Your Words Matter. Make Sure You're Heard.
Charleston PR & Design is an integrated public relations and marketing communications firm supporting businesses and professionals.
- We increase awareness of our client’s companies.
- We improve our clients’ communication with their customers.
- We guide leaders in times of corporate crisis.
Focus
Portfolio
- All Seasons Mulch & Landscape Supplies
- Driwood Moulding
- Kolter Homes, LLP
- BPR Properties
- Commonwealth Contracting, LLC
- The Fuller Pile
- Holly Herrick, Food Writer/Cookbook Author
- Lowcountry Residential Builders
- 360 Yoga Charleston
- New Homes Guide Charleston
- West Ashley United
Driwood Moulding Branding, Website & Video
Driwood is a manufacturer of architecturally correct mouldings, millwork, cornices, doorways, and paneling, cabinetry and custom architectural designs. The firm has been in existence for over 100 years.
We worked with Driwood to get back to their core DNA and present their legacy of more than 100 years of exquisitely crafted mouldings. In conjunction with that, we brought back their hand lettered logo which was created in the 1920s.
For this complex website project, we created a site to display the firm’s 500 stock mouldings and allow for online quotations. Using customized WooCommerce processes, the site allows customers to submit to quote, create accounts, save products, and review their history. Products may be filtered by hundreds of attributes, providing everyone the ability to search and order the mouldings needed for their job.
As a component of this project, we produced, wrote, and directed a video to tell buyers about Driwood and their products.
Our full project team was composed of graphic designer / Woo Commerce integrations specialist Jeffrey Schierer, account manager Dale Aren, developer Bill Smithem and genius copywriter Jenny Badman. The Driwood videos about the company and their legacy were shot and edited by Meredith Browne of See It All Media. Voice over narration was done by Richard Lubash of 2K Plus who also supported post production. Anna Stein wrote the more than 500 product descriptions with precision and professionalism.
PG Preservation Media Relations & Representation
A conservation minded group purchased the last undeveloped tract of land between Georgetown and Pawley's Island from the University of South Carolina. Our firm assisted the buyer by representing them and announcing the news. The project earned highest accolades and many news stories from South Carolina media, including this editorial from The Post & Courier.
Publicity for Cresswind Charleston Recognized as Top Master-Planned Community
Cresswind Charleston at The Ponds was selected as a 2019 Top 50 Master-planned community. We assisted them with getting the news out and featured in local news outlets. This coverage in The Post and Courier is from the Real Estate business column by Warren Wise.
The Ponds Conservancy spotlighted in national magazine
The Ponds, a master-planned community in Dorchester County, is home to more than a thousand acres of conserved land. The Ponds Conservancy guards the land, programs public and community events and increases awareness related to environmental and history associated with this nationally valuable site. Our pitch to a national magazine earned them a feature story in the summer 2017 edition.
Comfortable Cuisine Logo
Doug and Dale Beard established their special event personal chef and catering service to provide the highest quality chef-prepared meals in your home for special events. They required a logo that embodied the special nature of having a professional chef cook exclusively for you at home. While they wanted their food to be elegant, they did not want to be stuffy. After exploring their core brand DNA, we developed their unique logo which presents the specialness of a professional chef in your home. "Our Chef, Your Table" tagline amplifies the concept.
Logo for Voice Actor Bill Shelton
Bill Shelton, a Charleston based voice actor, needed a logo to represent his brand. After a development interview to get to the core of his brand DNA, we chose to embody one of the stories he told about his childhood. We derived his tagline, "The Voice of Possibility" from that story - of sitting with his dog, looking to the stars.
Dorchester District Two Foundation Big Event Logo
Dorchester District Two schools is supported by contributions from the non-profit DD2 Foundation. The Foundation holds a major fundraising event annually. We developed a logo to represent the annual party. The logo embodies all the joy and delight that comes from learning as well as celebration the sparkling nature of the fun evening event.
RN for Me Website
June Thorpe Galy established RN for Me to provide individuals professional health monitoring by an RN. Nurses make weekly visits to the home and help supervise your health. Her new enterprise needed a website that would match the bold colors of the logo and feature a prominent call to action to get a no-charge initial meeting. The site has a multi-section home page highlighting each of the service’s aspects and benefits to clients of the firm’s services. The site is built on WordPress with BoldGrid as the framework.
