35: Actionable Ways To Increase Your Press & Marketing TODAY

After Market... Marketing. What in the world am I talking about? Well it's actually simple! After Market Marketing is a technique I use to create more awareness around a piece of press or any marketing exposure you have received for yourself or your business.

In this episode, I will discuss WHY you need to initiate a plan for After Market Marketing and 3 easy techniques you can implement right now for marketing your marketing.
I will discuss using :
1) Social Media
2) Blog Posts & Newsletter
3) Thank You's to those who gave you the press.

Don't miss the action-oriented episode on how to REALLY Market your Marketing while also increasing the Top of Mind Awareness for you, your company, and the brands that you partner with.

Download my Free One Page Guide to After Market Marketing HERE: https://john.myflodesk.com/aftermarketmarketing

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Transcript

If a brand or company was kind enough to provide press for you or any form of marketing, you should take the time to properly thank them. They're going to remember you. They're going to remember your thankfulness, and they are going to love that you are continuing to market that piece for them and to give them exposure to your audience via your current outlets.

Hey y'all, you've tuned in to the Designer Within Podcast, episode number 35. I'm John McClain and welcome to the designer within podcast, the business minded podcast created for creative entrepreneurs by a creative entrepreneur. That's me. I know firsthand the challenges, but also the victories that can come with our careers.

And I'm here to sip and spill the tea with you. It's time to dive deep within yourself and redesign your own business and your life. From the inside out together, we will uncover secrets and share valuable insights. So prepare for a transformative experience, my friends, because it's time to unleash the designer within.

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the designer within I'm John McClain. Happy to have you here. Loving, loving, loving, learning with you, growing with you, and really just exploring the world of interior design and our businesses. Today's episode is going to be another note taker. This is a really good one, one that I'm actually really passionate about and one that I am excited to share with you.

It is a subject I call after market marketing, and we're going to get into that in just a moment. But first, just a little bit of housekeeping. If you're listening to this in real time, which is in February of 2024, and you are going to be at KBis in Las Vegas, I invite you to join me there on February 28th at 11 a.

m. I am going to be doing a presentation for Houzz Pro at their booth. called repeatable systems and processes for interior designers. And I will be diving deep within processes and systems that I use within my own company and giving you lots of information on how to set those up for your company as well.

So that is February 28th at KBis at 11am at the House Pro booth. On February 27th, one day before, I will be one of the judges at Design Bytes Live at KBis Next Stage. So this is a fun, easy going competition where we will be judging products that the brands will be showing us and it is just a fun way to give them recognition for what they do.

My friend Michelle Smith Boyd is going to be hosting that as well as other things during the KBis events and we will be acting as judges, myself and two other people. So Join us there on the KBIsnext stage on February 27th at 12 p. m. for that. I am also going to be at the KBIZ birthday celebration on February 29th, where KBIZ will be giving away some copies of my book, The Designer Within.

So, lots of things happening around KBIZ. If you're there, if you see me, come up and say hi. You know I love to see you out in the real world, out in the wi I also come up and see me, give me a hug and let me know that you listen to the podcast or that you are a student in my program, or just to say, hi, I would love, love, love to see you.

So that is at kbis, which is coming up very, very soon. If you're listening to this in real time, also want to mention that we are now enrolling for my design success Academy. Oh my gosh, the transformations that are happening within students in my program are just so wonderful, from increasing their rates, to getting their own systems and processes in place, to using all of my templates and so forth.

It is just so, so, so wonderful to hear the feedback from my students. How they're using the program, how they're using everything that we're learning inside of that. And we have a monthly group coaching call where we can really dive into things. So it's really truly, truly heartwarming for me to know how much of a difference it is making in the lives of my design colleagues out there.

And if you are one of those who want to be a part of that, Head to DesignSuccessAcademy. com. You know, I don't do a hard sell, but I really do truly love this program. And I'm so proud of what we have created inside of it, the community, the collaboration that everyone has with each other, and it is just a truly great place to share your knowledge and learn from those around you.

