Wolf Craft - Your PR questions answered - edition #2

Welcome to the second edition of PR Questions with Nora.

This new monthly newsletter feature was inspired by you! If you've attended one of our recent PR workshops, you likely noticed there were A LOT of great questions during the Q&A's. We've collated all the questions and once a month we'll send you two in-depth answers to your most common PR questions.

Read past editions here.

Q: What do you think is an interesting story? If you were a writer at Architectural Digest, for example, what do you think would be a good story?

A: First, I want to remove myself and you from the conversation.

Kirsten and I built Wolf Craft around a design thinking methodology, and one of the most important pillars is research. Research is something that publicists have to do a lot, and so do you if you are DIYing media strategy in-house.

If you're wondering -- "what does Architectural Digest want to write about?" -- you have to go to the source and actually look at their pages, like really look not just flip through. Read the articles, and get a good feel for the types of projects/products *and* the types of photography that they're featuring.

Generally, AD writes about celebrity homes and very expensive interior design, so if you want to be considered you have to be in those categories. Little me (or you!) is not going to make them change their established editorial point of view.

After some research, you may realize that your work and point of view may not fit that publication. This is good information to have! If you're not a good fit for AD, are you a good fit for Elle Decor? Are you a good fit for House Beautiful or Better Homes and Gardens?

Try and figure out what publications' point of view overlaps with what you create.

AD is like the New York Times of the interior design community. Everyone wants it, and thus they get bombarded with pitches. I have a fairly strong hunch that a lot of these pitches just aren't appropriate for their publication. This isn't something that you shouldn't take personally, it's just good information to have.

You should be pitching outlets that are appropriate for your work, so research research research.

Q: My business has multiple facets. I teach, design my own products, and license work. Should I start a PR strategy with services as well as products?

A: This is a great question, one that's come up before. I think it's really important to think about your business' point of view.

Does including your services make sense on the same website and social media platforms as your products?

Sometimes it does, if there's a lot of overlap. But sometimes you just have two separate businesses.

Here's an example- There's this incredible lighting designer who makes these stunning lights that cost around 20k. They do not belong on the same website as her online store that sells $100 dollar pieces. The price points are different, the potential buyers are different, and the media opportunities are different too.

Think about who the intended client is and if there is overlap. From a PR perspective, is everything on one site going to be confusing to the media outlet?

At the end of the day, the media profiles and grownup companies. If your business crosses different areas -- teaching, products, licensing -- it has to be professional and thought out. It shouldn't feel like you dumped everything I do onto one page without any thoughtful connection.

Again, this is where research is important. Can you find a renaissance person who has everything on their page and the publication you're interested in still wrote about them? If so, you're probably in the clear.

Generally, it's very hard to say if there's a good one size fits all, but ultimately you just need to be really intentional with who the audience is for that storytelling moment.

A few useful tools to help you get started:

Wondering if your services/products/etc all make sense on one website? Or just want some actionable specific advice on how to improve your website and social? Check out our Tweak & Edit PR Review service.

How to Make Sure Your Logo Reflects Your Creative Business

How to Read Like a Publicist: A Design Milk Case Study

Thanks for giving us some time in your inbox! If you have any PR questions be sure to send them our way. We'll always respond and you may even see the answer in our newsletter!

Cheers,
Nora & Kirsten

PS - If you liked the newsletter, we’d be so happy if you shared it with others who might find it useful. Anyone new can subscribe here.

Wolf Craft - Your PR questions answered - edition #2

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