Sherrilynne Starkie

Strategic Digital Communications

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Five steps to positive media coverage

Getting covered by the news media is essential to digital marketing success. Not only does it provide visibility for your company, product or service, it powers most content marketing and social media strategies. Whether your target audience is consumers, businesses or other stakeholders, without having earned media coverage as part of your marketing mix, you’re not realizing your full digital marketing potential.

In this article we’ll explain why earned media is a crucial part of any successful digital marketing campaign, outline what you need to get started and provide tips on how to get your first earned media hit!

What is media coverage and why does it matter?

Media coverage is also known as earned media or ‘good PR’. It confers a powerful, unbiased endorsement for an idea, a company, a brand or a product. It gives great exposure to vast audiences and perhaps more importantly for digital marketing, PR coverage provides those backlinks from credible websites that are crucial to maintaining high search engine rankings. Sometimes known as publicity, media coverage is not advertising. It’s based on the news value of the story and is never paid for.

Getting media coverage is one of the four pillars of digital marketing success alongside owned, shared and paid media. This includes content marketing, social media and digital advertising among other marketing tactics. Digital marketing is interconnected, and all activities are dependent upon each other to gain the most value for marketing budgets. If PR coverage is not part of the mix, other activities will struggle to deliver the desired results.

How to get media coverage

Gaining sustained positive news coverage means having a long-term view and takes investment in both time and resources. Occasionally, if your story angle is good and the timing is right, you can start seeing results almost immediately. But it usually takes about three months’ effort to start seeing your company mentioned in the news media. Sometimes it can take even longer depending on what else is happening in the news. Here are the foundational steps to creating a successful media relations program.

1. Know your media

The very first activity in getting PR coverage is the one most often overlooked, yet it couldn’t be simpler. Study the media to learn which outlets tend to cover stories like yours.

For example, if you are selling software to businesses, you need to be spending time on the technology trade websites such as C/net, Tech Radar and IT World Canada.

Read the websites. Listen to the podcasts. Watch the videos. The object of this exercise is to observe how each covers news. For some, the bulk of the coverage will be short newsy articles. Others pride themselves on in-depth investigative reporting. Still others will tend towards opinion and thought leadership content. In fact, most will have a combination of all of these editorial approaches.

online media coverage

Other things to look for

  • Is there any coverage of your closest competitors? If the answer is yes, this media outlet is a good target for you.
  • Do they accept contributed articles? Many outlets will publish bylined opinion or thought leadership articles if they are not salesy and puff.
  • Is there an editorial bias or special focus? For example, there might be a progressive theme across the stories. CNN and FOX tend to cover the same news, but they take very different angles in their reporting. Observe if there’s a bias that reflects that of your target audiences.
  • Which stories are most shared? Lots of news outlets have badges showing how many times an article has been shared on social media and on which platforms. Analytics software, such as BuzzSumo or Meltwater, can also give you this insight. This gives you an idea about how viral the content is.
  • Are comments turned on? If so, what’s the commentary like? This is a good indication of audience engagement and can provide insights on your target audiences.
  • Who is their audience? Sometimes this can be tough to discern just by looking at the content. Try exploring at the mice print in the website footer for a link to advertising info or a media kit. Often a publisher will include an audience overview in these sections.

2. Prioritize your target media

Now that you have a good understanding of the media outlets that cover your space, you must prioritize. Create a media list ordering the outlets by priority with the outlets that are most likely to cover your news at the top.

Returning to our software industry example above, let’s say your product is a payments app. While getting coverage in C/net, Tech Radar or IT World Canada would be awesome, Payments Journal or PaymentsSource cover your industry more closely. You can take this targeting a step further if your product has a specific customer base. For example, if your payments software is used mostly by online gambling operators, getting covered by iGaming Business and Canadian Gaming Business should be your top priority.

Put the most narrowly focused media outlets at the top of your priority list and cascade down to the most general.