So head to DesignSuccessAcademy. com if you would like to join that as well. Now, let's jump into today's episode. This is a good one. I'm really excited about it, as I said, talking about marketing is one of my favorite things to do, and especially talking about press that we received. And I know many of us receive an accolade or press or even just a simple mention from a colleague or an industry partner, and we just assume That that is the end of that publicity.

We assume that once they produce that piece, once we are in a magazine, once someone mentions us on their social media page, we assume that that is it. They've done all the hard work. We've given them the project and they promoted it. Well, I am here to tell you that that first piece of press is literally just that.

It is just the first piece. Once you realize how to continue to publicize that piece of press or marketing, whatever the case may be, your marketing efforts will grow tremendously. And one piece of press can turn into dozens and dozens of other opportunities for marketing you and your company. This is something that I call after market marketing.

So let's face it, first of all, getting press is not always easy. You could write an article, you could have a project featured in a publication, or even simply by having another Instagram account, mention your brand or your company with after market marketing, you will be able to take that one piece of press and turn it into lots.

And lots of other content for you to share with those who are currently doing business with you are, more importantly, those who want to do business with you. Now, first of all, let's talk about reasons for aftermarket marketing. One, of course, is the obvious. It is the additional exposure of your piece and additional eyes on your company, too.

The outlet, whether it be a magazine, a blog, a website, an Instagram account, etc., who featured you. or simply mentioned you will appreciate the fact that you are promoting that piece, which again, promotes them as well. I can say this from my own experience from having guests on my podcast, and sometimes, not pointing fingers, but sometimes some of them will not share or broadcast the fact that they were on the podcast.

And it's a little bit of a bee in my bonnet. It is a lot of work to produce a podcast. There is exposure being given. So I want that person to take that and give the podcast exposure. And of course, provide themselves with after market marketing. So that's just something that I like to talk about, but it is a wonderful feeling to know that other people are sharing that information.

And especially if you were sharing something from another company or another magazine or any publication that featured you, even a website, that company, I promise you is going to love you for sharing that. And for tagging them in that and for you creating a marketing piece for them from the marketing piece that they created for you.

Thirdly, it gives you content to use for yourself for weeks and sometimes even months to come. It really, really does. You have content that you can use in many, many different formats. We're going to discuss some of those ways to create content around it. And there are so many endless ways to do that. My brain just almost have smoke coming out of my ears when I think about all of the ways that I can take one piece of marketing and spin that into dozens and dozens of other pieces of content.

It is so fun and so interesting to me that one thing can have so many other legs and can turn into so many other pieces of marketing for myself. And again, also creating those warm and fuzzies with the other companies. And fourth, and this is a good one, by continuously promoting your piece of marketing, you are further solidifying yourself as an expert in your field.

So if you are an interior designer and you, let's say, have a feature that discusses your specific way that you created a kitchen floor plan, that enables an entire family to cook dinner together. That is the feature of the article. You are being featured as the person who is creating this kitchen. Your expertise as an interior designer, and especially as a kitchen designer, will multiply even with your own audience that you currently have, not to mention potential new clients or business partnerships that you might engage in.

So really, it is going to brand you even more deeply as the expert in your field, which is always a good thing, which can lead to so many other things down the road, speaking engagements, brand sponsorships, et cetera. By you taking the reins and creating your own aftermarket marketing, you are now furthering your brand, furthering your level of expertise, and truly showing the world your experience in your specific category.

Fifth, by marketing your own marketing, you are also increasing So, let's say you have that kitchen again, using that example that you are promoting in your own aftermarket marketing. And there is an appliance company that is showing in the feature. There is a tile company and a countertop company, for instance, shown in that kitchen.

By continuously marketing that kitchen on different platforms and using the different methods of which I'm going to discuss with you just in a moment, this will increase your brand awareness with that specific vendor or manufacturer. And you could receive possible partnerships, ambassadorships. etc.

down the road. It also increases the possibility that they will use you for their own marketing within their own company, such as their own newsletter, or their own blog, or speaking engagements that they want to have you participate in. So many things can result. from that article from you again, taking the reins and further developing that relationship with that brand, that brand is going to love you and appreciate you for that.