West Ashley United Website
West Ashley United is a nonprofit organization in the Charleston area with a mission to bring all elements together to support the community. Their goal is, “to engage all neighborhoods, businesses, and governmental agencies to enhance the many aspects of our suburban community with a commitment to communication, civic education, diversity, advocacy and conservation.” Charleston PR & Design designed and developed the website under a very tight timeline and on a relatively small budget. Specific requirements included the ability to post events which could be sorted into categories as well have an easy to update site. The organization wanted to be able to post regular stories about the people, places, and history or the community. We suggested that the site be WordPress using the BoldGrid framework. This allowed us to bring the site together efficiently and to meet their budget and timeline. The organization provided all their photos and content.
One of the board members said of the new site and our work, “[they]…did an absolutely stellar job in the website…not to mention such a quick turnaround in getting the site built and established. It looks so professional and is definitely something that we can be proud of.”
All Seasons Mulch Market & Landscape Supplies Website
All Seasons Mulch Market and Landscape Supplies on Johns Island sells to home gardeners and professional landscapers. The firm’s custom WordPress e-commerce website was developed to sell all their bulk materials online. In the spring of 2018 we launched a new site for them incorporating new custom post types for their delivery trucks and retail products.
The 2018 site was a partnership with Kathy Miley Hallen who developed the site graphics and color palette. We produced all photography, wrote copy, designed and coded a totally custom e-commerce solution to allow each product to be sold based on its type and allows All Seasons to set minimum quantities. The system also allows for delivery fees per geographic area.
Sherry and Gregg Tucker of All Seasons, have found that the site has enhanced their online sales and boosted revenue. We thank All Seasons Mulch for allowing us to partner with them for many years for their marketing and website.
Reviews
the project
Web Dev & Hosting for Analytical Support Provider
"Their work suited my needs and everything that I wanted."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I am the founder and director of a firm that provides reading, writing, and analytical support to companies.
What challenge were you trying to address with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
We needed their team to develop my website from scratch and situate it in a hosting site.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Charleston PR & Design, LLC developed our website using WordPress. They created a prototype before implementing everything into the hosting site. We particularly asked to generate a simple and straightforward website that featured all of our services, with the goal of clearly marketing our business to the public.
As part of the hosting, their team incorporated an email forwarding feature, wherein a public email on the site’s home page was redirected to my ProtonMail. My Twitter feed was also displayed on the site, with my most recent tweets featured on the web page.
What is the team composition?
Our main point of contact was Cheryl Smithem (President & Founder).
How did you come to work with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
I wanted a small firm within the US that could build my website according to my preferences. I was from Charleston, so I’ve heard about Charleston PR & Design, LLC’s website work in the past. They also happened to work with small businesses like ours — eventually, the project ran pretty quickly because it was a no-brainer for us to hire them.
How much have you invested with them?
We spent about $500. We mainly paid for their web development efforts because the first year of site hosting was offered to us for free.
What is the status of this engagement?
The project ran from March–April 2020.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
The email forwarding feature worked well — that was one of my main concerns because I really wanted our customers to contact me without them having to provide any private addresses. Our end users also reached out to me and told me that the contact page was great and convenient. I thought that was really a strong measure of Charleston PR & Design, LLC’s performance for this project.
Having the website also gave me the confidence in authenticating my business. When I spoke to reporters, I was able to provide an actual link to my platform and not just any business pages. It was nice that they could look our company up through a more legitimate method — I wasn’t just giving away my email address. The success of this project with Charleston PR & Design, LLC’s team was mostly qualitative, but their work suited my needs and everything that I wanted.
How did Charleston PR & Design, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?
We mainly communicated through email. Their team was responsive to my emails and they alerted me whenever the site went offline. Charleston PR & Design, LLC always had safety and security in mind — they were prepared with backups when I forgot my login credentials.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Charleston PR & Design, LLC worked really hard to provide us with good service. Their hosting services were particularly valuable to us who were not really tech-savvy or good at troubleshooting. They were professionals — they made sure that we didn’t have any web issues to deal with after the engagement.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I didn’t think that there were areas that needed improvement.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Charleston PR & Design, LLC is the perfect team to contact if you want to gain site traffic or simply need to find a good place for your blog. It would be great if you already know what you want from the get-go, so the process would be quicker and smoother. As their client, it’s your ultimate responsibility to determine what the end product must look like.
the project
PR Content for Business Coaching Company
“Their honesty and workmanship really stand out.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner of a business coaching company. I do busines and executive level coaching.
