What Every Company Needs to Know About Getting Press Coverage

Looking for media attention to your company, organization or cause? You’ll want to implement a Proactive Media Outreach plan. That’s the process used to generate targeted media coverage that may help you achieve business objectives. 

The Public Relations world often refers to this as Earned Media, coverage voluntarily provided by a media outlet. For comparison, Paid Media is when you pay to leverage a third-party site, paying to have articles published. 

Here are ideas to get your started on a Proactive Media Outreach project.

Establish your media strategy.

That starts with defining objectives. What business goal does Proactive Media Outreach support? It’s also important to factor in your company’s strengths and vulnerabilities, ensuring that your strategy incorporates ways to capitalize on strengths and minimize weaknesses.

Other items to consider when shaping your Proactive Media Outreach strategy: 

• What audiences are you targeting? Why?

• What key messages are you trying to convey to these audiences? 

• What supporting materials should be ready to provide to a member of the media? These often include timelines, bios, summaries, and supporting documents

• Who within your organization will interact with members of the media? What do they need in order to be prepared for media interviews?  

Research target media.

You’ll want to identify traditional media, industry media, and digital media relevant to target audiences and business objectives. What’s most relevant — community, regional or national media outlets? Who covers topics related to your business objectives?

Next task is to create your targeted media list, including:

• Names of outlets and individuals, including reporters, editors and producers.

• Relevant examples of media coverage by targeted outlets and individuals. 

Understand what you can control — and what you can’t.

Proactive Media Outreach is an imperfect science. You’ll need to acknowledge that professional media outlets have a job to do, and sometimes that job is to go beyond the story you want them to tell. 

Here’s what can generally be controlled:

• Key messages and points made during interviews with people from your organization.

• How company representatives respond to questions and pivot back to key messages.

• What questions company representatives are willing to answer.  

• The final decision on whether to participate in the interview, and who participates.

• Supporting materials provided to the media outlet from your company.

Here’s what can’t be controlled:

• Who is interviewed outside of your company.

• Research by the media outlet about your company and individuals beyond what is provided by your company.

• Photos and video selected by the media, in most cases.

• Unanticipated questions during the interview.

• “Shelf life” of the story.

• Follow up stories related to an initial story pitched by your company.

In most cases, factual errors in a published story can be corrected in online versions. Facts included in the story that are not supportive of the client’s business objectives cannot be addressed, in most cases.

Done right, media outreach can elevate your brand and boost credibility. Ready to get started? Let’s talk.