The ability to accelerate and amplify your media coverage comes from the ability to do two things.
01: Develop meaningful and relevant story angles around your business
02: Develop relevant depth and variety in media outlets and contacts on your media list
And of course be able to legitimately back up your media outreach with powerful, relevant, informative and valuable media pitching and editorial opportunities.
A thoughtfully created media list that is well researched is an important foundation for gaining media coverage and third party endorsement across mediums.
Whether it be print, TV, radio, blogs or via social media influencers – a media list documents the key media contacts who would be interested in stories about your business, the news surrounding your business and industry and your area of expertise.
Research and planning are essential to unearthing opportunities that help you to secure media coverage in varying media outlets. A quality precision type approach is far more effective than casting the net wide and securing little or worse, nothing.
So you’ll need to put your best PR scouting hat on and go deep into the who, what, when, where and why. Be sure to take all the time that’s needed to craft and tailor a thoughtful and high impact pitch. The more you know and plan where your story can be placed, the more success you’ll have with your outreach.
Groundwork
Plan
Plan your story. Identify your goal and your ideal outcome. Move through the questions in the facilitator to help you unearth your story or prompt you to plan further.
Research
Research the facts that will help to support your story. Get around trade publications, major news outlets or lifestyle publications relevant to your industry and your story. Get familiar with the media landscape you’re pitching to.
Develop Key Messages and Angles
Look into the who, what, where, when and why for your story to develop key messages and angles. Align them with key media who you know for sure have shown to be interested in such stories and editorial opportunities in the recent past.
Story Angle Prompts to Diversify Your Media Coverage
Take time to outline your angles so that you’re prepared and have fully evolved the potential of your story. You should have multiple angles to ensure you’re pitching something substantial and that could be considered and placed in various ways by different publications.
Angle one: i.e. human-interest angle
Angle two: i.e. industry trend angle
Angle three: i.e. expert opinion and talent interview angle
Angle four: i.e. history-based angle in association with your business
Angle five: i.e. product or service or special event based news angle
Angle six: i.e. exclusive element/access to something for this publication only/a reveal
Angle seven: top ten list of tips, or top ten insights, news curated in list format
Angle eight: survey results from consumer research within your industry
Angle nine: access to talent/expert in association with an evergreen story with new seasonal elements
So whether you’re looking to raise your personal profile or hoping to get the word out about a new product or service, media coverage is one of the best ways to get your company noticed. But it has to be news-based. Otherwise it’s just a sales message and you’d be better of paying for ads.
Securing media coverage isn’t a simple matter of syndicating media release and media pitches and hoping something sticks. It’s about being thoughtful, taking time to research and plan; and like all good things in life worthwhile – media coverage is the result of hard work, time and patience.
[For more support with developing and pitching your stories to media be sure to visit our SHOP to browse the PRBYYOU collection of DIY PR products, templates, tools and strategies that we use at raraPR.]
Words by Jade Roberts
raraPR Founder and Creative Director
raraPR is above all the sum of people who together help build brands and share stories. We are present in our determination to make a positive difference to the world by representing individuals and businesses that are doing good. We are an extension of the personal stories within us, those that we exist for and those within you that need to be heard.
