Targeted Media Campaign 101: Need to Know Basics
Ever wanted your story to go viral? Of course! Who wouldn’t?
Targeted Media Campaigns (TMC) gets the ball rolling. Starting with a press release ending with local, regional, national, or even international coverage. You read that right! Anything is possible if you target the right media, at the right time. There are just a few things you need to know and follow when it comes to TMC.
Here are your need-to-know TMC basics:
Bullseye
It’s called “targeted” for a reason! Zone in on your audience. From there, you will be able to choose the right publication and media contact to target and pitch to.
When creating a TMC, it is important to know what you are looking for. This helps you concentrate on who would pick-up your story and write about it.
From journalists to bloggers, do your research on who your audience interacts with, why, and when. These things can make your life easier when building your media database.
The Beat
What industry are you in? –This should be one of the main factors in determining coverage.
The media covers certain “beats”. You can’t have a journalist who covers healthcare writing about a new cryptocurrency platform. His/her audiences would not be interested in such.
When picking out journalists, make sure to filter through the beats they cover. Yes, some media contacts will cover more than one beats, to which you must filter out whether or not they are worth pitching to. Do a little more research and check out their last 3 published articles. –Do they relate to your industry? Do you see them writing a piece about you?
Media Pitch
Media pitching can be gut-wrenching for first-timers. The built-up nerves of what to say to a media contact, alongside the pressure of perfection —it gets messy.
Focus on the most important and entertaining aspect of your release. This can be a statistic or interesting fact written in. Make this your opening statement to real in someone’s attention. From there, the rest of the pitch should be a breeze.
Make sure to include these things in your pitch:
- Link to the Press Release
- Important Dates
- Media Contact Info: phone, email, social media
- Social Media Handles
Once you have your pitch down, and your list is combed through to perfection, you can send out your campaign! You should be able to start seeing replies within 24-48 hrs! Give people the opportunity to read your pitch. Targeted Media Campaigns typically go out the day of your release to optimize coverage.