3. Build media relationships

Remember the ‘R’ in PR stands for relationships. It’s important to build a rapport with reporters and influencers before you ever pitch a story. If news professionals know you or at least have heard of your company or brand, they will be more receptive.

Start by following them on Twitter and Instagram. Connect with them on LinkedIn. Like, share and comment on their content. Connect in person with media professionals whenever you can. Attend events such as press receptions at trade shows or at relevant charity fundraisers that reporters are likely to attend.

Once you’ve established a connection, don’t be afraid to ask influencers about their preferences. How do they want to be contacted? When’s the best time of day to reach them? What kinds of story angles do they prefer?

earned media: reporter and camera

4. Understand what makes a good story

Reporters are constantly looking for good stories that provide value to their audiences. If you have news that is of interest to the readers, you’ve got a good chance of gaining an influencer’s attention. But remember, most reporters get upwards of 50 story pitches a day, so make sure yours stands out by being relevant and newsworthy. Here’s how:

  • Is it new? It’s called news for a reason. A new product, approach or idea provides excellent news value, but it must be brand new. Your product launch isn’t necessarily news if there’s others like it on the market. Your CEO’s speech isn’t news if he’s said the same thing before.
  • Is it unusual? Here the story may not be new, but it has unique angle. Your new product might not be differentiated, but if you’re the only company marketing it to parents of small children, you could have a good story.
  • Is it significant? Is your news about something that will have an impact? Your company’s increase in sales may not be newsworthy enough to get media coverage. However, it could make the difference if this increase pushes you into the industry’s number one position.
  • Is it about people? Adding a human angle will always make a story stronger. A customer testimonial or case study often provides a good angle. Featuring an employee as part of the story is another way to add a genuine human touch.

5. Make it easy to cover you

Reporters and influencers are pretty much 100 per cent focused on producing stories and most have output quotas set by their bosses. In short, they’re busy. You can increase your chance of being covered by making things easy for a hardworking journalist.

Start by making it effortless for a reporter to contact you. Publish your email address and phone number on your website, on Google My Business and in your other social media profiles. And when they do reach out, reply quickly. Reporters are on tight deadlines and will move onto another source if you they can’t reach you.

Take this idea to the next level by creating an online media kit where journalists can freely access the news releases, quality photos and video, executive bios, technical fact sheets and statistics they can use to build their stories.

Keep your pitches short and fact based, and deliver on all your promises. Reporters don’t want to be sold to; they just want information that helps them do their jobs. Your pitch should include a one sentence summary of news, a link to a primary source such as a news release or an infographic, and a succinct offer. For example, are you offering an exclusive interview, providing a sample product for review or an inviting them to an event?

The best thing you can do to help a reporter cover you is to be relevant and provide value. Reporters hate off-topic pitches and resent false promises. If you are offering an exclusive interview with the CEO, make sure that no other reporter gets that interview and that it’s the CEO that turns up on the call, not some other spokesperson.

Remember…

No matter your what business you’re in, what customer base you serve or what your communications objectives are, media coverage plays an important role in digital marketing campaigns. Beneficial media relationships take time to develop, but this investment will pay long-term dividends.

Contact Me!

Get the media coverage that your company deserves and needs for digital marketing success. Let’s set up a time to chat.

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What is Earned Media?

Earned media, often referred to as PR coverage, is growing in importance for today’s digital marketing success.

People are returning to mainstream media in droves, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020. Just two years ago the news media industry looked bleak with almost half, 44 per cent, of people checking the news less than once a week. Today’s picture is much rosier. Three out of four people now check the news at least weekly and almost half will share news media content via their own social networks.

It’s an incredibly turnaround. This renaissance speaks to mainstream media’s increased perceived credibility and trustworthiness. It means reporters and other news professionals are now restored to the position of influencer. Companies and brands that had previously dropped PR to focus just on content marketing are once again waking up to the incredible power of positive media coverage.

