Ep 40: Securing PR without projects, Hannah Cox
Today’s special interview is a deep dive into ‘Securing PR without projects.’ My guest was creative PR expert Hannah Cox MCIPR.
We covered lots of ground including:
The difference between press and PR.
How publishing has changed and traditional mags are loss leaders
Why we need to support trade publications
How PR can help grow your business.
Tips from journalists what they want
The best social platforms to find journalists
How to follow up on a pitch with a journo
Why tailored messaging is important.
Why nothing is ever truly off the record.
The Built Environment Marketing Show is the new name for Marketing In Times of Recovery cos who wants a podcast name tied to the state of the UK economy.
And it’s still hosted by marketing consultant Ayo Abbas from Abbas Marketing. The consultancy bridges the gap between business strategy and tactical marketing for engineers and architects. Sign up for my monthly roundup here for the latest built environment marketing news.
Watch us on YouTube here
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Resources
Transcript.
Ayo Abbas 00:05
Hello, and welcome to my final episode recorded live on LinkedIn. Have I saved the best to last? Well, only time will tell do let me know. These livestreams have been in celebration of changing the name of my podcast to The Built Environment Marketing Show, which feels like a better fit with my overall best marketing company brand. But we're back to our bi-weekly interview format from here on in until the end of the year. So do make sure you give us a follow so you don't miss out on new episodes. And now let's get on with the show, which is an interview with Hannah. Here we go. Hello, and welcome to The Built Environment Marketing Show. And yes, it is the last of our live interviews here on LinkedIn in honour of my podcast name change. And it is Friday. I don't know actually can it's Monday. It's not it's Friday. I'm your host Iowa bass, marketing director at Abbas Marketing. And today, my guest is Hannah, who is a creative communications consultant. So my icebreaker question for me today is to tell me the most creative thing you've done this past week. And if you can, and if you're watching this live, if you can leave your comments underneath the live. That'd be great. And I can read some of them out. But it also tells me that people are actually watching us, which is great. Anyway, so I got an answer prepared already, obviously, because I read the question. So on Sunday, I went to go and see Frozen on stage in London. And it was exceptional. It was so so brilliant. From the sets to the music to the singing. And my seven year old basically sat on the end of his seat edge of his seat all the time, just like wow. So that was amazing. Frozen, definitely go and see if you can. Yeah, that was my most creative thing this week. And what was your most creatively?
Hannah Cox 01:52
Impressive? Oh, yeah, just trying to think now obviously, I think I went to see a film I finished film called Girls, Girls, Girls. So that was I can't remember name the director. But it's fantastic. It was just like a dip into a teenager's world in a really positive way. So that was an adequate soundtrack,
Ayo Abbas 02:13
which is fantastic. So if anyone else has done anything exciting or creative, I just have to be as exciting of what we've done. But I'd love to hear in the comments. And I've got a hi from Stacey, which means she's watching us live, yay. Which is always good. So if you've got any questions, as we're going through this session, all you need to do is put them in the comments, and we will answer them at the end. And that's one of the brilliant things about doing this live. It's way more engaging and interactive. So that's good. And today, we are looking at all things to do with securing, I guess, secure impress without projects. And my guest today is Hannah Cox. So Hannah, do you want to do a bit of an intro to yourself and what you do?
Hannah Cox 02:52
Sure, yeah. So I'm working PR mainly for architects and designers with that nucleus of what I do. But I have an all rounder and I'm a solopreneur think that's the phrase, isn't it? So I work with helping brands, individuals, small businesses, anyone with a real purpose to get their work out there heard and to grow their business.
Ayo Abbas 03:17
I've got Oh, we've got someone else has done something exciting creative, which is Julia Nicholls says I went to see amazing, Julian is it knxx? I don't know how you say that. Julianknxx ? I don't know. Brixton House. The obviously I have no idea who that is. But sounds good. How you spell Knxx? No, it can't be Oh, I'm just being really like, yeah. So actually, let's start off where I know we had in our intro, we had a quick discussion. So what is the difference between press and PR? Let's start off.
