Getting your work published, for interior designers, dakota design company, woman typing

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Welcome to another edition of Dakota Design Company’s Guest Expert Interview series on the blog. We’re thrilled to share expertise from female business owners and leaders in the interior design industry—from interior photographers to marketers, financial advisors, branding experts, and beyond.

Each of our expert guests was selected because of their unique insights and perspectives on various topics that will help any interior design business owner take their business to the next level. These experts are Dakota Design Company insiders, and many have worked with us and our designer clients in the past. We hope you enjoy this series and that it brings you new insights, tips, and tricks to add to your interior designer toolbox.

Alex Abramian is a public relations specialist focusing specifically on the interior design industry. She is the founder of The PR Collaborative, the world’s first and only Press House created exclusively for interior designers, empowering them to become their own PR strategists so they can reach out to editors to get their completed projects published in top-notch periodicals.

After a 20-year career as a magazine editor and writer for publications including Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Elle Décor, Sunset, The Hollywood Reporter, and the Los Angeles Times, Alex wanted to expand access to top publications to a broader world of rising-star professionals. Today, The PR Collaborative boasts a vibrant community of interior designers and photographers and a suite of tools and services to get them recognized in leading local, national, and international publications.

The most important thing Alex shared with us is that the biggest difference between interior designers who get their work published and those who don’t is the way they package their pitch to editors.

Alex shares her top tips for what interior designers should be doing NOW to get their work published in the future.

Top PR Tip #1 - Invest In The Very Best Photography You Can Possibly Afford.

Interior designers are often working on their own or with a small team and an even smaller marketing budget. These precious dollars have to go far: Branding, website, SEO services, social posts, etc.

Here’s what I want designers to know:

The logo and the website do not need to be perfect. They can be good enough in the early phases and you can still grow your business.

Your photography, on the other hand, must be perfect right from the beginning.

You cannot get press without amazing photography, and since getting back into a project months/years after you’ve completed it is extremely challenging if not impossible (dogs, kids, life), it’s important to invest in photography before you start pitching your work to the press.

Top quality images get you on an editor’s radar, which gets you press, which grows your brand awareness, which attracts high-quality clients, etc.

One more time with feeling: invest early in the best photography you can afford.

Top PR Tip #2 - Ignore Your Instagram Engagement. Instead Focus On Content.

I see so many designers pulling their hair out about Instagram:

What’s the algorithm doing?
How do other designers have so many followers (answer: because they started their account in 2014 and/or bought followers)?
Why isn’t this post performing?
And so on!

All of this creates anxiety, which leads to overthinking, constantly re-editing, or, worst of all, not posting at all.

Ready for the actual bad news? Instagram IS important. (Eeks, sorry!)

Why? Because it’s where editors go to find new design talent.

In other words, you simply cannot afford to avoid it. But guess what? Editors actually love accounts with very few followers. Why? Because it gives them the thrill of discovery. Editors love being the one to find the next new designer.

So how to stand out immediately?

Do this: Treat each nine-grid as a mini-magazine into your world — a collection of ideas, images, inspiration and information that show the different facets of you and your business.

For example, you can slice and dice this way:

1-3 images of your finished work (see Number One for that!);
2-3 process images (this can be a photo of your team or an image of some tiles or fabric that you’re going to use);
1-2 Off Duty images from a trip you took, a hotel you stayed in (just make sure they’re your images);
And most important: 1-2 images of YOU. So many designers forget that extremely key component.

Now move them around with a tool like Planoly so that the visual flow of images — color, shape, pattern — is beautiful and balanced. Then get posting!

When you have a 9-grid like this, editors will get a 360 view into your world in a matter of seconds, not minutes. Who you are, what you do, how you do it.

And when it comes to captions? Be weird. Forget Wallpaper Wednesday and Throwback Thursday. It’s overplayed. Editors would much rather see a caption that’s all about your hard morning spilling coffee on yourself on your way to a client meeting that doesn’t quite have anything to do with a stunning image of the wallpaper that you are posting. That’s the kind of quirky “who is this person?” detail that helps you stand out, get noticed and get press.

Top PR Tip #3 - Recognize & Capitalize On Your Charisma

You don’t need to be outgoing to get noticed by the press. Many of my most successful, press-recognized designer clients are actually shy introverts.

So what’s the secret?

It’s warmth.

Charisma is the Venn between warmth and talent. That combination is what draws people in — both editors and clients alike. And both introverts and extroverts can exude warmth.

Back in the day when I was an editor, many designers considered it a sign of success to be slightly stand-offish in a sort of celebrity way. Let me tell you that ship has completely sailed.

Editors are overworked, underpaid, and extremely passionate about great design. They are often sensitive souls as well who are drawn to warm personalities as much as anyone else.

But here’s the challenge: So many designers I work with over-index on their talent and under-index on their warmth. Once you recognize your inherent warmth and magnetic personality for the business asset it is, your energy completely shifts. You become even warmer and more magnetic.

And when your warmth comes through — on client inquiry calls, on the language used on your website and even in your Instagram posts — both editors and clients will take note.

Finally, we asked Alex what advice she has for newer designers, who feel like getting published seems like a far-off dream. Here’s what she said:

Make sure you have at least one project professionally photographed and start engaging on Instagram with the editors and writers at your dream publications. And, remember that editors love (love!) to find undiscovered design talent. So having no or very little press can be an extremely good thing!!

PR Resource for Interior Designers

If you are interested in getting your work published and want to know how to get editors to come to YOU for stories, watch our free masterclass here (training is available for a limited time) then explore The Academy, where you can learn how to become your own PR strategist, get your design projects published, and grow your business through press coverage.

**Note: I am an affiliate for Alex’s program, The Academy, and will receive a commission if you join through my link, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend tools, programs, and people I trust!