Today there are many magazines and advertising platforms for interior designers.
It’s important to understand that 90% of the publications are based on providing their readers content with value.
Also if you didn’t know it by now, most of the “editorial publications” typically go to those who advertise in the magazine.
There are many magazines that will allow you to purchase an “editorial” article written about you and your business but depending on the magazine size and distribution you might be looking at a few hundred to thousands for a single article.
Regardless if you pay or get “awarded” with those publications, it’s important to know there’s a high bar when it comes to the visuals those magazines will accept and your picture quality is crucial if not an ultimate barrier on the way to get published.
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Here are a few tips on how to get published:
The first thing you need to do is to document each and every project, big or small, significant or not in a professional manner.
There’s no replacement for first impressions neither you would like nor be able to go back and re-capture the project, so choose your interior design photographer wisely.
Different people have different tastes and also different budgets. It’s important that your portfolio would have diversity and also it should be aiming for what you want to do in the future and not tomorrow.
Remember you act now on work and clients you want to have in a few years and not today.
Establish a relationship with Editors and Journalist
Build a relationship with them in advance, don’t wait for your project to start getting to know everyone, do more than that by exploring not only “interior design magazines” but also real estate, kitchen and bath, construction, smart home publications, and so on.
You can reach out to them through social media (Facebook or LinkedIn) and also reach out to the editor’s through email via the magazine website, believe it or not, if you bring them the value they will be more than happy to work with you.
Do the Work, Be Exclusive
Always remember magazines like to be exclusive, at the bare minimum they have to publish it first. At this time you would need to choose if it is worth the wait of getting published vs. starting to market your project yourself, as some magazines will take 4-5 months until they publish, and sometime you might fall in between.
Publications have a lot to handle, a great way to increase your chances is to write a base frame for your project. Send them 400 words summary with stunning images, sometimes this will do half of the job for them and it will make it easier to get published and save them the resources.
Theme Photoshoot
Think ahead, Christmas is in a few months? Maybe Easter or even Summer is on the way. Create a themed photoshoot to help magazines bring value to their readers. For example add some Christmas decorations, Tree ordainments and capture another shoot of the living room with this setup.
Photoshoot Collaboration with other Vendors
Collaborate with the big vendors in your photoshoots, big vendors like countertops, kitchens or even big architecture firms have more tools and connections to the media so collaborate and work together.
Sometimes big corporates are doing paid advertising, if you bring high-end photos and use this collaboration to leverage them and you, don’t forget it serves their interest as well as they can promote a real project and not just an advertising ad.
Getting on the cover of Interior Design Magazine
Did you ever dream to be on the cover? That’s great but! Being on the cover requires a portrait image of your project rather than a landscape orientation.
Believe it or not, many designers don’t request their photographer to do a portrait orientation for the hero shoot.
It is important to have in mind to leave a “negative space” on the top and sides that they could use for titles and logos.
Publish your own work
If you can’t get published, publish yourself, reach out to bloggers, small magazines or even go international, other countries’ magazines and bloggers love content collaboration.
As before, write original content, don’t just send everyone the same article as eventually it will impact your brand due to duplicated content, also give those small publications also a chance to enjoy unique content.
Blog Collaboration for Interior Designers
Think in-house your vendors can generate great exposure for you, if you work with an upscale interior design photographer or maybe a kitchen company that has hundreds and thousands of website views each month, collaborate with them to host a blog post on your website.
Hosting blog articles written by your vendors could help you when they promote their agenda and projects bringing you more exposure and more potential business.
Believe it or not, the advertising value can sometimes be greater than big magazines as you can actually control the article and the search engines love genuine articles from related industry fellow.
Also, Remember! Getting published is all about giving the readers value, information, and interest, it is not about how great your design is, think as a reader, not as a writer.