And they are going to remember you when they are going to be promoting their own brands down the road. And I can speak from personal experience, how this has turned into such wonderful, fruitful partnerships with brands that I love and trust and brands that I'm so happy to be associated with. And the same thing can happen for you.

All righty, so those are my five reasons for creating aftermarket marketing. Pretty good, right? Really good solid reasons that you should jump into the aftermarket marketing plan. And now let's jump into specific ways to perform your aftermarket marketing. for your own piece of press. Here are three ways to give yourself aftermarket marketing and really get you more exposure to your latest accomplishment and essentially show it to as many people as possible, which is the goal of marketing and the goal of press.

And by the way, let me mention the techniques that I'm about to share with you are not going to cost you a penny. They are not going to cost you anything monetarily. Of course, yes, they're going to cost you the time to do them. But once you get into a rhythm, And once you set up a process for your own aftermarket marketing, you can do this with your eyes closed because you will be doing the same systems for every single piece of press that you receive.

So I just wanted to mention that it is only going to take some good old elbow grease, which of course we all know how to do as interior designers and as business owners in general. First of all, social media. Social media is the obvious way to share your marketing. And let me just talk about a pet peeve that I have first.

A pet peeve that I have is being lazy with your after market marketing. And an example is let's say someone mentions you on their social media page, be it Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, whatever. And in the case of this example, let's use Instagram. Let's say that you simply take the lazy way out as I feel and decide to simply share that post on your own story.

That is so lazy, and honestly, it is really inconsiderate of the brand, or marketing company, or magazine that is promoting you. That other Instagram page took the time to create a post, or a reel, and add you as a collaborator, or as a tag. And if all that you do is simply share that on your story, because that is, quote, all the time that you have to do that that day, or you don't even think about other ways to share it, what is that saying to that brand?

I want you to create pathways to reach that other article other than simply just sharing that story, which, as you know, goes away in just 24 hours. So that story's gone in 24 hours, and all you've done is literally clicked one button. And I know Instagram makes it easy to do that. But there are other ways that I want you to promote that piece on your own social media and I'm going to talk about that now.

Now, I'm not saying to not share stories about things. Of course, you want to share the stories. But let's say that there is a link to an article and you are sharing that story on your own story. As you might know, that link does not transfer over when you share that story. You should take the time, it does not take long at all to do this, this is probably the simplest part of what I'm going to discuss, you should take the time to go and grab that link to that story or to that article or to that press feature.

And in my case, to the podcast episode, and you should add that link to your story. This provides an active link for those who are viewing that story to click on, and it shows a much more proactive measure of marketing to the outlet who is featuring you. So again, When you share another person's story, that link to that article or to that feature does not carry over.

It is up to you to create a live link in the story that you create. It is the literally least that you can do for that company or for that feature that you were in. And yes, at the very least, you should share that post or story that the other outlet has created for you. But as I said, be sure to create a separate link and add that to your own story.

I even like to add some special comments such as, What a pleasure, thank you so much, you know, etc, etc. Just to let that brand know how much I care and appreciate the fact that they promoted me. Now, taking that one step further, you could and you should create your own post or reel about your experience with that company, spend 30 minutes or an hour and record a video testimonial of yourself holding the magazine, if that is the situation, or you don't even have to be on camera to promote the piece.

You could very well show images of the article with a voiceover. Discussing how much you appreciate them, featuring this project, and why it is important for you, and why you love this project so much. And if you really want to take this even one step further, and create a link in your bio that just lives there, to send people to, and allow them to read the entire article feature from that company's own page.

They are going to love you for driving traffic to their website, I promise. So now, you are not only sharing the first mention in your story that they mentioned you, that they created with your own link to their article that you have added. Now, you're also going to share the post that you made, again, in your own story, with a link to the same article.

Now, you're not going to do this on the same days. I like to break these up with a few days apart so that you have more content to share and people aren't getting bombarded within a information. So over the course of the first week of the interaction of the marketing piece, you should of course share the story or share the feature or share the post that they created.

