If you think getting free media is easy, and means just sending out a press release to automatically score coverage, think again. Successful PR or marketing is very rarely based on random tactics; you need a media strategy that often requires a lot of heavy lifting.
At its core, a typical Allen Media Strategies campaign centers on creating relationships with exactly the media personalities and outlets who can best tell your story, or even better, to let you tell your own story as an interviewee, to the right audience. Done correctly, this kind of strategic campaign can create credibility for you and your brand, terrific lead capture on your website and eventual targeted product sales.
In addition, solid press coverage has much greater validity with the audiences than advertising. The listener or viewer feels an “implied endorsement” of you when you appear as a guest on a radio show, television program, magazine interview, etc. And, best of all…it’s FREE! We’re not saying that you shouldn’t buy ads. What we are saying is that when used consistently, a PR, or free, media strategy can be an invaluable component of your marketing mix.
Follow these three strategies for stellar media and marketing success:
Strategy #1: Visualize and Map Out the Entire Campaign In Advance
Think of your media and marketing strategy as a campaign that will move you towards your long term goals. With the help of the media, you can establish, and then grow, ongoing relationships. These media outlets will raise awareness of you, your product or cause, communicate your key messages, and position you apart from others. Make sure your media pitch is always tied to your central marketing messages. Focus your interviews on talking points that hammer home the same benefits and key selling points communicated by your website, social marketing and any other advertising or marketing support materials like print, radio or television ads.
Strategy #2: Build, Polish and Target Your Pitch
Most TV, radio, print and on-line media professionals are very interested in guests and angles that have special appeal to their viewers, listeners or readers. It’s crucial to tailor your pitch to meet their specific needs. Become familiar with each of the media outlets you target and note the types of guests or story angles they look for before contacting them. Make no mistake: media outlets are flooded with press releases, and those pitches that are off-target or non-relevant get, well, pitched. That’s why yours has to be unique, compelling and targeted for that particular outlet. Think of it this way: your pitch to THE HOWARD STERN SHOW with its’ Rated R humor and mostly male audience should be much different than to THE VIEW with its predominately suburban, more subdued female audience. You can have the same product, but a much different pitch angle.
Media outlets work hard to provide the right information to their target viewers, listeners or readers, in order to grow their audience footprint. They have to fill that content need on a constant basis. Learn what they need most and you’ll increase exponentially the chance of your pitches being accepted.
Strategy #3: Fish Where The Fish Are: Find the Right Media
No matter whom you or your product targets, there’s a form of media to reach it. Television offers everything from network news and talk shows like THE TODAY SHOW and GOOD MORNING AMERICA to local access, plus all the specialty programming on cable TV. There are literally tens of thousands of terrestrial, satellite and internet radio shows with different audience targets, specialty newspapers and major dailies that provide thousands of niche media opportunities. Best of all, the enormous proliferation of websites, ezines and blogs targeting every market segment imaginable are a bonanza when seeking coverage. And remember, many TV stations, radio stations, newspapers and magazines also have highly trafficked websites actively looking for content.
When developing your media and PR strategy, think about where your best prospects might look for information on the product or service you market. Here’s what we do for our clients: identify the best traditional and online media, and then put together a list of targeted journalists, editors or producers for each individual pitch.
Remember, a press release or media pitch is just the first step. Then, follow up by telephone. Don’t be surprised if the media pros you contact don’t remember receiving your materials and ask you to resend it. Most of them get inundated every single day. That follow-up call is as much about listening as it is about explaining your story. Your goal should be to try to discover the long-term needs of the media pro on the phone and how you can fill that need. Be prepared to send full press kits on request that include background information, any photos, copies of other coverage you’ve received to folks who express interest in your product, story or service.
Once you’ve opened the door to these new media relationships, it’s important to make periodic contact with fresh ideas and information. We have one recent client who has now been asked back on a major syndicated network radio program 3 times in the past year, resulting in dozens of leads for their business.
Develop those long term relationships over time and soon you’ll find that being interviewed by media folks will become an indispensable part of your marketing and PR plan.
Share / Print
Recent Comments