In a saturated landscape of consumer goods and companies, it can be downright hard to get media attention. However, don’t despair! There are a few tricks around tools and timing you can employ to create some noise.
Securing positive media coverage is one of the most beneficial marketing tools for business growth, something that paid advertising can’t quite compete with. Although if you have the budget, the two can work in harmony together.
Other than increasing brand awareness to drive consumer interest, earned media attention gives your product and message credibility with consumers who are already engaging with a news outlet that they trust. But the question remains, how exactly can you get maximum media coverage? Below are five tactics to make it happen.
1. Know your ‘why’.
Beyond having a physical product to sell on the market, you need to unpack exactly what your business is trying to achieve. The best way to discover your ‘why’ is to determine the problem you’re solving for consumers. Questions to ask yourself: why do they need to know about your product? What is it about your product that sets it apart? Remember, when you consume media, you’re looking for newsworthy information, not just reading advertisements, so what is newsworthy about you, your company or your product?
2. Let someone else identify the pearls in your story.
It’s worth practicing your elevator pitch over and over again to someone who can objectively pinpoint the interesting selling points of your business. Each time you do this exercise, you’re able to refine your sell.
3. Enlist an agency with proven success.
It’s courageous to cold call journalists as a business owner but it is time-consuming and the deafening silence when you don’t hear anything back can be numbing. If your budget permits, start considering an agency that has established relationships with the media and can help you get traction. Most PR agencies also know exactly how to hook different media that you might not have realised could work for you.
4. Nominate a talker.
As a business owner, make yourself available or recruit an expert for commentary. The media like to print facts with colour, like interesting quotes. If you’re not experienced in talking to the media, but you want to control your brand’s integrity then perhaps let someone who knows what to mention do the talking for you. Find the most professional, or at least the most charismatic, person with something to say to speak on your behalf. This personality will add life to your story making it more enticing for media to pick up.
5. Prepare to do a 180°.
Be flexible to alternate your story angles. The ability to adapt quickly is crucial to hook various media channels because not every journalist will run the same article. Even if it feels unsavoury to deviate from the hero storyline, it will do your business a world of good to recreate the story a few times over. This could include a profile on how the business is changing the industry instead of traditionally spotlighting the product. This relates back to the earlier points, consider letting someone identify the interesting parts of your business and engage a professional PR to spin the story a few different ways.
Photo by Charisse Kenion on Unsplash