Hannah Cox 03:46
Thanks. That's a really good point. So I always say to clients that PR doesn't stop a press. So PR is public relations is about raising reputation. And in order to do that, you can really draw on many different strands in the kind of marketing mix, press, or media relations getting stuff published, is just one element of that. And I would think it's the tip of the iceberg. It's the most visible part of public relations. There's a whole lot of stuff that goes on behind that in terms of, you know, planning, sorting out your tone of voice, working with your objectives and goals. And then you know, you come up with different tools to try and reach those goals and objectives. Yeah, so press is just one part, it's fun. You know, I still get a thrill whenever I see a client's piece that's landed, and you know, wherever it is really, it's just is it. It's a real thrill for me. So I know it's for the clients as well. It is important, but there are many, many different elements within the whole PR process.
Ayo Abbas 04:47
So for the sake of this session, we're going to talk more about PR overall rather than just press because it's a wider discussion.
Hannah Cox 04:54
Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think we as we were saying earlier as well, the whole nature of press that, what you think of as, the thought factor we used to call it of like, the weighty kind of magazines landing through your doorstep, though, the newspapers stacking up metres just changed a lot. Right? We're saying, you know, magazines used to be a lot thicker, there used to be fewer places where brands could put their marketing budget in. So they do a lot more print publication, print advertising, and advertising funds, the magazines, it's kind of quick, quite simple, you know, business model, really. And when you don't have as many advertisers gonna have your pages, you know, and there's been so many changes with publishing houses, basically, it's much more fragmented, in terms of print. And then, you know, we've got so many gazillion different sorts of other channels for publishing platforms like LinkedIn. You know, and all the online publications, as well, but online only something like Dezeen for example.
Ayo Abbas 06:07
Yeah. Which is that I mean, yeah, exactly. I mean, that was revolutionary, when that came out, wasn't it? But I also, I kind of think there's also that thing of just understanding the business model was often at the publishing houses now, which is very much some of these magazines are loss leaders, right? Aren't they, and actually, they make their money from their events, and from their conferences, and actually, all of that kind of stuff, and having sponsors and suddenly, you know, having 200 tables that grows now, that's where they made that money, like that 10 grand table rather than subscriptions anymore. It's kind of like a loss leader in some ways. So I think that's also worth just bearing in mind in the back of your head.
Hannah Cox 06:39
Yeah, definitely. And it's something like, you know, say Monocle or who worked really, really well on brand partnerships, and they, they curate that exceptionally well. And it's a lot to invest in it. But you know, if you are a brand with that kind of heft behind you, it's a really valuable thing to do, because they will, it's kind of working peer to peer, rather than, you know, just thinking, Well, I'm just gonna chuck my money there for advertising. So that's on a bigger level, I'd say. But also, it's really important to support the trade magazines, because if you don't support them financially, yeah, yeah. And we do. Yeah, we do. I mean, you know, the voice for your industry, for your sector, whether it's, working with bathrooms, or engineering or building or architecture, whatever it is, if we don't have those titles, they will disappear. And we've seen that happen. Other ones crop up, which is great, but some of those more classic trades, you know, unless, yeah, once they're gone, you don't really get them back at it. No.
Ayo Abbas 07:41
I mean, that's one of the things because actually what I was saying to you before, I actually started off my career in PR, which was, yeah, that's where I started off with an agency. So I talk bricks and carpet tiles and cement lighting. So yeah, there's lots of buildings.
Hannah Cox 07:58
Yeah, I mean, from a professional point of view, so I've been working in PR, or communications, a similar length of time with you, and in this sector for god, 15 years, I think. But, yeah, I've had some of my most joyous times been working with, you know, toilets, making companies. Because you get to do some really great things, and you can see the results, you know, it's not glamorous,
Ayo Abbas 08:27
but it's necessary.
Hannah Cox 08:30
It's real, and you're supporting businesses and what they want to do and I think you can have a really really positive relationship with your trade titles, get to know them and build those relationships up and then you can do some really interesting things, whatever your product, whether it's yeah bricks, you know, whether it's materials, anything, that's there's a place for everything.
