How to use architecture publishing to connect with new clients
This question from a member of the Sounds Like Design audience is:
“Is it still useful to seek publication in printed magazines? And if so, how should I go about it?”
My short answer is a resounding yes, and there is definitely a right way to approach this, to meet your business objectives.
You can watch this 20 minute video where I respond to the question with ideas to help you use publishing strategically to market your architecture practice.
Or just keep reading for the summary of my key points. I’ll start by expanding upon why I think it’s useful to seek publication by sharing some insider tips from my work as a journalist and editor, then I’ll explain how to go about it.
Why should you attempt to get your projects published in print magazines?
HOUSES magazine. Auchenflower House by Vokes and Peters.
Photography by Christopher Frederick Jones
There are two main reasons to seek publication in a printed magazine. Number one is the simple fact that your project appears in a coveted spot in a magazine. Let’s crunch some numbers:
HOUSES features 10 projects per issue, across six issues a year, for a total of just 60 homes.
It’s a similar story at Australian House&Garden and Vogue Living, which each feature about five homes per issue, and publish 12 issues a year.
By comparison, design blogs have no limit on the number of projects they can feature in a month or year, so the same level of curation and selection doesn’t apply online.
So the three magazines I mentioned publish an exclusive group of just 60 houses per year - and HOUSES only features work from each architecture practice once per year - so just by being included, you’ve earned a huge honour that conveys a rich helping of social proof on your practice.
Also, that social proof is worth more than likes on Instagram or Facebook, because your project has been reviewed and compared with others before being selected by the editor, who sees hundreds of competing submissions each year.
We know, for example, that HOUSES generates nearly 500 entries into its annual awards program. So your project has been chosen because it has a certain special something, and the editor has dedicated several pages – and sometimes the cost of new photography and styling, plus the journalist’s fee - to explain those qualities to readers.
So here is insider tip #1 - if you can control the storytelling and messaging – and use magazine publishing as an opportunity to speak directly to your future client – it provides a very powerful platform to promote your practice’s approach and projects.
Australian House & Garden magazine. McIntyre House. Architecture by Greg Everding Architect. Interior Design by Ascot Living.
Photography by Maree Homer. Styling by Kate Nixon.
Secondly, and this is just as important: when I interview clients about their homes for magazine stories – for publications such as HOUSES, Sanctuary and Australian House&Garden – they often tell me that they first became aware of their architect through a magazine or newspaper article.
Time and again I hear that from clients - much more than they cite Pinterest or Instagram or countless design blogs - so print publishing can still be a very powerful way to promote your work to future clients.
The key to making this process work for your business is to ensure you are in the right publication that your future client will read (or pick up at the doctor’s surgery). So you have to do some work beforehand to define your ideal client, and to work out which magazines to target so you can reach them.
You also need to frame your messaging in a way that will connect and resonate with them, and convey that message to the journalist who writes the story. All of this relies on good preparation and strategic thinking up front (and it’s worth pointing out here that most publications will let you read a story before it goes to print to correct errors, but not rewrite it, so do your homework before you talk to the journalist).
Of course it can be very tempting to have your work published in a magazine that will stroke your ego and vanity; but if your future client isn’t reading that publication, or your message isn’t presented in a way that resonates with them - so that you come across as approachable and likeable - it’s a wasted opportunity in terms of bringing new work into your practice.
Sanctuary magazine is an especially great way to connect with future clients, for several key reasons:
it is clearly focussed on sustainable homes, so the readership is well defined;
the number of readers and subscribers is growing each year, contrary to market trends that have seen magazine readership shrinking year-on-year this century; and
many Sanctuary readers are planning to take action themselves, to build or renovate their homes in the next few years.
So if you are targeting homeowners who are interested in sustainable housing design, Sanctuary offers a highly engaged and committed audience for you to present your project to.
And that leads to insider tip #2, which is that I’ve had clients tell me they kept tear sheets for 10 years, before they approached their architect of choice, after spotting their work in a magazine.
