5 Proven Strategies for Cultivating Community

Discover the essential strategies lifestyle and wellness brands can use to build a thriving community.

In the crowded landscape of lifestyle and wellness brands, creating a community is more than a marketing strategy; it's a necessity. At Haworth House, our focus goes beyond campaigns — we're passionate about cultivating genuine connections between clients and their consumers. We work with brands that "do good" and leave a lasting impact, and our most successful clients have one thing in common: an engaged community. And so, we want to share five proven strategies for building communities, on and offline. Whether you're a prospective client, brand, or individual, these strategies can be a game-changer in fostering engagement and loyalty.

1. Host Regular Events

Communities thrive on interaction, and what better way to facilitate it than through events? Haworth House recommends hosting both physical and virtual events to bring your audience together. Whether it's an insightful webinar, a product launch, or an intimate workshop, events create opportunities for meaningful connections. Encourage participation, gather feedback, and let the community be an integral part of your brand's journey.

2. Engage on Social Media

Social media isn't just a platform for sharing content; it's a conversation starter. Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments, initiating polls, and sharing user-generated content. For many brands, it’s so important to be present on platforms like Instagram and TikTok in order to build a real and approachable brand persona. Authentic interactions not only strengthen your community but also humanize your brand.

3. Run a Good Blog

Blogging is a timeless way to provide value and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Create content that resonates with your community, offering insights, tips, and behind-the-scenes glimpses. Haworth House guides its clients in crafting compelling narratives that align with their brand ethos. A well-curated blog not only establishes authority but also serves as a hub for like-minded individuals to gather and engage.

4. Partner with Other Brands

Collaboration amplifies impact. Forge meaningful partnerships with brands that share your values. Joint giveaways, co-hosted events, or product collaborations open up new avenues for engagement. By tapping into each other's audiences, brands can extend their reach and create a more diverse and interconnected community. Haworth House understands the power of collaboration in building a collective movement that goes beyond individual brand goals.

5. Organize a Contest or Challenge

People love a good challenge, especially when there's a chance to win something exciting. Contests and challenges provide an interactive way to involve your community. Haworth House encourages brands to organize activities that align with their values. It's a fun way to boost engagement, reward loyal followers, and attract new ones while creating a buzz around your brand.

In the ever-evolving landscape of digital connection, building a community is a strategic must! At Haworth House, we've witnessed the transformative power of these five strategies. Whether you're a brand looking to make a lasting impact or an individual passionate about a cause, these tactics can help you foster a vibrant and engaged community. Embrace the journey of connection, and let your brand be a catalyst for positive change.

Essential Tools Every Mindful Brand or Business Should Use

Explore the must-have tools every brand or business should employ and dive into the key elements shaping successful digital strategies.

In an era where lifestyle and wellness brands are on the rise, establishing a strong online presence is crucial. At Haworth House, we understand the significance of mindful strategies for the mind, body, and planet. To help your brand flourish in this digital landscape, we've curated a list of essential tools that we recommend to all brands and businesses. These tools not only enhance your marketing efforts but also align with our values of promoting well-being and sustainability.

Mailchimp: Nurturing Connections through Email Marketing

Email marketing remains an invaluable tool for engaging with your audience, and Mailchimp stands out as a pioneer in this field. With its user-friendly interface and robust features, Mailchimp empowers brands to build, nurture, and retain meaningful connections with their audience. Create visually stunning and personalized campaigns, automate your outreach, and analyze performance metrics seamlessly. At Haworth House, we've witnessed the impact of Mailchimp in fostering genuine relationships that extend beyond the digital realm.

Canva: Crafting Visually Striking Narratives

Visual storytelling is paramount in the digital age, and Canva emerges as an indispensable ally for brands aiming to create captivating graphics effortlessly. Whether you're designing social media posts, marketing collateral, or website elements, Canva's intuitive platform offers a plethora of templates and customization options. At Haworth House, we appreciate Canva's ability to transform ideas into visually striking narratives that resonate with our mindful audience.

Google Analytics: Optimizing Your Online Presence

Understanding your audience and refining your digital strategy is key to success. Google Analytics provides a wealth of data to help you make informed decisions about your online presence. From user behavior to conversion tracking, this tool equips brands with valuable insights. At Haworth House, we leverage Google Analytics to tailor our clients' strategies, ensuring a seamless and optimized online experience for their audience.

Later: Streamlining Social Media Marketing

In the realm of social media marketing, consistency is key. Later simplifies the process by allowing brands to schedule and manage posts across various platforms seamlessly. With features like visual planning, analytics, and hashtag suggestions, Later empowers brands to maintain an active and engaging social media presence. At Haworth House, we recognize the importance of a well-curated social feed, and Later has proven to be an invaluable tool in achieving this.

