can get started with PR.

So first of all, what, what would you say are some of the

common misconceptions about PR?

Uh, it's a good start.

Yeah, I think a lot of small business owners, and that's in architecture,

you know, and across the board, think that PR is something that big

businesses do, you know, someone who's got their own marketing department

and communications department, you know, do this thing called PR.

Um, but actually it's really totally achievable for businesses of any

size, you know, at the most basic level, it's just about getting

your practice into a magazine or a newspaper and sharing what you do.

Um, and I think actually architecture is really well suited to that

because it's such a visual service.

You know, at the end of a project you've got these stunning buildings to show off,

um, that people want to see and lots of people get excited about architecture.

So I think PR can be a really great way to market your business, um, no

matter what size your business is.

I love that.

So this is something that If anyone's got any preconceived ideas that this

is just for bigger businesses and for bigger practices that that we've quashed

that this is something that is for everybody, doesn't matter what size of

business that everybody can benefit from PR and, you know, should be thinking

about this as part of their marketing.

So can we dig in a little bit more and talk about some of

the benefits that PR can bring?

Yeah, there's just, there's so many benefits, John.

I think it's a really cost effective form of marketing.

Um, because literally for the price of putting together a press release, and

you can do that in house or you can pay somebody to do it, you can potentially

be reaching out to a whole new audience.

And that might be a local audience or that might be a national audience.

Um, so there were lots of benefits.

I think the first one is, um, what we'd say, you know, increased exposure.

So that's about more people knowing you exist and knowing

exactly what it is you do.

And coverage in a magazine or newspaper is great for that because there's

lots of people that won't have heard of you before that might be reading

that publication because they enjoy what that publication is all about.

And then, depending on the magazine or newspaper that you choose to target,

if that's a well respected publication and people think that that's, you

know, a magazine or newspaper that they think has really good advice and has

got sound knowledge behind it, then you being associated with that gives

you that external credibility as well.

Um, So for example, you know, if we think of, uh, there's a magazine

called Self Build and Design magazine, you know, that's aimed at people

who are interested in self building.

I think if you've got a person, for example, who reads that on a monthly

basis and gets really great tips from it and enjoys it, then if your practice pops

up on those pages, then that person's going to assume that you also have that

high level of expertise that they've come to expect from that magazine.

Um, So it's great for that too.

Um, and then there's kind of more basic kind of simple benefits, which

is that every time your practice name pops up on the pages of anything,

you know, whether that's online or print materials, then you're putting

yourself front of people's mind.

So when they do need an architecture service, or perhaps they hear of a

friend or a colleague who wants a recommendation, then hopefully you

are the one that they think of first.

Um, And it will drive traffic to your business, through your

website, through your social media, you know, whatever it is.

But, uh, that kind of magazine or newspaper coverage can be the starting

point for lots of other interest in your business and your marketing.

Wow.

There's quite a lot of benefits there, isn't there?

So, um, it's a great way to, to be more visible.

It's a cost effective form of marketing.

You mentioned about the benefit that if it's in a publication that, by

association, it can help to build build your credibility on your reputation

if it's in a, a good publication just by being featured in that,

that can help with your credibility and authority in the industry.

So that's really cool as well.

And as you say, this is something that can open up doors to

other opportunities as well.

yeah, I think this is something that we should definitely all be considering if

we're in the business of architecture and we're not doing PR already.

This is definitely something that we should be looking into,

Mm.

how do we find.

The right publications to target, because if you've not done this before where

do we even kind of start with this?

So, so thinking about what are the right publications and how

do we go about finding them?

Yeah, and it's definitely worth putting some thought into that.

You know, you want to make sure that you're associating yourself

with publications that you respect, and that you think, you know, you

have some sort of synergy with.

I think a great starting point is to think about your local press,

so your local newspapers, any local magazines that are around your area,

because you'll know those well.

And also for a lot of small practices, I'm sure most of your client base, you know,

ideally you want to be in the area that you work confidently within, you know, the

local authorities and planning authorities that you feel comfortable with.

Um, so where I'm based, for example, in the Cambridge area.

We have a local newspaper, the Cambridge Independent, um, which is really well

respected, uh, and I think it has a readership of around 9, 000 people

every week, so, you know, that's not to be sniffed at, you know, that's

9, 000 people you could be reaching out to, um, just by getting your,

your name in that newspaper, um.

