How To Generate Media Coverage for Your Business
While many businesses are focusing a lot of their attention on digital marketing, this doesn’t mean that you should ignore the more traditional avenues of promoting your company entirely. And one of the best ways of doing this is still by generating media attention and coverage. However, with so many brands and businesses out there are crying out for attention, you need to be a little creative in the ways that you are getting your business noticed by publications. To give you some inspiration, here are a few of the ways that you can achieve your aims.
Make a List of Relevant Publications
There is no point in wasting your time getting in touch with publications which are not relevant to your business. So, you should start by doing your homework on the titles which are likely to cover your business. As well as the more general publications, you should also be looking at the industry-led newspapers and magazines. Don’t forget about the media outlets which are run entirely online. And you also need to make sure that you get the point of contact correct. Otherwise, your enquiry or press release may not be read by the person who can make things happen for you.
Look at Regular Features
Some publications put out the same kind of features month in, month out. If you choose these ones, you know the kind of angle that they are looking for and you can tailor your approach accordingly. When you are sending off a submission or press release, make sure that you are following all their guidelines to avoid being rejected at the first hurdle.
Position Yourself as an Expert
Often, journalists are looking for experts whom they can obtain quotes from to back up their stories. As the leader of your business, you should be an expert in your chosen field. So, whenever there are stories which break in your area of business, you should put yourself forward as an expert who is willing to be quoted. Make sure that all your marketing materials, business website, and anything else associated with your business gives off a professional and knowledgeable impression in case the journalist wants to do more research about you.
Invite the Media to Your Events
If you are hosting any kind of event for your business, rather than keeping it quiet, you should always invite the media along to cover it. You could provide some media passes for them, along with some goody bags with some branded materials and clothing such as custom t shirts. Always make yourself readily available to speak to the press or give them a point of contact that they can get in touch with if they are looking to ask any further questions.
Craft Your Press Releases Properly
A well-written press release that covers all the information that a journalist would want to ask about is much more likely to get picked up than one which is sparse on detail. As well as the written content, you could also help them out by providing additional content such as your logo, images and screenshots, videos, links to your blog or social media accounts etc. Of course, there is a balance to be struck between giving them everything that they need and not overwhelming them with information.
Offer Products for Review
All sorts of media outlets are always on the lookout for products which they can review. However, you don’t want to give these out in the form of free gifts as this could end up violating some ethical guidelines. Make sure that you get in touch with the blogger or publication in advance to ensure that they are happy to write a review for your product. Also, check their circulation or readership so that you are sure that the article is going to be seen by enough people to make it worthwhile.
Help Out Your Local Community
One of the things that many publications are looking for (particularly local ones) is that your company is doing its bit to support the local community. There are plenty of things that you can do in this regard including sponsoring a local sport team, holding a fundraising event, pledging a percentage of your profits to a particular charity. And whenever you are doing anything worthwhile which benefits the community, it is always worth shouting about.
Make Yourself Easy to Reach
It is a major source of frustration for journalists when they can’t reach the companies which have approached them in an effort to generate coverage in the first place. Journalists are usually working to a tight deadline, and they don’t want any more obstacles thrown in their way than necessary. So, make sure that you list your different points of contact clearly. If you are unavailable, make sure that you return their call at the earliest possible opportunity. To make things even easier, you could create a media resource centre on your website which includes screenshots, images, logos, and all the facts and figures that they could possibly want to get their hands on.
Offer Exclusives
If you have a story which is perfect for a particular publication, and which you are sure is going to reach your client base, you could look to sweeten the deal by offering out an exclusive. The press are always in competition with one another, and you may be able to reach an understanding which proves to be mutually beneficial. However, you should also make sure that you are choosing wisely and that you handle the situation delicately as you don’t want to risk alienating a publication which could prove to be useful to you in the future.
Generating media coverage for your business is an activity which you should be looking to take seriously, and it needs time and attention to make sure that you are getting talked about as much as possible. Use these techniques and to get your name out there – and keep your company in the public eye.