In the dynamic landscape of lifestyle and wellness brands, Haworth House believes in the power of mindful strategies that benefit the mind, body, and planet. By incorporating these essential tools—Mailchimp for authentic connections, Canva for visually striking narratives, Google Analytics for optimized online presence, and Later for streamlined social media marketing—your brand can elevate its digital presence and make a lasting impact. As we celebrate our one-year milestone, we invite you to explore these tools and embark on a journey of mindful and successful brand building with Haworth House.

Our Best Tips for Crafting Eco-Chic Brand Events

Discover the art of hosting eco-chic brand events. From sustainable decorations to seasonal eating catering choices, this insightful guide provides practical steps to elevate your gatherings with a touch of charm and a commitment to a greener future.

In our world of event planning, where sustainability meets sophistication, Haworth House, a Los Angeles-based boutique PR agency specializing in lifestyle and wellness brands, shares practical insights to elevate your brand gatherings with an eco-conscious touch. These timeless tips go beyond fleeting trends, offering a commitment to sustainability that adds a touch of charm to your events while leaving a positive impact on the planet.

1. Choose Sustainable Decorations:

Opt for reusable materials such as bamboo or recycled cardboard for signage and banners to create an elegant yet eco-friendly ambiance. Potted plants and flowers not only add a touch of nature but also find a new purpose post-event. Explore biodegradable options to minimize the environmental footprint, steering clear of single-use plastics.

2. Minimize Waste:

Reduce paper usage with digital invitations and implement a straightforward recycling system at the venue. Rent reusable tableware, linens, and furniture to minimize single-use items, and consider compostable alternatives for disposables to align your event with sustainable practices.

3. Gift Eco-Friendly Goodie Bags:

Select reusable tote bags made from organic or recycled materials, adding a lovely and eco-conscious touch to your event. Fill them with practical yet enchanting eco-friendly products like reusable water bottles, bamboo toothbrushes, or sustainable beauty items, allowing guests to depart with a thoughtful reminder of your brand’s green values.

4. Make Responsible Catering Choices:

Collaborate with caterers prioritizing locally sourced, seasonal, and organic ingredients. Explore plant-based or vegetarian menus when selecting culinary choices. If meat is essential, opt for ethically-raised sources to seamlessly integrate sustainability into the dining experience.

5. Select Sustainable Lighting:

Light up your venue with energy-efficient LED or solar-powered lights to add warmth and sophistication. Natural light during daytime events enhances the atmosphere, while candles made from soy or beeswax create a lovely evening ambiance, combining practicality with eco-conscious charm.

6. Encourage Green Transportation:

Extend your event's sustainability beyond the venue by promoting green transportation options. Choose venues accessible by public transport and consider shuttle services. Encourage carpooling or reward guests who choose eco-friendly transportation methods like biking or walking.

These practical tips ensure that your brand events or media gatherings not only exude charm but also reflect a commitment to a more sustainable future. Elevate your events, create memorable experiences, and let the lovely and eco-conscious touch of Haworth House guide your way. Cheers!

4 Reasons Your Brand Should Invest in PR

Here are four main reasons

your brand needs PR.

Let’s be real. It’s competitive out there in the real world, especially in today’s business landscape. With trends coming and going, it can be hard to keep up and consistently stand out amongst the crowd. That’s why establishing your brand as a brand beyond the products you sell is essential for long-term success. While social media marketing and advertising are critical components of brand-building, there's another equally vital aspect that should take center stage — public relations (PR). Connecting with a PR agency or professional can be a game changer for your brand, offering a ton of benefits that extend far beyond traditional promotional efforts. Below, we delve into the four top reasons why your brand should invest in PR.

1. Setting Your Brand Apart

In a sea of brands vying for consumer attention, it’s key that you differentiate your brand early on and often. PR provides a unique avenue to showcase your brand's distinct voice, values, and offerings. By crafting compelling narratives and engaging stories (that are then used as pitch angles), PR pros can create a strong emotional connection between your brand and your target audience. When effectively executed, PR campaigns can highlight your brand's strengths, unique selling points, and the genuine passion that drives your business. This not only helps your brand to cut through the noise but also solidifies your brand's identity in the minds of your dream customers.

2. Keeping Your Audience Informed

Launching new products or services is always fun! PR plays a pivotal role in disseminating accurate and enticing information about your upcoming offerings, initiatives, or product launches. Through press releases, traditional media coverage, and influencer partnerships, a PR agency can generate buzz and anticipation surrounding your latest and greatest. By maintaining an open line of communication with the media, PR helps ensure that your brand's latest developments reach your target audience, keeping them engaged and excited about what's next.