We also in the in Cambridge have a local magazine called Velvet Magazine, which has

some really high quality features, lovely photography, and that's distributed free

across the city and lots of businesses, you know, cafes and hairdressers, etc,

where people are kind of sitting and, and flicking through, I'm sure, and

that gets a readership of around 30%.

35, 000 people, um, on a monthly basis.

So, you know, that's a massive audience that potentially could be

interested in what you're doing.

So I'm sure, you know, in whatever area you're based, there will

be kind of equivalents to those.

Um,

um, it's a really good point.

Actually, the fact that this is particularly if you're looking to target.

Local publications that is geographically very targeted as opposed to say something

like well, if you just sort of posting on your social media accounts, I mean,

I will caveat that to say that if you are doing paid social media campaigns

like Facebook, as you can target more geographically, but if you just

sort of spitting content out there online, that it's not necessarily Dr.

Leak.

Getting in front of, um, people in the right location.

Whereas if it's a, a local publication, like a local newspaper, a local magazine,

then potentially this is, is really kind of laser targeting the, the people

that you, you want to connect with.

exactly.

Yeah.

And sort of following on from that, actually, John, I think the other, another

category that I'd recommend is those more national but industry specific magazines,

you know, architecture magazines, um, because if you, uh, reach out to the

people that are reading those sorts of magazines, they're people who are already

engaged with architecture for some reason.

So nobody's picking up a magazine about self building if they've not probably

got a dream to self build one day.

Uh, and so if you can be the person that they find when they open up those pages,

then that's really valuable because you're catching them at the right point.

Um, you know, in, in their kind of interests.

Um, yeah.

And I think architecture particularly has a great opportunity in those kind of

magazines because people love architecture like, you know, the kind of eye candy

of looking at the latest beautiful building or home that we all aspire to.

And so there's lots of really popular magazines in that space.

I'm sure you know your, your listeners will know loads of them but I'm thinking

about ones like Grand Designs or, um, Or home and gardens, let's say,

uh, ideal home, that kind of thing.

Or the more specific ones like, build

Home building and renovating,

yeah, yeah.

So there's loads in that space, um, and those magazines are

always looking for content.

You know, they want to hear about your, your showcase

project that you've worked on.

So don't forget to reach out to them, you know, when you've completed something

really great that you're proud of.

Yeah.

That's a really good point.

And obviously people do love this stuff because like, we wouldn't have all those

magazines on the shelf and we wouldn't have that many architecture and property

development TV programs if there wasn't an appetite from the public to learn

about this stuff and to get inspired by other people's projects and stories

around architecture and, and building.

There's definitely some opportunities there.

And the fact you mentioned there that these publications are often always on

the lookout for new material to put in the magazine, then that's a real opportunity

for those practices that choose to do some PR and reach out to them.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

And I think you've mentioned there actually, you know, TV shows as well.

You know, this is perhaps a little bit harder to get yourself into,

but if you are confident enough talking on TV or radio as well.

Now that's another area that you can target.

You know, I've talked a lot here about magazines and newspapers

because that's kind of the more run of the mill kind of PR.

But if you feel confident public speaking, you don't mind being

on camera, then those sorts of opportunities could be really amazing.

Yeah,

That could be quite incredible.

Ellie, could you share some ideas on what type of content is newsworthy

enough for a press release?

Because I think that might be something that people are thinking,

well, ah, this all sounds great.

But like, little old me with my small architecture practice

or it's a sole practitioner.

What have I got to talk about that's newsworthy enough for a press release?

So could we talk a little bit about that, about What content ideas we

could run with, with a press release and what sort of things are newsworthy

enough that maybe we might be thinking aren't good enough for a press release.

I think, I'm really glad you brought that up, John, because I

think this is one of the barriers that stops people putting out a press release.

I think they think, well, I haven't really got anything to talk about.

Um, but, you know, it's, it's just not true.

There's lots of great content that you're doing every day that you think

is a bit boring, probably, but other people would be really interested in.

Um, Journalists are looking for stories, so I think the one thing to watch out

for is what you don't want to do is just send them your usual marketing spiel,

you know, uh, they want to know something that's going to interest their readers

and entertain their readers, engage their readers, so you've got to make sure that

you find that newsworthy angle, and that's about showing how your business is great

rather than telling that your business is great, um, and So when I'm talking to my

clients about newsworthy content, I have what I call my six fail safe categories.

