How to Get Media Coverage for Your Business
Getting your business featured in the media might feel like an impossible dream, but it’s not. It is hard work, though, as the competition is fierce, and the majority of top-tier publishers receive hundreds of pitches per week (between 50 and 500 to be more precise). Breaking through that level of noise requires a strategic and original approach.
In this article, we’ll arm you with the strategies and PR tactics you need to put in the spotlight. Keep reading, as knowing how to get media coverage could be very beneficial for your business.
Why Do You Need Media Coverage for Your Business?
Getting your business known to the public is an opportunity to control your brand narrative, showcase your expertise, and build credibility.
The pros of such an endeavor are increased brand awareness, website traffic spikes, higher social media engagement, and ultimately, boosted sales. But there are a few cons to consider as well. It takes serious effort, and if not done right, you risk negative publicity. Especially if you don’t have any experience, you might want to take small steps toward lower-tier publishers until you gain enough confidence to aim for the top.
How to Get Media Coverage?
In 2024, you can take a DIY approach or an assisted by tools approach toward the media. Often, these two blend together. The DIY approach means you need to master content creation, PR outreach, pitching to journalists effectively, and ensuring all your materials, such as press releases, are great. Then you have to create your own system to structure the work effectively.
The assisted approach involves using software programs and media services that can help you automate tasks and get you on the media’s radar, allowing them to reach out to you.
DIY Approach
The key to catching the media’s attention is to be interesting and have a brand and story that inspires, educates, or entertains the public.
Depending on your type of business and the resources at hand, you might need to work with SEO copywriters who can tailor your message to be captivating and stand out from the crowd, ensuring it’s findable online.
Create Quality Content
Today’s businesses are the media themselves. If you don’t have a blog, create content for your audience, or build a community around your business, your chances of being discovered are small. Journalists who search for you online want to find something more intriguing that’s worth covering. It’s one more reason as well to start developing your content marketing strategy if you don’t have one.
Here are a few PR tactics you can try to attract journalists with presence and content:
- Create newsworthy content: Monitor Google Trends to gain insight on content creation and post it regularly on Linkedin, X, or Instagram’s Threads.
- Offer your fresh and unique perspective on news, so journalists can feature your different points of view when covering a subject.
- Create data-driven content: Content backed by data tends to get more coverage. Use resources such as Statista, Google Scholar, Data.gov, and Crunchbase to produce niche and/or topic-specific content, such as reports or expert commentary.
- Gain media attention by doing something that you know is going to get coverage, for instance sponsoring events or participating in community initiatives. Create and share content around such opportunities.
Create Ready-To-Be Published Content Pieces
Content that gets attention is usually expert commentaries, newsworthy stories, original research, or visually appealing materials. You can create a piece of ready-to-be-published content, in addition to your press release and media pitch.
Make sure though, that it is optimized for search engines with long-tail keywords, infographics, and images.
How to Pitch to Journalists
Pitching to journalists is part of a larger PR outreach process that involves strategically building relationships with media outlets. In other words, if you want coverage you have to ‘chase’ your target journalists regularly.
Here are a few tips on how to do it:
- Research journalists and freelance reporters who are relevant to your industry and niche.
- Establish relationships before you need media coverage: Don’t wait until you need publicity to start networking with journalists. Use platforms such as LinkedIn to make direct contact through their social media. This way, you’ll be sure that when the time comes, your pitch will not go unnoticed.
- Pitch journalists directly: Always send personalized and direct pitches to share your newsworthy story ideas.
- Send press kits and product samples: Make it easy for journalists by supplying background information, images, data, and product examples.
- Follow up the next day: Journalists receive many pitches daily, so following up increases the chances your story will be noticed.
Assisted Approach
There are so many digital tools designed to assist with PR efforts, that it helps to categorize them rather than just mention them generally.
Types of categories:
All-In-One PR Tools
As their name states, these systems are versatile and can be used in multiple ways, such as media monitoring, media databases, press-release distributions, etc. Examples include:
Tools for Media Relations
These tools help manage journalistic relationships. They include a database to find new reporters and nurture connections. A special CRM feature centralizes contacts, organizing them with labels, filters, and contact history. Much better than manually organized spreadsheets.
Here are a few examples to explore:
Tools for PR Outreach
Outreach tools not only include a database with the names of journalists and reporters they also offer the ability to track and streamline how well emails perform. Examples of PR outreach tools include:
- JustReachOut
- Magic PR
- Prowly
Media Coverage Services
These services help journalists and writers who need expert sources for the stories they are working on. You can take advantage of these opportunities by answering questions put through the platform, potentially making a name for yourself and gaining the media exposure you want. Here are a few examples:
A Step-By-Step Plan and Tips to Gain Media Coverage
What Story Do You Want to Share With the World?
Interview customers and followers to understand their pain points, and reflect on how you might solve them. Look at their origin stories, company milestones, or innovative products/services. Figure out what makes a business newsworthy and then craft a clear, compelling narrative that highlights your brand’s core value proposition.
Build a Targeted Journalists List and Nurture the Connections
Identify the specific media outlets and journalists that cover your industry niche. Research the types of stories they publish and their preferred angles. Use media databases or Google searches to build a targeted media list.
You shouldn’t wait until you need help or media coverage to start building contacts..
Try Digital Tools
Depending on the type and size of your business, try PR tools and media coverage services to streamline your outreach efforts and increase efficiency. Look for tools that offer access to media databases, monitoring, distribution, reporting, and free trials.
Create Content That Stands Out
Tap into the current trends and conversations happening in your industry so you can create high-quality content that not only captures the attention of the media but positions you as a credible, authoritative voice.
Wrap Up
Good media coverage is not an easy task. However, it is worth the time and effort, as it will help stabilize and improve your brand image, therefore increasing potential sales.
Remember, you don’t have to do everything by yourself. There are professional PR services, copywriters, and digital tools that can help you on your journey to media cover success. Your business deserves it.