Ayo Abbas 08:55
Okay, we have one more person who's done something creative, which was Stacey, who has been to the theatre to she went see Demetri at the new Marylebone Theatre, but she does have a theatre blog, which she does. She's very good. Actually, follow her on Instagram. Okay, so let's go with a question. So how can PR help me to grow my business or a business or any business?
Hannah Cox 09:16
Yeah, that's a that's a really, really good question. PR is, which can also be substituted with communications, it's really part of your overall business function. You need to think about it at the beginning and think about when you're setting your goals and objectives for the for the year for the business, and then think, how are you going to? What are you going to need to communicate? Who's going to want to hear your ideas, your product? Where do you need growth? Who are those people going to be that your growth targets? And once you've kind of done those kind of that area of research and objective setting, then you can use the PR tools to kind of get there and map it out. So I think, you know, I was like to have like a structured approach, planning your time, do your research think, you know, I've got we're talking about press without projects, but you might have a project coming up in, you know, eight months who will be completing? And you've got all that time to think, okay, what are the stages there that I can work with? How do I talk about the issues? It might be retrofit, for example, you know, how do I how do I talk about retrofit for, ,three to four months beforehand and build up some really good stories in the different kinds of channels to then support the ultimate project. And what that will do in terms of that helping give value to your business is it will show that you're the experts that you understand what people want, and you've done research into your the people who are buying your services, whatever, whatever that is. And you're answering their questions and anticipating their questions. So I think by that way, you you build up your reputation as someone people can trust, which is really important. And that you know, what you're talking about? Those two that I think are the main things you're going to really add value them to people, you're going to make it easy for people to find you and to buy from you.
Ayo Abbas 11:15
I think on top of that, I think it's also the area of third-party endorsement. It's not you just saying how great you are is somebody else? Look, it's building that because then it's, it's someone else who's independent from me actually saying this. And I think that also resonates with people because sometimes you get it actually, they're just talking about themselves all the time. But actually, if you've got other people saying it's, it's more believable, I think. So yeah, yeah.
Hannah Cox 11:37
It's incredibly, it's incredibly helpful with that third-party recognition. And the other thing, which we're talking about with your site, podcast earlier, getting those backlinks is really important. And that's something that's quantifiable, which again, is is the Analytics and Google people seeing how valid third party recognition is, by having a backlink it's it's going to boost your visibility
Ayo Abbas 12:04
together this week. Okay, so what is the best approach I can take to PR to make an impact
Hannah Cox 12:12
planet research planet, that's the main thing is like the really dull boring stuff, get get, do your homework, that's the if you if you do your homework and get the foundations right, then you'll be able to kind of fly and do the kind of great buzzy things that you want to do. But doing a kind of sparkly little thing, whatever it is, without the backup of having done your foundational work on what your objectives are, who your real markets are, who's really going to make this difference for your business, it's just gonna go nowhere, really. So spirits really make an impact, you need to have it have a real kind of thorough plan, you can change it and, you know, respond to what else is going on.
Ayo Abbas 12:54
So what sort of things would you have in that plan? What kinds of things would you need to cover?
Hannah Cox 12:58
Oh, good point. So that you would need to cover Yeah, your goals, your objectives for the business, who you're talking to your target market, I always think it's a nice thing to do to build your personas, proper marketing personas, especially for people who are not used to doing communications because it's a way to kind of get in the in the skin of it and really understand who your customers are, and manage customer in the broadest sense. So once you have the personas that it will really help bring to life what you're going to do when you know that you know so and so is going to be really interested in I don't know something with a collaboration with someone for example, that they really love that brand, it'll start to kind of open up what's going to really make an impact for you. And also make sure that you set in your objectives. Make sure that you've set ways that you're going to measure it Yeah, it's well because you can get to the end of it and think oh well that was great, wasn't it guys? Anything you can do that as well to kind of measure it whether it's just you know, counting, press coverage, number of people, number of mentions all those kinds of things but also a feeling and you know, general kind of idea and you know, do some research pick up the phone speak to people wind up with a thanks surprisingly good. surprisingly helpful way of doing it. I definitely do that with them with some companies if I'm doing like a full kind of full package, do some research, find out what people think about them and literally pick up the phone you can get
Ayo Abbas 14:47
where I admit that I normally jump out of the skin, my skin if my phone rings completely But
Hannah Cox 15:00
yeah, it is weird. It is a weird thing, but it's worth doing. Sometimes you might need to plan a phone call. Yeah, yeah, you're aware
Ayo Abbas 15:07
and talk to people. Yeah, yeah. Okay. So what PR opportunities are open to a firm aside from projects? What could they be talking about?