This means that getting media coverage for your brand, company, product or service is once again becoming an essential part of the marketing mix. In this post, I’ll define “earned media” and show a few examples of how smart marketers use it to fuel successful campaigns.

Earned Media Anchor

What is Earned Media?

Earned media is media coverage or ‘good PR’. It confers powerful third-party endorsement for a company, a product or even an idea. And, it provides broad exposure to large mainstream media audiences. Sometimes known as publicity, earned media is just that. It earns coverage based on its news value and is never paid for. It’s not advertising.

Why is Earned Media Important?

Earned media is one of the four pillars of digital marketing success alongside the owned, shared and paid media pillars.

It’s a framework, sometimes known as the PESO model. It integrates digital marketing communications strategies and tactics to maximize impact, extend reach and deliver a measurable return on investment (ROI).

The four pillars are interconnected and dependent upon each other to gain the most value for marketing budgets. If earned media is not part of the mix, other activities will struggle to deliver the desired results.

Let’s imagine you have a company blog. You spend time and talent in writing and posting articles, but the expected web traffic just never materializes. You try sharing it on social media and even run a few Facebook ads, but the results are short term and costly. After a while you give up on the blog thinking it’s a waste of time. Earned Media Coverage

Hang on! Here’s the problem. People are not surfacing your content through search. Getting to Google Page One means increasing your website’s Domain Authority, and a great way to do this is to get backlinks from other high authority websites. Mainstream media websites tend to have elevated domain authority!

So, getting reporters to link to your website can dramatically impact the visibility of your blog content in the long term. That’s one way that earned media directly powers owned media.

Earned media fuels shared media by providing quality content to share on company’s social media channels. This strengthens brand positioning and bolsters stakeholder relationships by letting followers know that news reporters see this company as a credible source.

Using PR coverage in paid media campaigns exposes new audiences to the powerful endorsement of mainstream media stories.

Examples of Earned Media Success

Tips for Earned Media

Earning positive media coverage can happen overnight, but it usually doesn’t. Customarily, it takes sustained effort to build the kind of media relationships that deliver positive PR.

Here’s my rules for good media relations. I first published them in 2006 and then updated them 2018. This article continues to be one of my most-read blog posts.

Remember that adding earned media into the marketing mix will improve results overall. Don’t risk total failure. When you sit on a four-legged stool that’s missing a leg…you’ll likely fall over!

Contact Me!

Interested in learning how to power your digital marketing by adding earned media strategies and tactics?  Let’s set up a time for a free telephone consultation.

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Trust in business is the catalyst for change

People’s trust in both government and business continues to wane, according to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2020.  And, although trust in capitalism is at all-time low, there’s hope.

Despite there being little trust in the ethics of businesses and brands, survey respondents said that business is a great deal more competent than government or non-government organizations.  Edelman Global CEO Richard Edelman said ths shows the potential for business to be the catalyst for change.  He said companies need to engage stakeholders over shareholders and anchor strategy in ethics.

There’s room for optimism for the media industry too. Disengagement with the news has slowed significantly and there’s been huge growth in amplifiers–people who share news stories via social media.  That’s a boon for our journalist colleagues!

Another interesting finding is that Canadians have little trust in our government. Apparently we think its unethical and incompetent at the same time.

Here’s an excellent interview with Richard Edelman at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He summarizes the study findings and explains the trends observed over the 20 years since the first Trust Barometer survey.

The Trust Barometer is based on a survey of 34,000 respondents in 28 markets, 1,150 respondents per market. Fieldwork was conducted between October 19 and November 18, 2019.

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How social media transformed PR

Back in December 2007, the Society for New Media Research Symposium did a study into the influence of social media in PR. In the survey of 300 communications professionals, more than half agreed that social media was becoming valuable.

Other key findings:

  • 27% reported social media was a core element of communications strategies.
  • 3% said social media had little or no value.

