So, your team has worked weeks, months, or even years, to develop a great new product or service. To ensure its profitability the next step is breathing in the oxygen and magic of marketing and PR to grab the attention of your customers.
How do you get the best media attention for all of your hard work? To help get you started, we’ve listed three ways to earn maximum press coverage for your new product or service below.
1. ‘Newsjack’
Newsjacking is a deliberate tactic where you capitalise on popular news stories or trending topics to amplify your sales and marketing success.
I saw many recent examples of this tactic inspired by the uber popular ‘Game of Thrones’ television series; some great, some mediocre. Being a huge fan of the show tempted me to click on any PR, marketing or economic article that made reference to it, no matter how relevant it was.
Be warned - you still need to be strategic. You don’t want your content to come across as ‘clickbait’ so try to make a legitimate connection between your product and service, and the news story you are riding. You want to attract new readers and potential customers, but you don’t want to lose your credibility in the process.
2. Reach out to industry ‘influencers’ via social media
As a best practice, your organisation should have the contact details for all relevant industry journalists and bloggers. Not only this, it is also wise to follow them on social media, where possible.
Research what publications and websites are most likely to be seen as influential by your ideal customer (or ‘buyer persona’). Then, find out the names of the specific journalists and social media bloggers within the topics you cover and build a rapport with them. This will help your likelihood of media placement when you send them your content. And, try not to only reach out to them in your times of need. Ask them questions to show you are also interested in making their job a little easier, and not just buttering them up to get a story in the newspaper. For example, what kind of style are they looking for? Do they prefer a lot of photos? What are their deadlines? And, so forth.
When contacting these influencers, a great press kit goes a long way to helping them to publish your work with little effort. Your kit should contain your logos, product shots, background information, and any other material that a journalist may require for a story and works wonders in earning placement in media channels.
3. Create social media content that engages your audience
Journalists and industry bloggers are always on the lookout for new stories, and creating content that gets great traction on social media can help gain more interest from these people. Likes, shares and comments about your content all add weight to stories you pitch.
Remember to think hard about the types of topics that will most likely resonate with your target audience. This will help you create winning content that engages your readers and increases both press and blog coverage, as well as sales leads for your business.
Using our three tips to earning more press coverage will help you to not only launch your great product or service into the mainstream, but also ensure you keep your customers interested in what you have to offer.
Need more help? Reach out to our friendly PRMR Inc. team at @prmrinc on Twitter.
For more on how Public Relations can help drive business success click the link below to download our eBook.