3. Nurturing Customer Loyalty

Building a loyal customer base is the cornerstone of any successful brand. PR contributes to this loyalty by fostering trust and credibility. When your brand is featured positively in reputable media outlets or receives social love from relevant influencers, it gains a stamp of approval that can resonate deeply with consumers. By consistently delivering valuable and relevant content through PR efforts, your brand can position itself as an industry thought leader, further solidifying the trust your customers have in your brand. And this trust, in turn, cultivates loyalty and drives repeat business.

4. Forging Meaningful Media Connections

In an interconnected world, the relationships your brand forms with the media can greatly impact its visibility and positive reputation. PR professionals cultivate and maintain these relationships. It’s literally what we do! Through press releases, media events, and strategic collaborations, PR efforts can lead to valuable media coverage that reaches a wide and relevant audience. Moreover, when your brand establishes itself as a reliable and authoritative source, journalists and influencers are more likely to turn to you for insights, quotes, and expert opinions, further elevating your brand's credibility.

In conclusion, investing in PR is not just an option; it's a necessity for brands looking to thrive in today's competitive marketplace. From setting your brand apart and unveiling new offerings to nurturing customer loyalty and forging connections with the media, PR offers a multifaceted approach to building a robust brand presence. With the help of a PR agency, your brand can captivate hearts, minds, and headlines.

Remember, in a world where perception is reality, PR can shape how your brand is perceived – and perception is everything. So, are you ready to make your mark?

How to Utilize Canva as a Lifestyle Brand or PR Agency

When working with our roster of eco-conscious lifestyle and wellness clients, we know how importance it is to fully understand their brand and target audience. Equally as important is how their brand comes across when pitching them to our media contacts. Canva is our go-to tool to ensure consistency in design, and save us time so we can focus on pitching our clients to the best publications and putting them in front of their dream audiences. With an array of features, plus a free and affordable Pro account, you can access hundreds of templates, photos, icons, fonts, and elements to create beautiful visuals without needing design experience. Plus, Canva's intuitive drag-and-drop interface, cloud-based storage, and optimized social media sizes make it easier than ever to create consistent designs. It's the ultimate solution for any brand looking to take their visuals to the next level without needing a ton of graphic design skills.

As a boutique public relations agency, we love using Canva to create striking and on-brand content for pitches, partnership decks, media reports, presentations, social media posts, and branded internal documents. We don't need to be professional graphic designers to tweak each design to fit our needs; Canva's templates are fully customizable, plus they provide a vast library of fonts, images, and icons for whatever our clients may need. For brands and small businesses, Canva is an efficient way to create visuals for their website, brochures, and other promotional materials. It also helps them create presentations and social media graphics that help promote their services and products. At Haworth House, Canva's features make it so much easier to create visuals on behalf of our clients.

Below are some of the newest Canva features we utilize on a daily basis:

VIDEO BACKGROUND REMOVER

With this feature, small businesses can quickly and easily remove the background of any photo or video in just one click, making it easier to create content that stands out. This kind of content fits great on TikTok and Instagram.

EXTENSIVE CONTENT LIBRARY

Canva offers an entire library of photos, elements, videos, and audio for no extra cost, giving brands access to high-quality content that can help them create unique and professional designs. We use the premium content when we are in need of beautiful stock imagery that fits our brand as an earth-minded public relations agency.

PREMIUM VIDEO CONTENT

By now, you probably know that video content is the future. With Canva’s video features, small businesses can create, edit, and save premium videos for platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Youtube, allowing them to create videos that will captivate their audiences. 

ANIMATE YOUR WORK

The Instant Animation tool is great for small businesses that make a lot of presentations or decks. Animating your presentations gives them a dynamic edge that is sure to impress anyone on the receiving end.

IMPRESSIVE TEMPLATE LIBRARY

Brands can browse the selection of free templates and create and customize a design for any occasion, making it easier to create content that fits your needs. 

BRANDING TOOLS

Canva lets you create consistent, on-brand content by uploading your logo, fonts, and colors to the “Brand Hub”, ensuring your content looks cohesive.

Canva is an amazing resource for businesses and PR agencies looking to create stand-out content for their pitches, press releases, and social media posts! With a variety of useful features and resources, Canva makes creating top-notch visuals a cinch. Plus, they have an impressive library of fonts, images, and icons to choose from, so you can be sure your visuals will be both professional and unique.