Hannah Cox 15:19
Well, this is also an excellent question. I talk about what you know, talk about what you think, and talk about what's interesting to other other people as well. So you could be talking about a material, you know, your favourite bricks, whatever it is, you know, that you're really interested in? You could be talking about what's going on with environmental issues, if that's your thing. And I've got like a, there's a little moniker, which is called ideas, which I'll read out to you because it's very powerful. Talk about like, so is it industry, any industry kind of issues dealing with data? Do you saying get your data sorted? Events? What else is going on? What are you involved in? As associates? Who are you working with? Racing with your supplier? Who are you supplying to? And the SS for seasonal? So we're all living in the same place? You know, what are people going to be interested in now? Are they going to be interested in you know, light issues? Yeah, I think you know, the, the homes magazines always do light fixtures in winter. Yep. So it's kind of a seasonal flow as well. So that's ideas for content. Hello, that's really good, isn't it? Yeah.
Ayo Abbas 16:33
It's really simple. Because you're right. And I mean, it lots of kinds of observational stuff. So you know, like, when stuff happens, and I'm like, Oh, actually, what does that mean? Or they've annoyed me? That's the other one. I do think
Hannah Cox 16:45
that speaks to the vibe like what are you passionate about? Ya know, every single person has something they're passionate about, and you know, particular thing in the creative industries that is really aligned to your work as well. You know, think so there will always be something where you, you're really like, you know, what are you talking about in the office? Or your colleagues?
Ayo Abbas 17:04
Or what's your take on what's happening in the news? Or maybe not always so political, but that kind of thing? Isn't it? I guess it's, it's that stuff. So in terms of journalists, what do they want from companies? What are they looking for, and then they did some research,
Hannah Cox 17:20
do some research, I thought, I'll start with research. I was like, starting with research, I have some people I've worked with, for their, for their tips, and so on. I mean, fortunately, they all pretty much came back immediately. So I think they were really pleased to be asked, again, for what they want. So tips are avoid nerdy jargon, and speak clear plain English, they want a simple information relayed quickly, as well. And make sure it's really clear and concise and to the point. And one person says, you know, just a couple of images and a few lines. That's it. Simple, right? I think we can be overloaded with information for journalists, and you have to understand that journalists are super busy, they're getting a million things through they want to be have the right information, but they need that kind of first headline of clear information, whatever it is. And, yeah, I mean, more for projects, I suppose I have had like a don't show me any old or old project. Any competition, unsuccessful competition entries?
Ayo Abbas 18:35
Who said this?
Hannah Cox 18:36
But also, just just to really do that, the the basic, what stage? What stages are out when are things going to be coming out? Yeah, when's planning? You know, when's it going to be photographed? Just really, really, you know, fat and keep it simple. Sometimes keeping it simple is more difficult than you'd think.
Ayo Abbas 19:00
A large project, it's hard to know what to focus on. You want to do justice. But I guess in some ways you want to give a journalist a taster, isn't it? So just a heads or headlines and a few things that you might want to know. Yeah. And then you want to kind of you want them to then get in touch? That's, that's, that's the purpose.
Hannah Cox 19:16
Yeah, absolutely. And to make sure that you've got all the information that they need, neatly stored filed away, the message is done. You've got blocks of, you know, text on specific areas that you need to be looking at. So you've got everything to hand so you can respond quickly, because people want you to respond really, really quickly. And keep an eye out for their requests, as well. Yeah, and well, I just one other tip, which I have would have to let you know as well is. Make sure you have a name on a website. Don't have an info app or a press app.
Ayo Abbas 19:50
Actual newfangled stuff
Hannah Cox 20:00
All people. So yeah, I think it's understanding a bit of the news cycle for journalists is really helpful as well. And making sure that you follow the magazines or newspapers, and journals and the journalists on their socials and read.