So I'll run you through those if you like.

Yeah.

So the first one is, a noteworthy achievement.

And this one hopefully is quite obvious, but we're talking here about, you

know, if you've won an award for one of your projects, or even if you've

just been shortlisted for an award, you know, that's a great achievement too.

Um, or if you've been working on a project that's particularly prestigious

in some way, you know, it might be a building that's had a lot of interest

locally or nationally, or, or is in a location that's had a lot of interest.

Um, you know, those are the sorts of things where if you're, if any of

those apply, you should definitely be sending a press release out.

You know, that should be part of the, that, that process.

Um, so that's number one.

And the second category is sharing some sort of inspiring journey.

You know, if you think about the story arc of any fiction book, the main character

always goes on some sort of journey.

You know, they start off from whatever their starting point is, they're flawed

in some way, they have this great climax where they face some kind of challenge and

overcome it, and then at the end of the story, everyone has a happy ending, and

journalists love that kind of thing too, you know, we all do, so in architecture,

I think the arc of a project actually really lends itself to that, um, think

about sharing a project from that very first conception, you know, what the

brief was that your client brought to you right to the completion and share all

those challenges that were faced along the way and use those to demonstrate

how you as an architect managed to overcome those on behalf of your clients.

You know, that's a great story.

Um, and if you've got some great images of the finished building and you pair that

with that story, then that can be a really good, strong press release to put out.

Um, The third category is forming a real strong human connection.

So this is a great opportunity if you're someone who doesn't really

like being the centre of attention.

So if you're an architect, you want a bit of press for your business,

but you don't really want to be the one that everybody's looking at, this

is a great way to use your client.

So if you think you've got a client who just loves talking about, um, And, you

know, the project that they've, that they've done their dream house that

they've created, then you can put them in the position of the star of the show

and ask them if they'd be happy for you to, you know, share their story.

I've got an example of this one actually fairly recently that I put out on behalf

of a, um, PIP architects who are based in Cambridge, and they had a self build that

they worked on that's called the Hay Barn, um, in a small village in Cabershire.

And the project's really striking, you know, the, the, the architect is

really proud of the finished result.

It's got this kind of minimalist agricultural look, and then inside,

um, It's got lots of fitted joinery and a kind of bare plywood, so it's,

it's quite, you know, unusual, I think.

Um, and so they wanted to share this and the clients were happy to talk

about it because it was their passion.

So I did an interview on behalf of PIP with their client and then wrote it up

and sent it off and we, we got, got it picked up by three separate magazines,

just one project, you know, so that was a really great example of what you

can do with just a project for you.

Um, Number four, category four, is a local link.

So if you're targeting a local newspaper or magazine, they love stories that

are really strongly based in the location where their readership is.

Um, so this can be, it's worth thinking here about stuff outside of

your everyday, um, service perhaps.

So I know a lot of Small practices are actually quite involved in their local

communities, you know If you support a local charity perhaps or you sponsor your

local sports team or you know anything along those kind of lines And that's

something that you definitely ought to be sharing to people love hearing about that.

Um, I worked with a, a construction firm near here called RSC.

They sponsored the local beer festival.

So we did a press release that was mostly about the beer festival, but

we used it to kind of show, um, the core values that that business has

of being friendly and family run and, you know, rooted in the community.

And that was a, that was a really good, a good story that got picked up.

I love that.

And then the fifth one is timely news.

So it's easy to forget that newspapers are actually all about news,

like it is in the title, but they like stuff that's just happened.

So I think if you've just launched something new, or perhaps you've

done like a big grand opening for a building you've been involved in, you

know, that stuff you want to get out to the press as quickly as possible.

You know, they're not going to be interested in it the

month after it happened.

But if you can tell them literally the week it's happening,

then you might get a little.

You know, a few inches of, uh, of, of column in, in the

local newspaper for that.

So that's a good one too.

Um, and then the final one, uh, is tips and advice.

So this is one that's good if none of the others apply.

So if you can't really think of anything to fit in the other categories, I know

that every architect, designer, you know, listening out there has got lots of great

expertise that they could be sharing.

That's really valuable.

Um, so I think.

If you sit back and you think, if you were talking to an individual client,

um, and giving them advice, what are the things that you'd be telling them,

what professional experience do you have that would be really valuable to them,

and that they could apply themselves at home, um, And I think the key to

this one is making it quite specific.