What Does a PR Agency Even Do?

Here are a few reasons why working with a PR agency could help elevate your brand.

If you’re a small to midsize company with big dreams, you may be asking yourself if it’s time to hire a PR agency. If you have nothing but questions (what does a PR agency even do? Can I afford one? Do I need one?), we’ve got you covered. Here are a few reasons why working with a PR agency could help elevate your brand.

They put your brand on the map

Brand awareness is crucial for a company of any size. Even household brands like Coca Cola and Johnson and Johnson work to maintain brand awareness year round. A public relations firm can help build or improve your brand awareness, by working to understand not only your target audience but also your competitors. That’s because brand awareness has everything to do with getting your unique brand message across to your target audience. They need to know why to choose you over your competitor. A smart PR agency will identify all the ways to position you as a brand and strategize best on how to reach your target audience in meaningful ways. 

A PR agency helps get your brand, product, or service in front of the audiences that care about it. They’ll discern which media outlets and mediums are best for your brand. 

They’ve got the relationships 

It’s possible that you could manage your own PR strategy, but that doesn’t mean you should. PR agencies already have the relationships at your dream magazines and media outlets. They’re already besties with tons of influencers and tastemakers. And they already have PR systems and processes in place. They have both the expertise and network in order to make the most out of your PR goals in the quickest amount of time. It’s their job to position your brand’s story with angles that their editor connections will care about.

They put on events that everyone loves

Sometimes the best way to get to know a brand is through an event. Who doesn’t want to get down at a party? Or share a lovely meal while learning about companies doing good? PR agencies can help you put on the event of your brand’s dream. They’ll source the best vendors (often at a great price) and make sure your guest list has all the right people there, including top-tier editors, influencers, tastemakers, and simply people who bring all the great vibes!

So, are you still wondering what a PR agency does? We hope we gave you the gist on PR firms, but note that each agency has their own secret sauce to make PR dreams come true. In all, they are doing the behind the scenes work to get you amazing press placements in magazines you’ve been reading for years. 

If you’re in need of public relations help, we would love to connect. We love working with earth-minded, good-for-you brands. If that sounds like you (and honestly even if it doesn’t), let’s set up a time to talk. Email our founder Holly Haworth at Holly@haworthhousepr.com.

What to do Before Starting with a PR Agency

Just hired a PR agency? Then you might be wondering where to start.

While it’s true that your PR agency will take care of much of the onboarding process, there are a few things to do or consider before your official start date.

Update your resume

Chances are your new PR agency will create a media-worthy press kit, including a well-written bio on your founder(s). But, they’ll need an updated resume in order to best write out your accomplishments and showcase all that you’ve done.

Get updated headshots

Taking updated headshots is especially a good thing to do if you are the spokesperson for the brand. IF you’re going to be doing TV segments, podcast interviews, or live Q+As on Instagram or TikTok, then you’ll need updated photos of yourself. You should ask the PR agency you’re about to sign with if they have any recommendations for local photographers. It’s very likely they do, and that would save you the trouble!

Consider media training

Unless your PR agency offers media training as a service, you might want to consider getting some media training. A formal media trainer will teach you how to present yourself, stay in control during interviews, whether for a TV segment or a print newspaper, and to express your ideas in clear, concise, and energetic ways. 

Compile your brand assets

Once the first day with your PR agency rolls around, you’re going to want to use your time wisely. That said, do your homework ahead of time and compile all of your brand assets before you start with a new PR firm. The things you should look for include current brand photos (both lifestyle and product), logos in the correct file form, a brand bible, and any previous press releases or brand write-ups. This will help inform the PR agency you’re about to start with of your brand’s look, feel, and voice.

Take a look at your calendar

If your PR agency does a good job, you will likely have busy periods where you’re sending in quotes for various articles or stories, taking interviews, preparing to go on air for a live TV segment, and the like. With that, it’s imperative that you carve out time for PR on your end as a founder or spokesperson of a brand. Think: Do you have the time to act quickly in order to support your PR team’s efforts? Consider scheduling at least one hour each week where you will work on moving PR initiatives forward from your end.

Now once you start with a PR agency, you will likely take part in a unique onboarding process. The key to success when working with an agency is how you continue to foster the relationship between you and your PR team even after you’re onboarded. Stay engaged in the process, be ready to provide additional assets, and continue innovating as a founder and forward thinker. Remember, media outlets want to write about and feature brands and people who are doing newsworthy things. Your PR agency will position you as a brand and use their existing relationships as best they can to secure meaningful press placements for you, but continue to innovate in your space so that you stay top of mind with media long after a pitch.