How should designers and studios approach their own marketing? We spoke to Socio and Company Policy

Whilst it would be ideal to give your studio marketing the love and attention it requires, design firms, especially smaller ones, don’t always have the time nor resources on tap. For some teams who are inundated with work via word-of-mouth, marketing isn’t necessarily a priority. However, engaging with marketing in any form does reap benefits, as Socio’s Nigel Bates and Nic Carter reveal, alongside Company Policy’s Adam Katz. As a means to reach vast swathes of the population, social media is the obvious choice for studios to market their services and build their brand, all while hoping to attract new clients. “We’re not as consistent with self-promotion as we should be, but that’s part and parcel of running a small, busy studio,” Bates and Carter tell us. With a lot more plate-spinning than perhaps a larger studio with its own marketing team, smaller practices like Socio are limited by their schedules. For the London-based team, engaging with relevant design platforms, such as blogs and social media accounts, “feels like a healthy thing to do.” On the other hand, for New York-based Company Policy, the process feels a bit easier. “We’re a pretty open, honest and straightforward group,” Katz reveals, so marketing our studio has felt like a natural extension of ourselves. Instagram seems to be the best place to be ourselves.” As their preferred platform, Company Policy use their account to share their work and studio news such as new people, jobs and the internal projects they work on. “The ability to reach the design community there has been amazing,” he adds “and we can be more natural and fun there through stories.”