So, you know, what you think of as boring and kind of every day,

actually could be a real light bulb moment for someone who doesn't work

in architecture all of the time.

And an example of this actually is, I worked with a landscape architect.

Um, Tim Jennings, he's again in the Camershire area and he got a lovely

double page spread in Velvet magazine that I mentioned earlier, just sharing

his advice on how to design a garden that really fits your personality.

So something that's a bit more individualistic than, uh, like

the run of mill advice people might be able to find online.

Um, so, you know, literally anyone could do that, that category

anytime that you think your business could do with a PR beast.

There's six absolutely brilliant ideas there, Ellie.

If we'd just done that bit for the whole episode, that would have, on its

own would have been super valuable.

Then we've, we've got all these other bits that we're able to

Yeah, and you know, we could go into detail a lot more on all of those

too, but I think as, as sort of starting points to think about, you know, that's

a good, if you've never done PR before, that's a great place to start, sit down

and think about those categories and how you might fit into one or more of those.

I love that.

So that leads nicely into my next question that I had for you,

which is around Tips for newbies.

So for anybody that has never released or written a press release before,

do you have any tips specifically for newbies, uh, on writing a press release?

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Now, back to the show.

Yeah, now that, that's the real big topic, I think, is

the writing the press release bit.

Well let's start from thinking about what the purpose of a press release is, right?

So the purpose is to grab the attention of a journalist and if we go, you

know, if you go back in history then every local paper would have had a

whole army of reporters, and all you needed to do was kind of give them the

detail of what your story was and a bit of a headline and they might come

out and write a story all about you.

But the truth is that These days, you know, newspapers and magazines

are really understaffed in general.

So, my experience of sending out press releases is that the most successful way

to get that coverage is to write a press release that can pretty much be copied

and pasted straight into a publication.

You know, write the article for them, basically.

So as a kind of overview of how to do that, let's start from the top, you

know you're going to need a headline.

And the headline is probably the most important line you can write, because

if you don't grab their attention from the start, then nobody's going

to read the rest of it anyway.

Um, So you want to keep it quite short and snappy, um, but you want there

to be enough intrigue in there to grab the attention of the journalist.

So you want to get kind of the essence of what your story is about into there.

So if it's about a self build, then make sure the words are in the title,

you know, that, that kind of thing.

Um, Then, moving on, oh and also actually the important thing about a

headline is we're usually sending press releases out by email these days, so

that headline will also form the subject line of your email, and so it's job is

to kind of get the journalist to open the email in the first place, which

also makes it kind of doubly important.

Then the first paragraph of your actual press release should have

in it what we call the five W's.

Uh, and I'm taking you back to school here probably, John.

I wonder if you can remember, what would your English

How many can I remember?

Was it like what, what, where, why, when, uh, who?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So in this instance, we're talking about who is the story about?

So kind of introduce the client probably in many cases, what the news is to tell.

So what is the building or project that you're talking about, where

it is, um, when it got built, when it got completed, when it started,

you know, that kind of thing.

And then most crucially, probably why it's interesting.

So in that first paragraph, try and make sure you've got.

In brief, all of those five things.

Because again, we're back to that theory of, if people are grabbed by

that first paragraph, they're gonna then read on and read the rest of

the detail that you've put in there.

Um, which then brings me on to the rest, and then the rest of your, your,

um, uh, press release wants to be sharing the specifics of the story.

And as humans, we just love detail, and I think one of the mistakes people often

make when they're writing a press release is they only put the bare minimum in

there, the kind of facts, but actually we want the detail behind the story.

Put the mundane in there, you know, tell us exactly what materials the building

was built out of and you know Tell us why you put those windows in that

particular orientation and the benefits of that, you know Tell us the stages

that you went through the problems that occurred and how you overcame them You

know all of those things are the kind of meats that actually gets people

interested in reading about what what your story is and and then alongside

that Facts and figures can be really, um, powerful to put in there as well.

You know, percentages, totals, quantities, like these all sound

quite impressive if you use them in the right, the right places.

Um, and don't round them either.

That's it.

That's a kind of real key tip.

If you think about it, if I was to say, I'm thinking totally off the top of my

head, but, you know, uh, the refurbishment reduced carbon emissions by 23%.