What challenge were you trying to address with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
I’ve needed help several times over the years with PR.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They’ve helped us by listening to what our clients were dealing with and helping from there. Sometimes, if an article needs to be written, I’ll draft an outline it and Cheryl does the writing for me. In other cases, she’ll draft an article and I’ll work on another part of the project. They also work on my blog and provide content for my Mastermind Group.
What is the team composition?
I work with Cheryl (President & Founder) and Bill (CAE).
How did you come to work with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
I’ve been friends with Cheryl and Bill for a while. I had a lot of confidence talking to them and we became comfortable over the years. We found that we had ways we could help each other.
How much have you invested with them?
I’ve spent $150 per month, more or less.
What is the status of this engagement?
We started working together at least 10 years ago and our work is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I love the way they work and how they keep up with their clients. Their honesty and workmanship really stand out.
How did Charleston PR & Design, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?
Cheryl always works on a timely basis. We work content out like a clock each month and we aren’t stressed about it. Cheryl reminds me of things I need to get done and the finished product is always great. She’s the right person for me to work with.
What did you find most impressive about them?
I like them as people. They’re honest and easy to communicate with. It’s the key to everything.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I was never disappointed by their work.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
My advice is to treat people like you’d like to be treated. Recognize them for their gifts, just like you’d like to be recognized. It was a two-way situation from the moment we started talking and had very high regard for each other.
the project
Content & Blog Writing for Publishing Platform
"She wrote wonderful posts for me. They were very in-depth."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the owner of a publishing company.
What challenge were you trying to address with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
She helped support my business with helping me write blog content.
What was the scope of their involvement?
I had article assignments and she would write them and send me the completed article. She’d send me very well written articles.
What is the team composition?
I just worked with Cheryl (Owner).
How did you come to work with Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
I’ve known Cheryl for years and she understands my industry. So, I called her.
How much have you invested with them?
It’s less than $10,000.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve worked together since April 2016, and the relationship is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
She wrote wonderful posts for me. They were very in-depth.
How did Charleston PR & Design, LLC perform from a project management standpoint?
She’s always on-time.
What did you find most impressive about them?
She always knew what to do. She understands the assignment, I didn’t have to go in-depth.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I don’t think so. She’s very professional. She understands marketing PR.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Communicate what you’re looking for and let her ask in-depth questions.
the project
Marketing Strategy for Resource Management Company
"The best part about working with them is their expertise in dealing with growing, smaller businesses."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the president of Deandro Resource Management. We provide timber audit and security services.
What challenge were you trying to address with Charleston PR & Design?
We hired Charleston PR & Design to help us update our marketing plan and create a better strategy to move forward with.
What was the scope of their involvement?
For the first phase of the project, Charleston PR & Design conducted customer and market surveys to better define our marketplace. Once we had that information, we retooled our marketing message. Their team helped redesign our existing site to change the messaging and increase our security profile. They also provided support to improve our newsletter. We’ve finished phase one, and we’re waiting to begin the next part of the project.
What is the team composition?
Cheryl (President & Founder, Charleston PR & Design) is our main point of contact. I also speak with Bill (Owner, Charleston PR & Design) and another teammate, as well.
How did you come to work with Charleston PR & Design?
Charleston PR & Design came recommended by a trusted friend.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve spent between $5,000–$10,000, so far.
What is the status of this engagement?
We’ve been working together since the fall of 2018 and have an ongoing relationship.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
My website is much more straightforward and it’s easier for my customers to quickly see our services. The site’s security profile has significantly increased, too. Lastly, our newsletter has improved with their support.
How did Charleston PR & Design perform from a project management standpoint?
Their team communicates very well. All of our deadlines have been met, too. They’re a very professional organization to work with.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The best part about working with them is their expertise in dealing with growing, smaller businesses. They’ve demonstrated their experience in that area as we look to grow to a mid-tier business.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there’s nothing I can think of at the moment.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
I’d highly recommend you share and review your goals with Cheryl. She’s great at hearing the client’s needs and tailoring her services to meet those goals.
the project
Marketing, Branding & Web Dev for Woodworking Company
"They’re an excellent business, and they have good people that will go the extra mile."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We're a family-owned custom woodworking company. We’ve been in business for about 100 years now. We make all kinds of high-end custom and architectural woodwork. I'm the vice president and general manager.
What challenge were you trying to address with Charleston PR & Design?
We had a marketing firm before them that I felt wasn't doing a great job for us. We decided to start looking for a new partner and new avenues to generate revenue. At the time, we were also considering having a new website built to incorporate some e-commerce capabilities.
What was the scope of their involvement?
