How we get press coverage

Like any small business, we’re always looking for ways to get our message out to new customers and to remind existing clients of the great stuff we have in stock. I like to think we’re pretty on the ball when it comes to marketing the company. We advertise in carefully selected publications; we reach out to our customers through a monthly email newsletter; our website is up to date; and we’re active on Facebook and Twitter. I know that many of you run businesses of your own, so I thought today I’d talk about some of the ways we get press.

We’ve always found that editorial, not advertising, is the best way to get our message heard. We’ve got some great products and we’ve been lucky at getting national coverage in interiors magazines like Homes & Antiques and Ideal Home, or in the interiors sections of national newspapers. You can see a selection of the press coverage we achieve under the ‘resources’ part of our website – also a great place to find details of books and more information on Chinese furniture and design. We find that if a product is featured in a national homes magazine, we can expect hundreds more hits on the website and a high number of sales. Most of our business is done online, but we also have a 3000 sq ft showroom in Greengates, Bradford, close to the main Leeds and Bradford ring roads, so we’re also keen to attract local customers and encourage those from further afield to take a trip and visit us. As we are specialised in what we offer we do often have customers come up from as far London or down from Scotland to view our furniture and antiques.

This month you might have spotted our Lacquer Wedding Cabinets featured in the Mail on Sunday or seen our Tang Horses in Period Homes and Interiors.  We’re also thrilled to have been featured in two of the major lifestyle magazines for the Yorkshire area: Yorkshire Life and Yorkshire Living. Both are great articles: Yorkshire Life has a reader offer plus a sideboard from our Country collection and a bronze Tang horse in the Interiors section; Yorkshire Living takes a tour round our showroom and interviews me about the company.

Both of these last two pieces have generated fantastic publicity for us locally and we’re delighted with them both. Although we’re an occasional advertiser in Yorkshire Life, the bronze horse and the sideboard were featured simply because They are great pieces and fitted the editorial message. 

So how do we do it? How do you get good press, either local or national? The secret is to create great stories, make sure they get to the right person, and then follow them up. We take a lot of time to make our press releases interesting, and even though a journalist may not take up that particular story, it builds awareness and recognition of our company in their minds for next time.

Of course, it’s easy for us: we have a great product and we’re absolutely passionate about what we do. If your business is drains, or undertaking, it might be a little hard to drum up press coverage. If you run a business, I’d be really interested to know how you attract press and what other methods of promotion you find successful. Get in touch by emailing james@shimu.co.uk.