Getting press for yourself or your brand is a good way to establish yourself as an expert in the business or industry. With positive media coverage, you can obtain access to people who can hire you as an employee, vendor, or partner.
However, getting press in a unique niche (for example, if you’re a licensed moneylender like I-credit), is a bit different from conventional press outreach due to government ruling on advertising, as quoted by Victor H. However, that doesn’t mean that there’s no way for you to work with reputable press. There’s always something that will work well for you, depending on your industry.
To help you, we’ve compiled five tips for finding press for your unique niche:
1) Collect Contact Information for Editors and Journalist Relevant to Your Niche
Most publications list contact information for journalists and, sometimes this includes email addresses. In the event that a particular email address is not listed, you can work out the email format by checking the addresses that are listed.
TV and radio producers, as well as researchers, are difficult to track down, but LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networks can be beneficial. If you’re in doubt, it’s easy to call them and ask. On the other hand, if these people are hard to get on the phone, make sure not to take it personally because a newsroom is a very busy place.
Avoid generic email addresses like features@ or news@ because, in most cases, they’re not checked regularly. Your goal is to find out the name as well as the email address of the person you want to reach out to. In this way, you can send a more personalized email and ensure that your email reaches the right person.
2) Determine the Right Publication
Although Fast Company, Inc., Fortune, Forbes, and Entrepreneur sometimes overlap, each has a defining factor. Remember that pitching to one isn’t the same as pitching to another. Similarly, TechCrunch and Mashable may appear the same in some ways, but they differ in other aspects. Getting information on the different publications available should help you to make your decision.
When looking for press coverage, make sure that you thoroughly understand the various publications as well as what they’re publishing. If you cannot determine what the publications want, there’s a possibility that your pitch will be rejected or ignored.
3) Guest Posting
There are times when convincing someone to write about you is not easy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to stop sharing helpful content with others. Usually, a person’s expertise might be expressed better if they produce their own content.
Surely, being mentioned in the media is a good thing, but the news is only news while it’s new. In fact, by the end of the month or week, you’ll find that your moment of glory has passed.
However, if you develop a good guest post, one that’s actionable, informative, and offers real value to readers, this will be something that many readers will refer to all the time. You might even notice that your guest posts pop up on social media repeatedly or as resources referenced by articles of other people.
Guest posting may result in all kinds of benefits like:
- Connecting with the target audience by offering value upfront.
- Establishing expertise and authority in an industry.
- Building backlinks to websites to improve SEO
4) Know Who You Want to Reach
Identify whose attention you’re trying to get for your unique niche, and use the various press as well as media channels to reach them. Bear in mind that saying you want more customers doesn’t offer you direction. In fact, it’s quite vague. Make sure to determine a certain audience and subset of people related to your niche then build from there.
Although it takes a lot of work, the more certain you can be about your target audience and what they like, the more you can find specific kinds of press coverage for your needs. Publications have their own target audience as well, so it helps to find out who reads each publication.
5) Follow-up
When pitching stories, you can usually expect journalists to get back to you after a day or so. Journalists always want publishable and informative content. Thus, if your stories are appealing, you shouldn’t have an issue. But, from time to time, particularly in smaller publications, stories and pitches may get lost between the cracks.
Make it a habit to follow up rather than waiting for members of the press to contact you. Remember, it’s alright to reach out to various journalists with your pitches, but be transparent and upfront about what you’re doing. Doing so prevents your contacts from feeling insulted or betrayed.
Conclusion
As mentioned, getting press coverage is quite challenging. Having said that, if you follow the tips mentioned above, you’ll end up with reliable and good press coverage that’s well-suited for your unique niche.