There are more media outlets than ever before, which gives every organization a variety of options and opportunities for getting its message out to the public. However, choosing the right avenue to share information about your business or organization is important.
There are many unique strategies organizations of all kinds and industries can leverage to garner attention and play to the strengths of various media outlets. Below, 13 members of Business Journals Leadership Trust share strategies to capture media attention and reach your desired audience.
1. Focus on your core audience.
First, focus on your core audience and choose media outlets that your core audience is consuming. Next, expand to halo outlets that reach your extended tiers of audiences and new audience targets you wish to reach. The key is to first focus on your core business, ROI and segment and then expand from there. – Jessica Hawthorne-Castro, Hawthorne Advertising
2. Partner with a charity.
Our firm’s culture is integrated with our affiliate charity, which allows us to not only continue to do good things but also to gain exposure through the highlighted projects and work of the charity that is picked up by the news, radio and social media outlets. In addition, the larger sponsors of these projects ultimately have greater access to media and PR outlets, which adds to our exposure. – Dale Gillmore, Quest
3. Choose the best platform for the content.
Honing in on the best platform for the content and coverage is key. Identifying the best outlet for your target market and ensuring your content is perfectly suited for the platform chosen will garner the best leverage of time and energy and maximize success. – Rachel Namoff, Arapaho Asset Management
4. Share your clients’ social media posts.
We work with a lot of different clients through a wide array of services. Sharing our client’s LinkedIn posts, along with a comment, not only gets us seen by our followers but by theirs as well. Commenting about how we appreciated assisting on the project and how we added value has helped us be associated with a large number of projects and clients and highlighted our value to the work. – Tom Jaleski, Code Unlimited LLC
5. Pitch local business organization newsletters.
One often-overlooked avenue — particularly for B2B PR — is industry and local business organization newsletters. For example, if you want to drive attendees to an event you are hosting, it can be more effective to pitch industry groups to include your event in a member email than to earn a story in the local newspaper. The reason is the newsletter is more likely to be seen by your target audience. – Scott Baradell, Idea Grove
6. Provide content to industry trade publications.
Leveraging industry trade publications is a particularly effective way of getting your message and your brand in front of potential customers. For example, if your business is food, coverage in food-specific trade publications puts your brand in front of those who can buy your services. Showing your expertise where your current and future customers are is incredibly valuable when it comes to business growth. – Hinda Mitchell, Inspire PR Group
7. Know what outlets are most closely aligned with your customers’ needs.
Before looking at editorial opportunities, understand what your core and best customers are most interested in and what media they consume. Survey them, talk to them and then find the outlets most closely aligned. For some, that’s easy, while for others, it takes a bit of creativity; but guest blogging, sponsorship and appearing on certain podcasts and even syndication platforms can be highly effective. – Rodger Roeser, The Eisen Agency
8. Respond to HARO requests.
The most impactful PR strategy I’ve used is pitching Help a Reporter Out (HARO) requests from the media. Over the past four years, my agency has been mentioned in the press more than 100 times annually. It’s great for exposure and thought leadership positioning and it’s good for search engine optimization. – Kent Lewis, Anvil Media, Inc.
9. Build relationships with editors.
As a commercial real estate brokerage, we are able to target very specific industry publications in our area, both online and in print. We have built relationships with the editors and send them personnel updates, deal closings and other company news. Through these media, we are able to get in front of real estate investors and other business leaders and show our success in the market. – E. Tanner Milne, Menlo Group Commercial Real Estate
10. Amplify any press coverage you get.
Amplification is key. Articles, videos, podcasts, blog posts and press releases should all be amplified across multiple channels, such as your website, newsletters, social media and more. Encourage employees to share via their social networks. Post content on branded social media channels with a small paid investment for extra exposure. Too often companies have great content but don’t think about a multi-channel strategy. – Jen McClure, JEM
11. Publish professional newsletters.
We produce two short professional email newsletters each week. Typically, each is three short panels. It’s produced by our marketing team based on my input. They have fans (as we heard loud and clear when we briefly stopped sending them), but they also provide new content to be shared directly with customers and on social media platforms. Our team amplifies our organic media’s value in a targeted way. – Billy Hodges, Digital Filaments
12. Outsource your social media strategy.
We farm out our social media implementation. My team and I add to our channels in real time, but our contracted team has a schedule that they follow closely. We worked together initially until they fully understood our branding needs and social media strategy. Now I trust them completely to do the work for our LinkedIn and Facebook pages, which are our biggest drivers of business via social media. – Liz Wooten-Reschke, Connect For More
13. Try TikTok.
Create TikTok content. We have started to see the range of potential new clients we can reach through this platform. Producing short-form content has helped us continue to expand our brand reach while nurturing the audience with intriguing information. – Brian Walters, Walters Gilbreath, PLLC