They did all of the development and design of the website in house. Before they started the design work, we had multiple meetings to sit down and discuss what we wanted to achieve. During these meetings, we mapped out the flow of information on the site and talked about other design elements. After we finalized a plan, they went back and created some mockups and wireframes so that we could come to an agreement on the design.
In addition to managing the website, Charleston PR & Design takes a holistic approach in terms of their implementation of our marketing strategy. The team does our web marketing and print advertising while also assisting me with Facebook marketing and managing our newsletter program. They’ve even done some branding work, including a new logo. They do a little bit of everything for us.
What is the team composition?
We have four or five people working on the project. I communicate primarily with Cheryl (President & Founder), and Bill (Web Designer & Engineer) handles web development.
How did you come to work with Charleston PR & Design?
I interviewed quite a few people before meeting Cheryl and her team. I came across them online while we were looking for a new marketing firm. We wanted to find a smaller organization that could focus on our project. Our previous firm was a sizable outfit that had some pretty large clients, and their team didn’t dedicate any time to us.
When I reached out to Charleston PR & Design, they seemed like they knew something that the others didn't know. The team had a completely different take on the project, which we liked. They came up and did a presentation for us, and I was impressed with Cheryl’s vast knowledge of architectural elements and other aspects of our industry. That alone made them a natural fit.
It seemed that the other firms that we interviewed wanted to treat our project as no different than any other. Charleston PR & Design was more focused on sitting down and figuring out what we wanted to accomplish so that they could formulate a strategy that works for us.
How much have you invested with them?
We’ve invested somewhere between $75,000–$100,000
What is the status of this engagement?
The project began in August 2014 and is ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
I can barely put into words the increase we’ve seen in traffic and leads since they redid the website. We also regularly get calls from people who’ve seen our targeted ads online. Their work has been effective, and the analytics support that sentiment as well.
How did Charleston PR & Design perform from a project management standpoint?
The quality of their work is very high as far as organization and project management. The team is very clear in communicating with us about what they're doing and the changes we should implement. It's a step-by-step process to reach our goals, and they’re great about showing us the steps we need to take. It’s very nice to work with someone like that, to be quite honest with you.
When it comes to technical issues, I deal with Bill, and he’s usually the person that’s doing whatever tasks I have questions about. It’s really helpful being able to reach out directly to the individual, rather than having to go through a third party.
I communicate with their team mostly through phone and email. We prefer email, but that has nothing to do with their responsiveness. They always pick up the phone when I call. They're available whenever I need them.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their attention to the smaller details and the fact that they tailor their strategy to our specific business are noteworthy. I can't speak to their partnerships with other companies, but I would assume that they probably use tailored strategies for everybody that works with them.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, I'm very satisfied with everything they've done. I can't think of anything to say that’s negative. When you're in a creative environment, there's going to be differences of opinion, but they’ve always been very attentive to what we want. The team also does a great job of letting us know what they think we need to do. We find a balance, which is beneficial for everybody.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Don't overlook them. Give them a shot. They're an excellent business, and they have good people that will go the extra mile. They certainly show us that level of dedication in how they work to accurately represent our company.
the project
Community PR for Real Estate Developer
“I’m impressed with their collaborative nature and open communication.”
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
Kolter Homes develops new residential communities throughout the southeast US. As VP of marketing, my team and I manage our brand and community advertising, marketing, and communications.
For what projects/services did your company hire Charleston PR & Design, LLC?
We hired them to provide PR support for an age-targeted community in Charleston.
What were your goals for this project?
Our goal was to better promote our active-adult community to the local market.
How did you select this vendor?
We found Charleston PR & Design, LLC through references.
Describe the scope of their work in detail.
They help promote our local events, new products, and development achievements, thanks to their established media contacts in the local market.
What was the team composition?
We work with Cheryl (Founder & Principal, Charleston PR & Design, LLC) and her staff.
Can you share any outcomes from the project that demonstrate progress or success?
Their media releases and outreach on our behalf consistently generate exposure for our marketing and community outreach events. They have also fostered interview and story opportunities with local and regional media for our property.
How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?
It has been smooth and clear.
What did you find most impressive about this company?
I’m impressed with their collaborative nature and open communication.
Are there any areas for improvement?
They could still improve their reporting on results.
Equipped with strong technical skills, Charleston PR & Design, LLC created a platform with an efficient email forwarding feature that was especially favored by the client and their users. The team was responsive and alert — they exhibited great focus on safety and security at all times.