Then a few days later, three or four days later, you should also again, share the piece that you created on your own page, be it the reel or be it the post, and then put that into your stories as well. So right there are two pieces of content that you have just created for yourself. from that one piece.

And again, there are numerous ways to create marketing. This is just two simple pimple ways to add aftermarket marketing to your Instagram. Once you create that piece, I want you to then of course add the other brand as a collaborator. Obviously, they do not have any obligation to you to accept the collaboration.

But if they do, you could show up potentially on their page with all of their followers, also now knowing who you are, and then that's increasing your followers and awareness of your company even further. Do not forget to at least try and add them as a collaborator on the post or the reel. At the very, very least, You should tag them in the post.

I also create a highlight reel on my Instagram page, and I will highlight any press that I am mentioned in in my story, and it will live on my Instagram page under that press category, acting almost as if it's a press page on your website. So you're going to store all the press that you have there on your own Instagram page under a highlight.

So that anyone can come back and say, wow, look how many places they were featured. All of the places that this brand or this company or this person has been shown. I promise you it will increase your validity in the market and it will further drive home that you are an expert in your field. All right.

So those are just two ways to continue the after market marketing on social media. Of course, there are so many others. I don't have time to go into here. Others that I do discuss in my course on design success Academy. But for now, I just wanted to give you two easy ways to go and create after market marketing on your social media page, specifically Instagram, using your own post and using the post of other people.

Now it's time to talk about how to give yourself after market marketing with your own written material. First is the blog post. Again, if a brand or company was kind enough to provide press for you or any form of marketing, you should take the time to properly thank them and to give them exposure to your audience via your current outlets.

One way that I like to do this is to write my own blog post about my experience with that company. or with that brand. An easy way to do this is to just take that article and simply elaborate on things that the article was about. For instance, if the article was about that same kitchen and they did not discuss how you found the clients or what you liked about the client, you could include that as part of your blog post to not only cover the material that was written in the original article, But now you are extending that and giving even more information for your own people who are following you.

You could also decide if you want to include additional photos of your project, or even of yourself creating the project that was not shown in the article. Or, if you happen to have a photo and get approval from the owners of the home, you could interview them and add your own lines in the blog post.

Essentially, you could write your own article about your article. Isn't that cool? But it's a great way to expand on the original piece and still build upon what they have created, but also making it your own and at the same time giving thanks to them for writing the original piece. Writing a blog post has other benefits such as SEO, but you should also link to that other company in your blog post so that they will get links from your website to theirs.

Another written format to utilize for your own followers and your own email list It's to have your press mentioned in your newsletter. Now, if you don't have a newsletter, that's an entirely different subject, and you should have one. But, for the sake of this conversation, let's just assume that you already have one, and I want you to feature that article in your newsletter.

You could link to two places, actually. You could link them to your blog post. As well as linking them to the original article. Let your followers know, I'm giving you behind the scenes of what happened for this article. I'm giving you more information in my own blog post. And also, at the same time, here is a link to the original article.

If you simply only wanted to link to your own blog post in your newsletter, which, remember, that blog post has a link to the original article. That is a way that you could drive traffic to your own website from your newsletter is just to simply link them to your blog post, which will have a link to the original post.

So you're kind of killing two birds with one stone there, if you will. So those are two simple ways provide additional marketing. to your own audience in a written format. First is your blog, the second is using your newsletter to promote that piece and to promote your own blog post. Now the other benefit of course is that you can also share your blog post on your own social media.

So you have another form of content and even more things to share. Do you see how this works? Everything leads to something else and soon, very, very soon. Once you have this list down and once you create your own process for creating aftermarket marketing, you could have six weeks of marketing from one simple marketing piece.

How cool is that? This is what we call working smarter people. We are working smart, smart, smart, and also driving business and eyeballs on our company. And lastly, for your aftermarket marketing, the very last topic that I can cover today will be thanking the brand for marketing your firm or for featuring you.

