Your Message in the Media

I had a great meeting yesterday with some people who are trying to rebrand their company and raise awareness in their selected market by doing some public relations.
They found it interesting to hear about my take on PR, so I thought I would share an abridged version with you.

1. The media are a great tool for getting coverage and raising awareness. But for most small businesses, you are better to tap into niche media than to go all out expecting TV, radio and big daily newspapers to pick up your story.

2. To do that, you need to know what niche you are targeting. (Fortunately, this company had just figured it out, which makes my job easier. A lot of companies still have no clue.)
3. Then you do some research to find out which media your target markets consume (preferably, when they are in a business frame of mind).
4. Study those media. Figure out what kinds of stories they are looking for. (Studying back issues, for instance, tells you what stories they like to run.)
5. Simply put, use your contacts, knowledge and industry expertise to give them more of the same.
6. Editors and news producers exist mainly to filter out press releases. They rarely see themselevs as searching for hidden gems amid the mountain of media releases they receive every day. So target specific media with personal queries.
7. Press releases are necessary for certain governance processes. From a marketing point of view, however, the best function of a press release is to create a comprehensive archive of controlled information for your website. It answers a lot of people's questions and looks incredibly professional.

But you will need to have a pretty good gimmick going (or there must be millions of lives at stake) if you expect a national newspaper to run your press release.

Pleae let me know if this has been helpful.
if you'd like more info, e-mail me anytime. rick@rickspence.ca