One of my favorite things to do is to secure targeted, brand and sales-boosting media coverage for our clients. There’s nothing quite like the thrill and joy it brings to our team and the brands we serve … It’s an honor and it’s super fun.
Media relations is an art. It takes creativity, time, research, more creativity and strict attention to detail. Since I’ve been working with media for more than eight years now, it can be easy to take for granted the intricacies and technique involved in this skill.
So, where do you start?
I’ve recently had the opportunity to begin training members of our team on how to best secure media coverage and enhance their current skills to support our clients. Within this training, I realized there really are so many details that I know out of habit but are not necessarily intuitive when you’re just beginning media outreach.
Startup PR: How to Get PR Coverage in 5 Steps
So, upon suggestion of one of our star team members, the fabulous Heather Allen, I’ve launched a five-part video series on startup PR and how to get PR coverage for your brand or the client brands you serve. This series will include five videos that walk you through the following:
- Research
- The Pitch
- Follow Up
- Securing Coverage
- Working an Opportunity
I absolutely l-o-v-e talking about public relations and specifically media relations so these videos will be fun to share with you.
Step 1: Research Target Audiences, Media & Uncover Opportunities
In today’s video, we’re tackling the first step in how to get PR coverage: Research. This step is essential and skipping it can lead to wasted time, money and negatively impact media relationships. Don’t skip this step!
Here are three questions you should consider within this initial step of research, which I expand on detail in the above video:
- Who are your target audiences?
- Which media outlets reach those audiences?
- Are there opportunities for your brand to be relevant within those media outlets?
If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below or email them to me and I will try to incorporate them within this series. Or, who knows, maybe you’ll give me an idea for a completely new series! Now that would be fun 😉
