How to Get Media Coverage for your Business

Looking for the best way to get media coverage? Read on to know how to get media coverage for your business – with 10 tips to get there!

So you have a path-breaking product or a high-profile event or even a startup that is all set to bring about a disruption in the market. Now, you need the entire world to know about it. The best way is to get it widely covered by the media. But there is one complication.

Reaching journalists and getting media coverage is more difficult than you thought it was. It can be disheartening to see all the effort and resources used for writing pitches and discussing briefs go to waste. But don’t worry, this blog will help you save your effort and time with time-tested wisdom, hacks and techniques used by PR professionals world-wide to help you multiply your media coverage.

---

Why is getting media coverage important for your business?

Before we jump into the “how”, it is important to understand the “why”. What exactly will media coverage do for you? It doesn’t give your business wings! Doesn’t make your employees earn three times more money! It is important to know why media coverage will benefit your company before you become a master at it.

The biggest advantage of getting featured by the media is brand visibility. And once a brand is recognised, the revenues start flowing in from people who may be interested in the product or service. Media also helps you reach out to the  investors who are more comfortable with putting their money in brands that have earned the media’s trust.

A company that has been written about by noteworthy publications also attracts potential new employees and partners to join the company. So if you want money, reputation, or people (which of course you do!) getting media coverage is a MUST for you. 

---

10 Essential Steps to Get Media Coverage

Establishing and maintaining a relationship with the media industry is not any simpler than having a relationship with people but with the right knowledge and process can do wonders for you.  Here are the step you need to follow to get yourself covered by the media.

1. Decide your messaging

Before you get your story published by the media, you need to figure out what your message is. What is the objective of your communication? This could vary from case to case. You may have raised investments, won a government award or grown your business multifold.

It is extremely important to have utmost clarity on your story before someone writes about you as lack of clarity can also be extremely detrimental to your business’ reputation. If you want to control how others think about your brand or business, you need to have control over your story.

2. Write a catchy pitch

While your product may be on your mind 24*7, the media and readers do not care about it. Thus, you need to make them care by catching their attention through a perfectly crafted pitch. Here are a few tips to make your pitch worthy of the media’s attention:

a. Use superlatives and extremes

If your pitch uses superlatives such as “fastest-selling”, “record-breaking” or “for the first”, it is bound to catch the attention of the journalist since it talks about something new. For eg, if your business made a record of selling the highest number of units per day, then this fact needs to be highlighted.
However, you have to ensure that everything you send out is factually correct.

b. Figure out the local news angle

Keep in mind the geographical location of the journalist you are pitching to.
If the journalist is based in Mumbai and if you can find a Mumbai-specific angle to your story, then they are more likely to cover it.

c. Focus on the milestones (numbers)

While writing your pitch, highlight any milestones, numbers that your business has achieved. This will lend credibility to your pitch. You can check out pitch templates like ‘Milestone Achievement’ by registering on Wizikey here.

d. Sell your story, not the product

If you just give descriptions of the product your business is launching, readers may not gain an interest in reading it and journalists would not publish anything that their audience doesn’t fancy. However, if you show-talk about a problem and how the product you’re launching will help resolve it, the narrative will become interesting and give the public an incentive to read. So choose what you want to send out very carefully.

3. Invite the journalists to make the first move

You can also invite journalists over to cover your event or launch. Email, phone call and personal meets are all ways to reach out to journalists and brief them about your product and event. 

4. Find the right match (through research or technology)

Quality is always greater than quantity when it comes to catching the media’s attention. You are better off contacting a few journalists with a specific interest in what you have launched than sending an email blast to everyone for whom the story may not be relevant. Thus, it becomes important to put in the research so that you can find the right journalists and send targeted pitches.

You can also save your effort and maximize your chances of coverage by using a PR tech tool such as Wizikey. With Wizikey, you can access a database of 25,000+ journalists from over 2,500+ publications and find the most relevant journalists for your story.

You can also track their responses in real-time and measure your coverage against the competition.

 

6. Put a ring on it – establish long-term relations with the media

Meeting journalists face to face and briefing them about your product makes your business stand out from other faceless businesses competing with you. The interview establishes a relationship with the person you spoke to and upgrades you in their mailing/calling list. Your brand would probably need media coverage more than once, so having known media personnel can quicken the process of getting media coverage in the future. 

7. Make the media notice you

While getting media coverage is a major step in building your brand’s identity. The media also needs to judge your brand before trusting it. You need to make yourself visible to the media before you are visible to the world. Businesses can maintain their social media feeds by hosting campaigns, speaking about topical issues and much more. They need to pay attention to their public image before aiming towards getting published on a wider scale. 

8. Validate their efforts

Once a media outlet posts something about you, you must always share it on social media and targeted email lists. This maintains a relationship with the media. It also gives your business an opportunity to let the public know that you are a trustable source. 

9. Choose a worthy spokesperson

Reporters can pick up on anything that comes out of your spokesperson’s mouth. So your spokesperson should be the best person to hype up your product. S/he also has to make it interesting to the media and the public.

10. Don’t be clingy with the journalists

Respect the reporter’s decision on whether to go ahead or not with your press release/article. Your brand’s reputation is the first priority and you must not spam the reporters by constantly calling them. 

Also read: 9 mistakes to avoid with journalists

---

To Conclude

In this time and age when companies send their products to outer space to catch attention, no business should lag behind while building their brand presence. Getting media coverage is a quick way to get recognition and all the positives that come with it. But many companies use the wrong tactics and end up putting more effort and receiving unsatisfactory results. We hope you follow our hacks and become a newsmaker (Who were the top newsmakers in 2019?) in no time.