Once you have received the press, you need to, of course, thank the company or the marketing firm or brand or whomever. was featuring you. I want you to do this in two ways. First, what I like to do is send an immediate thank you to them in whatever method is appropriate. So if you have their email, send that.

If you don't, send an Instagram DM. But you have to let them know that you are thankful for them featuring you. And if you happen to know the writer of the article, Be sure to thank them too. Here's a little insider secret. Writers are often the frontline for magazines and writers will love it when you give them acknowledgement, and they will remember you for future articles that that magazine or publication asks them to write.

So don't, don't, don't forget to appreciate those writers. They are so wonderful and they can become a big part of your marketing effort. Next, after you complete your aftermarket marketing, you should let the company or outlet know that you have continued to market the piece for them. This should be a separate email or other form of communication that, once again, thanks them and lets them know that you are continuing to market the piece and that you are very grateful for the partnership.

You should also let them know specific ways that you have continued after market marketing and include links of examples of those in your message to them. I like to do this around a month or six weeks after the original piece was published by the company who promoted me. This creates top of mind awareness.

for that company and gives all the warm and fuzzies for your gratefulness for involving you in their marketing. And you were just going to stay top of mind for them. They're going to remember you. They're going to remember your thankfulness on the first article that came out, and they are going to love that you are continuing to market that piece for them four weeks later.

So there you have it. There are three ways to give yourself after market marketing. I hope this has sparked your mind in ways that you can give your marketing piece more wings, let it fly. And also provide yourself more content at the same time. If you haven't been performing aftermarket marketing or have been lazy with it, I see you, I see you raising your hand.

It's time to step that up and increase the awareness of your press. Again, the benefits are tremendous people. They really, really are. I'm telling you I've been doing this for years and it has worked wonders for my company. And it is tremendous not only from the point of view of new clients, But Brandon, yourself as an expert in your field, as I said, which could lead to so many things, including speaking engagements, podcasts, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The more top of mind you are in this crazy crowded field, the better off you will be. And frankly, it is up to you or your team. To really take that one step further and take that marketing piece and give it the wings to fly and create other content around it. I understand, by the way, that you are, or could be, a one person company, which is totally fine.

I'm not going to let you shy away from this just because you're a one person company. I've been there too. I was for a very long time and you would be surprised in what you could do in an hour or two per week to draw more eyes to your company. There you have it. Aftermarket marketing. I hope you've taken notes.

Go back and listen to this episode again. And I'm giving you a free download. You can grab it on my Instagram page. You can go to John McLean design on my Instagram page or the designer within for the podcast. Either one will have those links there for you to grab. And I'm giving you a free download, a simple one pager.

That will guide you through after market marketing. And it even includes some other examples that I did not have time to cover today. That is in the show notes here, wherever you're listening to this podcast. And again, it is also on my Instagram page, or if you're on your computer right now, head over to johnmcclain.

com. Co that's co. com co you can look for podcast freebies category and you will find all the freebies that I'm giving you as downloads for this podcast. And this is one of them. It's a very simple form, but it is very helpful to sort of solidify your after market. Marketing. And remember, if you want to look into my Design Success Academy, it is open now.

Head on over there to designsuccessacademy. com. And most importantly, if you liked this episode and you enjoyed what you learned today, share this episode with someone that you feel could benefit from it. Share this episode with someone that you want to help. It is a easy, simple way for you to help grow our community into a loving, sharing, and giving community is just to simply share this episode with them.

It's very easy to share it in the format that you're listening to, and you are helping other people while also helping yourself, which is the best kind of help there is. Right? All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I will see you next week on another episode of The Designer Within.

Until then, keep learning, keep growing, and keep designing, my friend. Thanks so much! Thanks for sticking with me to the end of the designer within podcast. It means the world to me. If you're ready to dive deeper into the topics that we've discussed here, be sure to check out my online coaching and courses program, design success academy.

com. Here, I will teach you everything you need to know to run your interior design business from starting the project all the way to the end, including marketing and pricing your services for profit. And for more information on this podcast, including how to be a guest. or my design services in general, go to johnmcclain.

co. That's johnmcclain. co. See you soon, friend.