You know, that sounds more impressive than saying we reduced

carbon emissions by around 20%, you know, so really be specific there.

Um, and then towards the end of your, um, press release, you want to include

at least one quote from an actual person.

So again, Journalists love to be able to quote a direct source, and if you

hand that to them really easily, then it makes the story much more attractive

to them to put in the publication.

So that could be getting the thoughts and opinions of your client, or perhaps,

you know, some of the other consultants that worked on the project with you.

Or it can just be a quote from you.

You know, if you're the architect, then actually you're the person

that people want to hear from.

So although that feels a bit weird if you're writing the press release yourself,

don't be afraid to quote yourself.

Um, and then the final thing, and this is the bit That perhaps is easy to forget,

but is most important to you if you're doing this as a marketing exercise is to

finish with a call to action, and I know John that lots of your other guests have

talked about the importance of a call to action in lots of marketing content and

content, but it definitely applies here to you know that that last little paragraph

at the end is your opportunity to do the kind of marketing bit of a press release.

make it really clear what the takeaway is for the reader.

So do you, do you want them to end up going to have a look on your website?

For example, that's probably the most obvious one.

Or is there an event that you want them to, them to attend maybe?

Um, whatever it is, make it really simple and clear and only put one.

So it can be tempting to perhaps also put in your social media handles and,

you know, all these other things.

Um, but if you only give people one choice, then they tend to follow it.

You know, more, more readily than if you give them lots of things.

And then, then we get a bit overwhelmed as a reader.

Um, and then the final line that you write wants to speak directly to the journalist.

Um, so you want to actually tell them, you know, how to get in touch with you if they

want, um, high resolution photos perhaps, or more information about the Pro Project.

Um, so make sure that you include how they should get in touch with EY at the end.

That's brilliant.

You've given us a whole framework there to be able to write a press release.

That's absolutely fantastic.

Yeah, really good.

Really useful.

Hopefully helpful.

Yeah, no, absolutely.

Yeah.

So what else do we need to consider, though, when we're

putting together this press release?

Are there any other things that we need to think about?

Yeah, I guess that's the more practical side of actually

sending out the press release.

Um, You know, in a modern world, obviously we're going to be sending it by email.

Um, but I think, uh, whenever I send out press releases, I always actually

use the platform MailChimp, which a lot of people use for like, uh, you know,

emails to clients, like a mailing list.

Um, but I find that a really great tool because it.

It means that you can design the email as well, and, you know, journalists are

the same as everybody else if you just give them a block of text in a regular

email, that's not nearly as compelling as if you've got some great photos and,

you know, a layout that looks engaging.

So think about how you actually visually present your press release as well as the

actual written content that's in there.

Um, and if you don't have MailChimp, you know, there are lots of other alternatives

to that, or you can do Some of that kind of formatting stuff within your, your

normal email provider as well, I'm sure.

Um, the other thing I love about MailChimp though actually is that you can also

track who's opening your emails and that can be really helpful information.

So I'll send out the same, uh, press release to a number of

different, um, Press outlets that I think might pick it up.

And then I can track who's opened it, who's clicked to find out more.

Um, and that helps me know where to put my energy, you know, where to follow up.

Um, so that's, that's a really good tool.

Um, and then.

That's another point really, is the following up.

So the other bit that I think a lot of people don't do to begin with, when

they're first starting to do this, is follow up after that initial email.

So if you've sent out press release and after a week you haven't heard

anything, don't just give up.

You know, it might be that that Journalist just had a super busy

inbox that day and it got passed by.

I always follow up with another email saying, you know, in a really friendly

way, Oh, you know, I don't know if you spotted this, um, you know, here's this

press release I sent out last week and I reattached the original press release.

I give them a little line that hopefully interests them, you know,

well this is a great project because of X, Y, and Z, um, and then that's

another, a second stab at getting them.

Their interest and the amount of times actually that I've had journalists

come back to me after that point and say, Oh yeah, I totally missed this

first time, but this looks great.

And it's ended up being used.

Um, and then after that second follow up, uh, I will send a third, sorry, a

third, a second follow up, a third email.

Um, and in that third one, um, I'll normally write something like, um,

I know you're very busy, you know, if you've, if you've seen this and

you're not interested, just let you know, I won't be contacting you again.

Um, But, if you would like to get in touch, then that would be great.