Ayo Abbas 20:18
And isn't like Twitter, one of the best places to find journalists
Hannah Cox 20:22
twice. It is excellent. Yes. And there is the brilliant hashtag journey request.
Ayo Abbas 20:28
Yes. Which I do use when I'm, I do use when I'm bored. You really I'd like it. Yeah, as I was saying, Actually, yeah, I ended up in, I ended up in the independent a couple of weeks ago, where I knew this difference. But I ended up in that because I saw a general request talking about the rail unions, and they were asking for someone talk about how good comment how good communicators they are. So I did a piece on that. And I saw that, and I responded to that, and wrote back to the journalist and gave her a comment for the next day. So I think it's that kind of thing, a quick turnaround, it's all there for the taking.
Hannah Cox 21:05
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely need to be switched on plugged in. And focus on the areas that you you're an expert on, or that you're really passionate about. And you you can't go wrong. Really, you know, you need stuff, you're not going to be fumbling
Ayo Abbas 21:19
and looking for people to contribute makes their life easier. You know what I mean? They want people to come back with comments. It's easier for them to stitch a piece together. That's it, isn't it? Helping them to do their job?
Hannah Cox 21:30
Absolutely. And that sort of goes back in in a way to how the media landscape has really changed. And people are really short on time. And filing quickly for online pieces a lot as well.
Ayo Abbas 21:40
Yeah, the speed of it is crazy. So I've sent off this beautiful crafted email short to the point did all the stuff it was meant to do? What happens if I don't hear back? Can I do I need to ring up and go? Hello? Did you get my press release? I sent it. I sent it six times.
Hannah Cox 22:02
You will be blocked? Yeah. No, don't do that. I think what you can do in your beautifully crafted pitch email, which will have a fantastic title heading subject headings saying exactly what is in it with your key words, or you know, whatever it is architecture, home residential, so journalists can quickly search when they're looking for story. After that at the bottom of you. Email, you can write I'll contact you in a couple of days to see if this works for you. Question like something like that, or you know that you've already given yourself an opportunity to come back in a couple of days or a couple of hours if it's something really, really quick. Yeah. So go back when you said you would go back. Okay, don't hear back.
Ayo Abbas 22:45
Don't keep chasing, hounding like a dog. Okay. Stacey just added to your comment, actually, she said, the headline on the press release is very important, as is the email subject line, which is a first week of selling the release to the journey. Yeah, yeah. So that is completely.
Hannah Cox 22:59
Yeah, I mean, if it's if it's news, very few things of news or breaking news, to be honest, really. But you might have a new product, in which case a new product or new building or opinion Kalon?
Ayo Abbas 23:15
Yeah. So make it easy for them to find it and know where to put you. Right. And that's the thing isn't, I need some opinion pieces. Great. I'll look and see what's coming under that heading. Right.
Hannah Cox 23:24
Yeah.
Ayo Abbas 23:27
It boils down to being clear again, doesn't it? Because like, you could regard me this really arty headline. And it's like, no, be clear, because I haven't got the time to read everything.
Hannah Cox 23:36
Yeah, yeah, you need to be able to get your whole message across in 10. Words, that's a challenge.
Ayo Abbas 23:42
That is hard. Few words. How do I know what to talk about?
Hannah Cox 23:48
Good question. Yeah, it's, I think often people also think Well, I, you know, I don't know what to say, I don't know if it's going to sound right, or are people going to be interested? And it goes back to research planning. You need to make sure that you know, you're really all over what what you're doing whatever it is a project building scheme, Team reorganisation? Whatever it is. You're all over it and then also have worked out what else do people want to hear? And you can use you know, in the research thing, again, speak to your clients speak to your existing clients, find out what they need to know. What are the bugbears? What are the things that they always ask? And if you're able to respond to their questions, then that's also you know, really helpful. You're pre empting what they're going to be asking anyway, yeah. Don't you know do once you've done all that you need you need to do your messaging. Pick three key messages that you want to get across. Keep it simple.
