The Road to National Press: A Wool Factory Story 12 Months in the Making

When we first started working with @the_wool_factory in 2020, we helped launch the hospitality destination with a hat trick of covers, ie three cover stories dropping the week of their opening. Virginia Living, C-Ville Weekly and The Daily Progress. Just what they needed at launch.

Oddly enough, we recently scored a similar hat trick for The Wool Factory, this time a trio of meaningful national stories that all dropped the same week. The timing was unusual in that we had been working on one story for a couple months, the other six months and the last 14+ months. Yet they all dropped at once! We wanted to share more on the road to placing and landing national press cover.

Southern Living

First, @southernlivingmag approached us in late March 2021, interested in photographing The Wool Factory for a major feature on Charlottesville for a spring 2022 story. It made sense, that they would photograph in season, but a year ahead. We would just have to wait a year for the story to come out!

We ended up working with writer @paigeporterfischer on and off for the next six months, resulting in this sprawling, beautiful feature on Charlottesville, and featuring not only The Wool Factory, but also naming (and linking! - crucial for SEO) @broadclothrestaurant, @selvedgebrewing, @gritcoffee and @coucourachou. The Wool Factory has just a few delicious facets... 🍽️ 🍺 ☕ 🥐 🍾

We were also able to secure placement for our client @merriemillfarmandvineyard in the same story, because if you're going to Charlottesville, one obviously also has to visit Merrie Mill as well! 🍷🦋🍊🐍🍇

Read the feature here.

Eater

When visiting a new major city, my first stop for restaurant recommendations is almost always @eater, specifically their 25 Essential Restaurants and Hottest New Restaurants lists. So, when thinking holistically about @the_wool_factory's press coverage, we knew an Eater placement would be an incredible driver of traffic and tourism.

There was just one problem... a 25 Essential Restaurants in Charlottesville list didn't exist, as they don't cover that metro area. @salganz had recently penned such an article for Richmond, under @eater_dc, so @lauren.anesta reached out to Stephanie to propose a Charlottesville sister article. Fortunately, Stephanie and the Eater editors loved the idea, so The Wool Factory's @broadclothrestaurant AND @coucourachou are now immortalized in this often-referenced resource!

Check out the full list here.

Food & Wine

The final of our three national placements for @the_wool_factory, all dropping in one week, was none other than @foodandwine! Back in October, freelancer Katie Chang reached out, interested in visiting @broadclothrestaurant for a potential Food & Wine story. What she didn't mention was that this was for their Next Great Food Cities feature. Charlottesville was again featured, and while The Wool Factory only got a sentence in the long paragraph on the city, these stories hold tremendous value for the long-term. This is again one of those short lists that tourists will Google for the next year, and being on this shortlist matters!

Read the rest of the piece here.

We were so excited to see this influx of coverage for The Wool Factory, months of hard work culminating in this exciting blitz of releases. We're always investing in long-term relationships and long-lead stories, because we know the pay-off will be well worth the time and effort.

As you're considering your PR strategy, short-lead media can be tempting for that quick payoff, but it is extremely beneficial to keep your pipeline full of long-lead opportunities as well. That symphony between the two is when your client will really feel like their brand is everywhere.