Media relations involves building relationships with reporters and journalists to secure media coverage for businesses. In today’s digital age, the definition of “media” has expanded to include not only traditional outlets like TV stations and newspapers, but also online journalists, bloggers, and influencers who have their own audiences. Effective media relations allows businesses to effectively communicate their message and reach a wider audience through various channels.
In other words, today’s media relations is almost the same as influencer relations.
Media and public relations may seem like the exact same thing. However, while they are connected, media relations is only one of the avenues to advertise your business within PR. It is solely focused on building effective brand communications with media outlets. Companies use it to broadcast their message and story instead of conducting strategic communications with the public.
The goal of the media for as long as it has existed is to reach an audience. Partnering with the media is therefore an effective way of promoting your brand. In fact, the media is the perfect platform to promote your brand on.
Would you like to get started promoting your brand or startup? Pressfarm offers a variety of options to help companies get featured in the press. With a professional press release, some engaging guest posts, and an eye-catching media kit, you can capture media attention when it matters most.
In addition to helping you create this quality content, the team at Pressfarm also has a winning distribution strategy designed to put your brand in front of the right audiences. By submitting your content to the right media outlets and startup directories, Pressfarm can boost your online visibility and help you feature in relevant search results.
Why you need a media relations strategy
1) Lead generation
This is the core part of any brand’s growth strategy and it involves developing and cultivating interest in your brand. The typical tools for lead generation are content marketing, media outreach, and social media marketing. With media outreach, the key thing you need to do is to make the story you’re pitching appealing enough for news media. Given the reach today’s media outlets have, writing a story that matters to them will help you put your brand story in front of the right eyes.
2) Branding
Remember that you are trying to establish a name for your company so you need to create a unique niche for yourself to stand out from the competition. Additionally, you need to understand that branding is useless unless it is reaching people through proper and strategic communication channels. You can do this through media outreach and press releases; it allows you to cement your business in the market. You are not just trying to create a space for yourself in the industry, you are trying to do it inside your customer’s minds as well.
3) Third-party validation
With today’s customers, you might as well wave goodbye to traditional advertising. No one cares for blatant advertising anymore. Wave goodbye to empty claims and baseless statements that your product is the best. Instead, you need to find ways to get endorsements for your business. Getting the media to endorse you is one way to go about this. It is important that media outlets feature your company because this acts as social proof for you. Ultimately, potential customers will base their decision of whether or not to buy from you on how the media talks about you.
How to take your media relations to the next level
1) Write guest posts
Guest posting for influence and traffic is an important part of a media relations strategy. Instead of building an audience from the ground up, you can blog on your targeted media publications and capture the attention of their audiences. When you do this on respected sites, you can also boost your search engine rankings. Moreover, if you use the right keywords, you can attract traffic for years to come.
This strategy allows you to build an audience that is outside of your direct network while also building your reputation.
2) Find the right publication
You need to find the right publication – one whose values align with yours. Don’t waste your time on outlets that do not cover your industry because you won’t reach the audience you’re looking for here. Rather, you need to look for outlets that have an engaged and targeted audience that is interested in brands like yours.
When you have found an outlet that fits, send an email with your idea and see if they are open to publishing an article from you.
3) Finding the right content
The content that you write about should align with the interests of the publication’s audience. It should also fill the void of existing content. After all, if this is the first time a journalist is receiving this content, they will be more open to what you have to say.
When you are creating your guest post, you should focus on trying to write the best version of the content for your topic. This is not only a good strategy for getting published, but it also establishes your brand. Try and use visuals as well because it appeals to the audience and adds value to your content.
4) Target local TV stations and newspapers.
While they may not have the same visibility and popularity as other national media, local outlets are worth reaching out to. Normally, everyone misses out on the local TV stations in their area because they are constantly on the hunt for national media. Even so, there are other media websites that are always looking for something to post. It may take a bit more effort, but if you keep at it, you may be featured in national media eventually.
5) Create a PR event
PR events may seem like an outdated way to attract customers, but they can also be wildly effective. However, in order for this strategy to be effective, you need to use it sparingly. You should use this strategy as an additional part of your media relations instead of making it the main ingredient.
You need to keep in mind that the main audience is the media, while the customers are secondary. Your public relations event should obviously also be related to your brand. Moreover, you shouldn’t be too in people’s faces because such an approach can also damage your brand. You need to balance between event elements that are beneficial to you, but also generate media interest in your brand. In order to stay ahead of the market, you need to do something that is different from the norm. Figure out what your competitors are doing. From here, you can do something that is either different or something that has proven successful over and over again.
6) Answer press opportunities on HARO
You don’t have to chase journalists to get media coverage. One way to do hassle-free media relations is by using HARO as an additional place to connect with sources. HARO allows media professionals to post requests for stories. On the other hand, HARO keeps brands updated daily about media professionals who are looking for stories within their niche. As a member, all you have to do is figure out which request aligns with content that you can write.
Everything that you post through HARO will be compiled in your profile so that you are aware of what is going on. You can also use other search engines like JRO (Just Reach Out) to continue answering queries that are related to your topic.
7) Create content that corrects or refutes a popular hypothesis
It is really important to collect data that answers important and popular questions. This approach is even more effective when you challenge common beliefs and refute popular misconceptions. Don’t be afraid to question what other people have accepted. This approach could actually position you as a trendsetter. You can compile this data into a package that you can distribute to targeted publications and press mentions.
You need to think of the best story angles that you can use to promote your business. Make sure you offer definitive answers to common questions asked, and provide new perspectives on what already exists.
8) Use search engines to find appropriate press targets
There are a lot of things that go into a PR campaign. One of the most crucial aspects of any PR campaign is finding the right press targets. While you can find information about journalists you can target on Google, many companies waste lots of time on this. Combing the internet for a particular media professional’s email address can take hours. This is valuable time that you could spend on product development. What’s worse, after you’ve done all this work, you might find that the email address you got doesn’t work.
Rather than waste time digging for contact information, it would be easier to sign up with an agency that already has access to these contacts.
Pressfarm’s database of 1 million+ journalists, influencers, and bloggers is a great place to search for journalists. The best part of this media database is that you don’t have to sift through the contacts yourself. The Account Executive at Pressfarm makes your life even easier by building custom media lists with the best media contacts in your niche. Once you have these contacts, you can do media outreach to get yourself some media attention.
9) Launch on Kickstarter
The whole point of using a media relations strategy is to get the attention of media outlets right? Well, did you know that you can do this while also getting extra funding? Kickstarter is a great way to promote your business and do crowdfunding for your product.
Launching on Kickstarter is a great way to get attention and get people talking about you.
10) Partner with influencers
In this day and age, influencer marketing is one of the most effective ways to promote your brand. Branding by association is an approach that brands have used for as long as media relations has been around. Think about this for a moment – why do we buy products like Nike or Adidas? The reason is that those companies use celebrities and famous athletes to endorse and promote their products. So, we assume that those products are the best.
The same concept applies when you are trying to build your brand. When people see that influencers and media experts are promoting your company, you will pique their curiosity and earn their trust. As you create more interest, you will notice a boost in website traffic as people come to check you out.
It is not necessary to use all of these tactics. All you need to do is pick one or a handful. If you stick with it, then you may accomplish exactly what you want with your business.