Can you tell us a bit about you, your role and the business?

James Fox, Marketing Manager. 

Alongside the wider marketing team, my primary role at the business is to ensure we stay on top of all creative and strategic tasks and ensure no opportunity is missed, whether it be in PR, social media Advertising, SEO, PPC, website developments, video production, photography and internal communications. Plus, a lot more, which I won't bore you with! 

Which PR Activities do you do with Press Loft?

We rely heavily on the image library and ensure that all journalists who download our materials are supported when they do so. Our garden rooms may appear to be complex and we often reach out to journalists who want to feature us to debunk any myths about their construction or the perception that there may be a lot of rules to adhere to before and after installation.

How is Press Loft helping your company and / or you in your role?

The marketing team are almost entirely in-housed in terms of our job roles and outsourcing is not an option for a lot of marketing activity. We only have a website agency, support from another agency on our PPC and a couple of freelancers outside the business who support us. Aside from this, we are expected to wear many hats and ensure that all marketing jobs are ticked and we quickly realised PR was something we had neglected for far too long. 

As Press Loft focuses on interior and garden PR, it fit the bill for us at Green Retreats. We are now able to get our images and messaging into high-end editorial pieces for publications, websites and the wider press that we would have previously only dreamed of. 

What were you doing before you used Press Loft? How do we compare?

We realised that editorial pieces were the way forward but found it difficult to stay on top of sending "shots in the dark" emails with images to journalists who may not want them. We needed to find another way. 

We then decided to sign up with a market-leading PR software but found the platform both confusing and expensive. We spent more time compiling lists of contacts who again, may or may not have wanted to get out images in their inbox.

Press Loft's image library has changed everything for us, as we were able to upload our entire library of high-res photography to it and whilst the initial work was fairly laborious, the team at Press Loft were happy to help and got a lot of the work done without me even asking!  I was then able to go through and add more information and images and we do this every time we commission a photoshoot.

What sort of business would you recommend Press Loft to?

I'd recommend Press Loft to any interior or garden focussed business. Especially if the product is reliant on photography to sell it in the first place, something we absolutely rely on. For us, we offer a high-value, one-off purchase product and they photograph beautifully and journalists have been quick to download and feature us.

What successes have you had with Press Loft?

In just the first two months, which was our free trial, we've had so many image downloads from journalists and have been featured in anything and everything from regional newspapers, blogs, highly-regarded interior design magazines and even a national newspaper!

Lastly, If there anything else positive you might like to say about Press Loft please feel free to add it.

I would say that the onboarding process and ongoing support has absolutely been a highlight of Press Loft. At no point have we been left to it and no question is a stupid one. We have little to no PR experience and Press Loft does the heavy lifting with their platform so we don't have to. As long as we keep adding photography, I feel we're in safe hands with the platform.