Ayo Abbas 24:58
I And then just keep repeating it. Because that's, I mean, okay, we just thinking about the conversation we have before we came. I mean, we need to do. What's a bad example how to have repeating a message that was in
Hannah Cox 25:16
the past? Yeah, I can't do that. Just think of three words you say consecutively. Doesn't always work.
Ayo Abbas 25:26
If you watch, that was appalling. Anyway, so messaging very, very important.
Hannah Cox 25:36
I was just just like, my addition, messaging is really important. You also need to tailor it to your different markets, or the different people that you're talking to, and make sure it's relevant to them. Okay, which goes back to the
Ayo Abbas 25:47
I mean, it was it was basically, I think, the least trust interviews that she did before the regional BBC Radio, BBC, BBC radio stations, and it was the fact that every interview, she was clearly on message, but she clearly wasn't answering any questions at all. So
Hannah Cox 26:04
study of what not to do
Ayo Abbas 26:06
Listen to the, if you listen to every interview, back to back of which I think it's about seven interviews, it's just awful. Because my search for this is really bad.
Hannah Cox 26:16
Yeah, yeah. It also needs to be human in whatever it is, you're, you're communicating with your environment. And the different people are different journalists have different personalities, and they're interested in different things. Yeah, and
Ayo Abbas 26:28
tailor that message to that audience and that particular person and what you're putting out, and that's, that's the hardest bit, because actually, it's, you've got your baseline messages, but that tailoring is so important. And I think just having the kind of flexibility to do that. Because it's funny, because I, I often think my job is to say the same thing over and over again, but in different ways. That's what my job is, it's like, you know, I'm on message, it's still the same campaign over six months. But actually, I'm finding different ways to say the same thing. And that is the skill, because that's how you get the message to stick.
Hannah Cox 27:01
Yeah, definitely. And, you know, keeping it relevant, you know, as well, tweaking it, or, you know, finding a way that, you know, things lead back to your main message as well. Cool. Okay, so
Ayo Abbas 27:12
how do I know I'm not going to say something that I shouldn't? What things I need to have in place, so I don't trip myself up.
Hannah Cox 27:22
Uh huh. I always get your, if you're, if you're in an interview situation gets your key messages there. Practice, practice, if you're doing a live interview with with someone with a media outlet, practice with colleagues, make sure that you've cleared your messages. If you're with a bigger organisation, make sure that you know you could with your communications person, check it all. And do sort of sense check. Definitely. And just keep it real. I think that's the
Ayo Abbas 27:54
Yeah. I think also, if you're talking about certain projects, or certain clients, make sure you've got permission to talk about them. Yeah. Because I think that's the other thing where people suddenly are in front of a journalist, and it's just start going. No, really, you can't do this. Yeah. My other thing is, nothing is off the record. Don't do that.
Hannah Cox 28:13
Yeah, yeah. And if you are in a really sticky corner, and you kind of boxed yourself in, start your conversation. I'll repeat this completely. This is completely off the record beforehand. Some people will really honour that. Definitely the you know, yeah, the most of the journalists I work with they will honour it. But you don't don't want to get into that position in the first place. No,
Ayo Abbas 28:38
no. Too much. Yeah, it's off into a corner. It's like it doesn't make sense to do that. Yeah,
Hannah Cox 28:45
absolutely. Yeah. It's no never going to end world really.
Ayo Abbas 28:49
We've got a lovely, nice comment from Julia Nicholls, who says finding the human story behind your project is important to why would it really resonate with others and stand out to journalists and readers are such a good point?
Hannah Cox 29:00
Yeah. Absolutely. I think that's also translate to when you're doing your architectural photography as well. Oh, yeah. People in the space, you know,
Ayo Abbas 29:10
empty buildings are the worst pictures. So boring.
Hannah Cox 29:15
It just doesn't really work unless you've really into angles.