And then it means that you're not bombarding them, but you are

giving them the opportunity to come back to you, and you know, you're

giving it your very best shot.

Um, and I think a lot of people are scared to do that, but, you

know, don't be, is what I'm saying.

Hehe.

thinking like, Oh, am I being a bit pushy?

Um, but if you look at it that you're helping them out, that these publications

are looking for engaging and interesting stories to print and they may have

genuinely just missed your email.

So it is worth doing the follow up.

So the other thing you mentioned there was about using, um,

an email service provider.

You mentioned about using MailChimp.

And.

There are all sorts of other alternatives out there.

I'll also give a shout out to MailerLite, which is another one

that has a really generous free plan.

So that's a really good starting point.

If you've not done and used any sort of email marketing software before.

Interestingly, I've, I have done a few press releases over the years,

and I've never thought to do it from my email marketing software.

Mm.

But actually, that's just such a really great idea to do that

and it's just, I've already have that software set up anyway, so that would

be something quick and easy for me to do that would help me to track open

rates and to see who's receiving and opening those emails, so I'm definitely

going to do that for my next press

It's definitely, it's definitely a helpful tool.

Elliot, I had another question actually just on regarding the

emailing of this, the press release.

Do you, does it matter whether we send the text, the actual body of

the press release, as a document attached to an email, or would you

recommend that we put all of the text in the body of the email itself?

Is there any benefits or pros and cons either way, or does it not matter?

I think that's a really great question.

Yeah, I would definitely recommend putting it in the body.

So I think, again, if we're going back to the point that these journalists are often

getting a lot of content, especially if you're targeting a publication that's very

popular, um, so putting it into the body means that it's just one less click away

for them to see what you're talking about.

Um, And if we go back to that kind of opening paragraph where you're

including your five Ws, if they can see that without having to have clicked

one more click, then it's much more likely to get picked up, I think.

Um, so yes, again, which is another great reason to use your, you know,

your mail software like MailChimp or MailerLite because you can easily do

that and still make it look attractive.

And actually that, that reminds me of another point,

John, which is about photos.

So I would make sure that, especially for architecture, because it's such a visual

thing, that you are putting lots of photos within that press release to, you know,

different angles, internal shots, external shots, um, And within the email, you're

going to want those to be of a sensible image size, so that it doesn't prevent

that email from sending effectively.

Um, but you need to make sure that you've also got the high resolution

version of all of those available, because what, what I've found is that,

you know, the, the, um, journalists will get back in touch with you and

say, can I have the high res images?

Um, and you want to be able to send those quickly, because you don't know when

their print and iron is going to be.

Okay.

and I'm not sure if you'd be able to answer this question

or not, but I'll ask it anyway.

If you're going to share those high res images there's a couple of options there.

It could either be a line in the email that just says if you'd

like high resolution images.

Let us know and we'll email you back.

Or it could be that you, you put a link in the body of the email to something like

a Dropbox folder or Google Drive folder.

The only thing I wasn't sure about, and I dunno if you know

the answer to this, is if that can affect deliverability of the email.

If we put start putting links in I don't think it should make any difference, but

I'm not an email marketing expert, so.

I'm not too sure.

No, I mean, I wouldn't want to give a definitive answer either,

but I don't think that links make a difference with emails, um, certainly on

some social media they can do, can't they?

But I don't believe that's true with email, and certainly it seems like a

real simple and easy way to give, uh, you know, the journalist access to all

those beautiful photos that you've got.

So that's, it's probably a good idea to try it out, definitely.

Yeah.

I think that might be worth testing because again, thinking about how time

poor some of these journalists are going to be and removing the friction

that actually, if we're like we're sending the email with a few lower

resolution images in the body of the email, and we've also got the press

release text in the body of the email, not as an attachment, and then we've

just got a little link there for them.

If they're like, Oh, this is actually a really great story.

We want this.

They've got a little link there, they can immediately go ahead and

get those high res images without them having to spend time going

back and forth with further emails.

That might be another little time saver for them that helps you increase your

chances of getting it published maybe so.

Food for thought.

Um, okay Ellie, so So we've got our press release written and we've got

it all drafted out on our email.

Is there anything else that we ideally should have in place

from a marketing point of view for a successful press release?

Yes, uh, I think it's worth thinking about your

whole marketing channel, really.