Those three per cent couldn’t have been more wrong. Fastforward to 2019 and social media is now central to today’s PR.

Digital PR People

Recent research shows that people spend an average of 142 minutes per day, or 16.5 hours per week on social media. PR has transformed from the relentless pursuit of column inches into a strategic business discipline that consistently delivers measurable ROI.

Today’s social media pervasiveness gives us the power to reach, educate and influence audiences in ways we couldn’t have even dreamt about back in 2007.

Digital PR Skills

News media has become less of a focus, and owned media and influencers are at the fore. Also, PR pros now routinely run ad campaigns…something unheard of a decade ago.

We have acquired a whole new set of digital skills that underpin our core communications ones.  So far, the journey has been fascinating.

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Top 7 leads to draw audiences in

Sometimes getting the first, or lead, paragraph right is the hardest thing about writing a story. Whether it’s a blog post, a short video or podcast or even an opinion column, get it right, and the rest of the content will flow. Remember there are seven main lead sentence styles that can set the scene to draw audiences in. Try writing  one or two of these then choose the one that you feel works best.

Summary lead

This answers the 5Ws of the story, (who, what, where, how, why, when) in one sentence and is usually the best choice for a news story.  A Company is launching A Product at A Trade Show taking place On A Date, in A Town.  The reader gets the all the facts at a glance and can make a decision about where it’s worthwhile to read on.writing and editing

Question lead

Good for longer feature stories or op-eds,  this lead can be effective in drawing readers in. What has wheels, is green and everyone is jumping on it? The environmental bandwagon is rolling through marketing departments of large corporations all over the western world as companies seek to appeal to ethically motivated millennials. This raises curiosity with the question and explains issue being discussed in the answer. Avoid using questions that require a yes/no answer. Have you made your will yet?  The risk is the reader will think: No I’m not interested, and then hit delete. Or, he or she might think: Yes so I don’t need this info, and then hit delete.

Factual lead

Using statistics and hard facts up front can gain immediate interest and encourages the reader to go further into the story. Fifty per cent of working mothers fail to prepare healthy family meals because they ‘just don’t have the time’, according to a survey conducted by A Meal Preparation Company. The target audience will identify regardless of which side of the issue they fall on.

Quotation lead 1

Drawing on well-known sayings and famous quotes gives immediate context. Mark Twain once said that reports of his death were greatly exaggerated; this could also be said of a faithful PR tool…the news release. Most people are familiar withe the quote and they understand it to mean: don’t take reports at face value. They now have the context to read on to find out why the news release remains a useful communications tool.

Quotation lead 2

This one is a first cousin of the factual lead and is a great way to report on events and speeches and for comment stories. It pushes a quote from someone featured in the story to the top  “There was no collusion. Everybody knows there was no collusion” is a good example of  quotation lead for a story about a recent Trump rally. “I don’t think I’ll have a career after this.” This quote led many of the news stories that resulted when Kathy Griffen apologized for her bad-taste Trump joke.

Anecdotal lead

This lead offers the reader a glimpse at the feelings, results and specifics of the story you are writing. For example: “Leo Muldoon, now 78 and gone grey, grew up on the farm where he nearly died Sept. 21, one of 12 kids raised in an old brick homestead with no running water, set deep on a fertile plain around Dunrobin.” This is the opening sentence of a three-sentence lead paragraph used to tell a story of a survivor of a weather disaster.

Descriptive lead

This is where you draw a picture with words to put your reader into the scene and is very effective for longer feature stories. It was a dark and stormy night. This example clichéd but it makes the point. Here’s a longer example: Sitting in the food court of a busy suburban mall, the yummy mummies were ignoring their designer prams while greedily gulping down lattes and exchanging lively banter among themselves. Readers can picture themselves in the scene and, in a sense,  become part of the story.

Sometimes it takes a little expert help to make a good story great. Use the form below to contact me to discuss how to tell your own story.

 

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