Ayo Abbas 29:19
Yeah, especially. But I think it's that whole functional use of this is a building in place, it's got life and it comes into its own when people actually use it, rather than being
Hannah Cox 29:28
genuinely creative people. So people there, um, but yeah, to do this quite as well about the human story. I mean, you can also tell the story behind the building as well, which is great. I love team Yeah. The journey of an architect from you know, going from an assistant to to, you know, wherever then our director, you know, all that kind of side and, and looking at your internal communications as well. It's just as important. I think every single person in your organisation and practice is a little Ambassador for what you're doing so by, you know, celebrating them and showing what, what they're doing then then you really, you're not gonna lose anything there, you're only losing,
Ayo Abbas 30:10
I think that people started to get so much more attraction as well don't buy. That's the stuff that people actually it touches the heart. And that's the thing is those are the stories that connect with people. Because I think it's definitely the way forward of talk about our people and the amazing stuff, what they're doing or what they're trying to do, what they're learning what they bring into the schemes and their ideas, because that's a lot more interesting. That's something that your competitors don't have. They don't have your people.
Hannah Cox 30:36
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And it's that others, you know, people buy people, it's, I mean, it's not a transactional thing, but it's true, you know, we are all human, and we relate to each other.
Ayo Abbas 30:49
So my final question on this is, so if I'm not a writer, what else can I be doing in terms of PR,
Hannah Cox 30:55
and photographs, go talk about the image, first of all, you can, I would say you I mean, cooperating within within PR, all channels, including something like Instagram, if you are a visual person, and you use you speak images, rather, rather than words, you know, set up your Instagram account accordingly. Make sure you have focus on whatever it is that you're passionate about, whether it is you know, shadows, from buildings on, you know, whatever, whatever it is, whatever your niche is, or materials, use images, to tell a story equally, you know, plan that content, make sure there's regular content, that you can use images very, very powerfully. We're talking earlier about unconscious with as well, drawing being the thing Yeah, that's the thing. It's an amazing way to communicate. Podcasts. Yeah, I mean, you know, speaking, I mean, if you don't, if you're really not into writing lots of people, if you're dyslexic, and you just don't like the typing thing. That's great. voice activated voice software. Yeah, otter is one. That's, that's really great. So you can just speak, set up to have a conversation with a colleague, record it all, and then get that transcribed? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So there are lots of way around it. Personally. Yeah, that's very
Ayo Abbas 32:23
good. Okay, so to close out each episode this week, what we've had is just, I mean, it's not necessarily it's not quickfire at all. But what we've had is I asked people, what tools or resources should they be using to do, and this time, it will be PR, what's out there that I should know about? So we talked about, you know, request hashtag Gen.
Hannah Cox 32:43
Excellent. And also you get a good idea of what journalists are really looking for in real time, which you might not otherwise do. I would say, Read, read, read, read. Make sure you subscribe to magazines and your industry titles and read them and get to understand what people are really interested in. That I would go want my other two, I suppose is the ideas kind of thing. You know, stick that somewhere on your wall I do to make sure that you've got, you know, constantly looking for all those different elements of stories. And use a Google Google search is excellent. And Google Analytics to find out what people really are asking that you might not expect. So that you can you can find a way of answering their questions.
Ayo Abbas 33:30
And there's also tools that answer the public isn't there where you can find out the questions that people are asking now, when you're certain segments and all that kind of stuff, which is actually very, very good. And it helps you kind of frame what's going on and see what's going on. And Google trends as well was quite good, isn't it? Yeah. You can kind of see roughly what people are talking about as the conversation for sustainability going up and all that kind of stuff. It's like your barometer as well. So those are all kind of tools that you can use, which is good. So how did people find out more about you Hannah?
Hannah Cox 33:59
More about me, well, LinkedIn, obviously I'm here. I have a shopfront website which is HannahCoxcreative.com which has nothing on it it's just a blank page with the phone number.
Ayo Abbas 34:24
Brilliant, thank you so much for coming on the show. That is it from this live week of recording The Built Environment Marketing Show live and don't worry I have got client meeting in a few minutes. And then the podcast recordings are now going to be released live not released live release every friday from today and all the main kind of podcast outlet so that's it's out now for the Tom Garfield one is out today. And then the only will be out next friday and so on and so on. So that's it really and thank you for listening. Take care And thanks so much for listening to The Built Environment Marketing Show. Don't forget to check out the show notes which will have useful links and resources connected to this episode. You can find that on bass marketing.com And of course if you liked the show, please do share it with others on social as it helps more people to find us. See you soon