You know, if you send out a press release, and it does get picked up, and you get

a bit of coverage, what you want to make sure is that the reader that sees that

article, and is interested, and wants to find out more, has got somewhere to go.

So, the first point, I think, is to make sure that when they look

you up online, you've got some quality things for them to look at.

So start with your website, you know, make sure your website is really strong.

Um, and I think you've probably had an episode on websites, have you, John?

Uh, yes, we have had an episode on websites with Fabio Samet

a couple of months ago, I think.

Perfect.

So, you know, making sure that your homepage is really optimized.

Um, I'd also recommend making sure you've got some really great

case studies on your website.

You know, if someone's found you because they've read about a great project that

you've done in a magazine, then they're probably going to want to click through

to your website to find some more and see what more you've been doing.

So make sure that they can find what they're looking for.

Um, and then also beyond that, you want to think about your marketing funnel.

So, uh, press coverage would be at the top of what we call the marketing funnel.

You know, you're catching lots of people who are showing some interest

but are not really ready to actually book and work with you just yet.

So think about their journey.

If they've, if they're at the top of your funnel, how are they, how are

you going to get them to the bottom?

How are you going to get them to the point of actually, you know, spending

money with you and on your services?

So it might be, um, that you need to think about your social media presence,

for example, making sure that you can, um, get them signed up to that

so that they're then going to see information from you on a regular basis.

Um, you might want a mailing list, so you might want to think about using Mail

a Lite or MailChimp to send out emails.

Monthly emails to a, a, a list of subscribers who

have shown interest in you.

Um, perhaps a blog page of some sort on your website so that you can keep up

to date with, uh, you know, good advice that people might find interesting.

You know, these are all kind of little touch points that mean that over time

they'll get to the point hopefully of actually wanting to work with you.

That's great advice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That might be something that we cover actually on a different episode in

the future, perhaps talking a little bit more about marketing funnels.

There was another question that I had, something that I

mentioned in the introduction.

You help architects and developers and designers with one of

those things is advertorials.

Can you just explain what an advertorial is and where they fit into things?

Yeah, great question.

I think a lot of people find that quite confusing because it is, isn't it?

But an advertorial is literally, uh, as the name describes.

So it's an advert, but in an editorial style.

Um, so if you think about, you know, your conventional advert in a

magazine, that can be a great tool.

You know, it gets your, um, name in front of lots of people and, and you can sort

of have some bullet points and some photos in there perhaps that share what you do.

But that's as far as it goes.

So an advertorial is a nice kind of bridge between that simple advert and

some really detailed editorial content.

An advertorial allows you to tell the story behind a project,

for example, or behind your company, um, and get it printed.

The key difference between an advertorial and sending out a press release is

that you pay for an advertorial.

So that's a paid service, you pay the magazine or the newspaper and they

publish a page, let's say, all about you.

Um, and some of the benefits of that are that you are in complete control.

So because you're paying for that content, um, the magazine or

newspaper can't publish anything that you're not completely happy with.

So you can have all the final decisions on the design of the page, the content

that goes in the actual editorial, but Um, you know, the write up, um,

and so you can, you can make sure it says exactly what you want it to say.

Um, the downside, of course, is that it's a bit more expensive.

So, sending out a press release, you know, can be free if you're

putting it together yourself.

Um, or, by paying someone else to do it, the fee is fairly nominal

compared to actually an advertorial, which, depending on the publication,

you know, can be quite expensive.

Uh, you know, anything from probably a couple of hundred pounds up to,

you know, a thousand pounds or more.

Um, so I think they can be a really effective marketing tool.

If you've got the budget to put into that, um, and a press release can

be a great way of getting a similar kind of benefits without having to

have that, that outlay necessarily.

Um, the other thing I would say about advertorials, which is

important, I think, is that they work best if you do it more than once.

So just, you know, paying to have an advertorial put into a publication on one

occasion is going to have a huge impact.

kind of a minimal effect, I would, I would say.

My experience of working with magazines on this kind of material is that if

you sign up to do that on a monthly basis over a long period of time,

then, then that's when you see results.

And that's true with any, any marketing really.

You know, I think repetition is key.

You want to be putting out those strong messages, the same

messages, month after month.

Um, and then the readers will see that and over time, they'll get to

the point of like, okay, actually, I want to take this further.

I want to find out more about what this architect does.

Um, yeah, that's a bit of a rundown.

Yeah, that's brilliant.

