How To Become A Media Outreach Pro
Media outreach may sound complicated and scary, especially if you tend to be a shy person. But remember, you will never be able to help lots of people with your products and services if they don’t even know you exist.
A well-organized media outreach strategy offers a range of benefits that can help you take your brand and business to the next level, putting you on the map in your niche for many target customers, who will then be eager to learn more about you.
An efficient media outreach strategy
Time is money in most businesses these days, so you need to run a lean, mean marketing machine. Media outreach can help you accomplish this because you will have media representatives who have already developed a target audience spreading the word about your products and services.
There are 5 main steps to a successful media outreach strategy.
- Identify your goals for reaching out to the media
- Develop your mission and message for each outreach
- Aim your message at the right audience
- Create a timeline for your outreach activities
- Decide how best to deliver your message
Let’s look at each of these in turn.
1. Identify your goals for reaching out to the media
There are several main reasons for media outreach:
- Building brand
- Gaining subscribers
- Making more sales
- Announcing new and noteworthy information
Once you have set your goal, you can start crafting your message.
2. Develop your mission and message for each outreach
Every press release and other forms of media outreach should be consistent with who you and your business are as a brand. Style, tone, vocabulary, keywords and even format should all be consistent. If your marketing is feeling a bit haphazard, go back to basics. What is your mission statement?
If you haven’t written one, try to summarize in one short sentence why you are in business and how you are unique compared to the competitors in your niche. Keep that mission statement in mind as you craft each piece of content, from press releases and story pitches to social media posts.
3. Aim your message at the right audience
Your message should have broad enough appeal so that anyone interested in your niche would be happy to learn more. But remember, you are not targeting ordinary consumers with your media outreach. You are contacting journalists, bloggers, and thought leaders. They don’t just want to know, “What’s in it for me?” but also what will be in it for their readers if they pick up your press release, for example, accept your pitch, or take you up on your offer to guest blog.
Think helpful expert, not a pushy salesperson, and your content should resonate with your target audience.
4. Create a timeline for your outreach activities
Media outreach is not going to happen all by itself. You need to schedule an editorial calendar or timeline for what will happen and when. Pencil in product launches special events and so on, and build your timeline around those deadlines.
5. Decide how best to deliver your message
Press releases and pitches to media representatives are just 2 of the ways to reach out. List journalists, blogs, forums, Facebook groups and more. Use the method that will work best for the message.
Call us today to speak to one of our PR specialists: 1-800-713-7278