This kind of tear-sheet keeping and subsequent action is a long game, and it also doesn’t happen to the same extent with online coverage, because your project appears in a sea of other competing projects (remember, there were just five or ten houses curated by the editor in the printed magazine).
So what is insider tip #3? I recommend that architects should seek and secure print publication in their preferred publication, and then wait for it to appear in print, before promoting that project elsewhere online or on social media.
That’s because your chosen magazine doesn’t want the project they are investing in - both in terms of money and pages - to appear in any competing magazines or websites before they publish: exclusivity is the number one currency of printed magazines; and it’s in short supply in this age of digital everything and social media.
Sometimes the magazine may even ask you to refrain from uploading images to your own website and/or socials, so you’ll need to agree on those terms and determine how long you are prepared to hold off for, and whether securing a spot in your coveted magazine is worth the delay.
Habitus magazine. Profile of John Wardle - pictured at his own home - by the author.
Photography by Marnie Hawson.
So, how should you go about getting your projects published in magazines?
Ideally, you’d make a list of your preferred publications and work through this list from the top - approaching each editor and waiting for their response. That way, you can secure placement in your preferred magazine, one that your ideal client will read. Once you agree on placement, it doesn’t hurt to ask for an indication of when your project will be featured, although this date can change for various reasons. (See my list of the 9 publication tiers, and 4-step strategy planning tool here.)
I recently had an architect tell me that a magazine sat on a project for 18 months, and a story I wrote early last year still hasn’t been published, so while it’s unusual to wait for more than a year, it can sometimes happen.
It’s one of the downsides of print publication - and the main reason architects often don’t see this process through to fruition. I get that it can be painful and frustrating to wait, but, just as good architecture takes time to deliver properly, using publishing to your advantage requires patience and persistence.
If you invest energy in this process – and build relationships with editors - it will become easier and faster over time. That’s why you see projects from certain architects like Vokes and Peter and Shaun Lockyer in magazines regularly - they started out as unknowns too, but now they have relationships with editors so that their new projects invariably get picked up as soon as they are finished. If you follow this method, and your work is deemed publication-worthy, you can build a loyal media following too.
Then, once your project has appeared in print, you can send your media kit out to a wider network, or use a service such as Bowerbird to spread the word for you.
What’s the best way to manage your publishing schedule for recently completed projects?
Ideally, you’d have several projects in various phases of publication at a time – one being photographed, one placed and awaiting publication, and one just published that you can promote more widely. It’s about having a pipeline so that your practice and projects are constantly being showcased to future clients across various publications and channels.
That’s magazine publishing for architects in a nutshell, and if you’d like more info about publishing your projects, you can access the Publishing “hub” which contains links to several more blogs on this topic.
Also, if you know an architect who has been struggling to get published, please send them a link to this post so they can apply my insider tips to the problem!
Ready to access Sounds Like Design’s business development and marketing services?
I offer three services to architects, ranging from 1-hour Zoom Acupuncture Sessions to the 3-month Review + Reset consulting package.
If you want to tap into my Publishing expertise to develop a strategy for a recently completed project, book an Acupuncture Session here and we can workshop it together in an online meeting, with deliverables including formulating goals around attracting future clients, your customised print/online publishing plan, sample pitch emails, editor’s contact details and more.
If you’re interested in learning Business Development and Marketing and implementing the new client pipeline system I developed specifically for architects, you can take the Architecture Marketing 360 CPD course. You can purchase the self-guided program and start right away, here.
And finally, if you’re interested in working with me directly, you can find details about our 3-month consulting package Review + Reset here. (I have a waitlist for new Review + Reset clients, and that’s what I aim to help you achieve for your architecture business, too).
Lastly, if you have any questions about this blog post, or any of my services, please click here to email me. I’m always happy to hear from architects who want to improve the way they communicate their value to future clients, and grow the market-share pie.