Thanks for explaining that.

That's given us a really clear definition of that.

Brilliant.

Ellie, we're going to try and wrap things up now.

So what would be the main thing that you'd like everyone to take away from

the conversation we've had today?

Um, I think the key message is don't be afraid to give it a go.

You know, if you've never sent out a press release before, perhaps make

January or February, you know, the month that you decide to do that.

Um, It won't be successful every time.

You know, when you send out a press release, sometimes you won't get anything

back, and it won't get any publication.

But it doesn't have to go to waste.

I think the other thing is that you can always repurpose that content.

If you've put the effort into writing a press release, you can reuse it.

You know, change that into a series of social media posts, or you can put it on

your website, perhaps as a news item, um, or send it out as an email to your mailing

list if you've created a mailing list.

So that material and that time is never wasted.

But by sending it out to, um, you know, a series of publications, you've only

got to get picked up by one, and that can be a really big boost for your business.

Give it a go, and if you don't succeed the first time, you know, wait a

couple of months and have another go with a slightly different angle.

And I guarantee, you know, over time, you will get some coverage, especially in the

field of architecture, I think, which is so, you know, great to tell stories about.

I love that.

I think having, I suppose, like a sort of media company

mindset that whenever we are.

Writing any kind of content like if we're writing a case study or news

article to go on our on our website that every time it should pass through

this filter of is this newsworthy?

Can this also be a press release at the same time?

So it could be that there's one core piece of content that then may be able

to be repurposed in a variety of ways, and one of those is as a press release.

Yeah, definitely a big opportunity here for people, I think.

Yeah, definitely.

Is there anything else that you wanted to add, Ellie,

that we haven't already covered?

I think that's probably lots to take away for now, isn't it?

I don't want to bombard people.

Um, But, uh, I mean, if your listeners are interested in more sort of regular

tips about content, you know, like press releases, but other content for

marketing your business too, um, I have an email myself, uh, called writer's

tips, which I send out on a monthly basis.

So, um, you can always sign up to my, my mailing list and, and get

tips like this on a regular basis.

Super.

Okay, well, do you want to remind people where they sign up for that now?

So you can sign up to my mailing list on my

website which is just www.

leseniorcopywriting.

co.

uk or you can find me on LinkedIn.

Perfect, okay.

And Ellie, before I let you go, there's one last question

that I'd like to ask you.

I love to travel and to discover new places and I was just wondering if you

could tell me about one of your favourite places and what you love about it.

So this could be somewhere near or far.

Hmm.

Uh, well, I'm a mountain lover, uh, at heart, John, despite the fact

that I live in Cambridgeshire, uh, in the Fens where it's very, very flat.

So, um, yeah, my husband and I have always, you know, throughout,

throughout our lives spent many happy weeks in the mountains.

We love going out to the Alps, whether it's hiking in the

summer or skiing in the winter.

And in recent years, you know, with our kids in tow.

So, um, It's a tough pick, but I think my, my favourite place that I love to go

back to again and again is Austria, um.

You know, for me, I feel like somebody at some point took a pencil

and drew a wiggly line around the most beautiful mountainscapes in

Europe and just called it Austria.

And, uh, that's, that's a place that we just adore.

The mountains are absolutely stunning.

There's these enormous lakes as well that are great for, you know,

paddling on and swimming in the summer.

Um, we have a little camper van that we love to take out there, uh, for

a couple of weeks, most summers.

Oh, that sounds absolutely fantastic.

Yeah, idyllic.

I have been to, I've been to Austria once, but it was sort of more sort

of passing through while I was doing a trip around central Europe.

So I, I did get to go and see some of the scenery there and, um, visited

Salzburg, um, but I, I probably.

Due a visit back, I would say, to explore a bit more of that country.

Yes, I'd

So, if and when I do start planning that trip, I will, I will let you

know and you can give me some, some tips.

I'll give you a tour.

That sounds awesome.

Thank you so much, Ellie.

This has been, um, really useful.

I think the listeners are going to find this really beneficial.

And, um, yeah, I'm really grateful for you to come and be a guest on the show.

It's been an absolute pleasure.

Thank you so much, John.

Thank you for your time.

I've, um, really enjoyed listening to lots of your guests over the month, so

I'm, I'm very pleased to join their ranks.

Next time, I'll be sharing details of our new and

exciting membership community.

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