Everyone is aware that using newswire PR services can help companies earn media coverage. But it is not the only way to get mentions or publicity.
Newswires can get your news in front of your target press, however, it costs a substantial fee. What if your company cannot afford extra money to pay for these services?
Is it the only way to get your news in the newspapers, magazines or the televisions? We’ll check other options to earn coverage:
One of the best methods to earn media coverage is sending a customized pitch. When you pitch your story to the media, it gives you an opportunity to get to their radar.
You don’t actually need to send your story to a lot of press release. One coverage is enough to provide you with enough publicity.
Of course, you can’t pitch to journalists without first knowing them. You need to make your own research to find information that will help you customize your pitch. Journalists are impressed when they receive personalized pitches.
It reflects that the brand made their effort to know their interest. They love it when a marketer or a PR pro can mention something that relates to their beat.
In one study, it was found that 22 percent of journalists ignore relevant pitches due to lack of personalization. It shows how important writing a personalized pitch is for them.
You can’t just throw spaghetti on the wall and see what sticks. Avoid generalized pitch if you don’t want your content to be tossed and rejected.
When you send a journalist your story directly, you are making their work lighter. They can work faster and easier because they don’t have to look for story ideas. They can get their needs without the need for them to search for it.
It instantly builds traction with them. They will remember your brand for this effort.
Social media has become more useful in modern digital marketing. These days, they are not only for the users but for brand owners to promote their business.
Social media has made it easy for journalists, influencers, potential customers and investors to see the latest news. A lot of media people are on social media.
They use LinkedIn and Twitter to update their followers. In just a few clicks, you can send your release across varied channels. You can widen your reach because you’ll reach people who are impossible for you without social media networks.
You can use social media hashtags to become visible in conversations and communities. You can tag people to give notifications about what you are promoting.
Aside from the mentioned, you can earn coverage by using your owned media like websites, blogs, and other sites. Don’t just settle distributing releases via Newswire or sending pitches directly.
You can acquire mentions by turning your release into a blog. Include a link to your published content to drive people to visit your site.
You can publish it on your own website particularly the newsroom. Journalists use press page to look for story ideas and to verify facts. By placing your news there, you make it easy for them to do their work.
Once they learned that you’re creating great content continuously, they would come back to you regularly when they are writing feature stories or an industry story. It may not be an overnight work, but once they trust and consider you as a great source of information, they may consider to give you publicity in time.
Another way to get mentions is by leveraging influencer marketing. You identify relevant influencers in your field who can help you build awareness about your brand.
Although Newswire press release distribution sites promote distribution of your news, no one can lessen the power of influencers in providing awareness to your brand. It can provide you with the social proof you need to be an authority brand.
What’s good is that you can use this tactic with other marketing techniques. Once you have identified influencers in your niche, build a relationship. Send them a few samples of your product to encourage reviews.
Ask them how your campaign can help them, or how relevant it is for their audience. Arrange how they can be compensated for the technique. It is now mandated that they publish sponsored content for each post they make.
Their post can be seen by a lot of people as well as the media. If they like it, they are more likely to provide coverage.
Getting publicity is important because it helps promote brand awareness, boost traffic and sales. Measuring your campaign’s performance is important to know how your business is perceived by the public as well as the media.
When you know the result of your campaign, you’ll be able to respond to stories and conversations in real time. You can correct any error for your future coverage.
Once you have received publicity, you need to track other metrics that matter to you:
If you know your target media, you’ll be able to personalize your news according to them. It’s difficult to write a story, without knowing who will cover it.
Create a media list. Identify relevant journalists, influencers, and publications. Knowing them is the initial step to successful media relations.
You need to find out their interests, beat, pitching styles and other elements that would help you boost the chance that they will cover your story. Check their previous work to know if your story is the right fit for them.
If you think that you need publicity from local reporters or media outlets, focus your effort in building relationships with them. Track them on social media like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Subscribe to their newsletters to get updates of the current story they are working on. It also reveals the stories they are interested in, and if there is a possibility that they will cover you.
If you want to get into the radar of the media, you need to monitor what they talk about and what they don’t. Knowing this can help you find ways on how you can include your brand in the conversations.
Google Alerts and Cision are platforms that provide keyword monitoring and find niche trade outlets, reporters and blogs. It can give you an idea of what is attractive to the media when crafting the headline and pitches.
You can track social media mentions to know what others are saying about you. It can provide you with better media opportunities. If a site mentions you, you strengthen your authority.
You can monitor your competitor’s conversations that will help you in planning your next campaigns. This way, you can position your brand over your competitors.
You need to know how the media perceive your competitors. It will give you a clue like how the brands interact with the media and know their style in gaining publicity.
Set up Google Alerts to know competitors searches. It provides you with an idea of how they receive mentions and coverage.
If you know how your competitors are performing, you can follow similar trends to gain coverage. You can improve their tactic and land media opportunity.
You need to track what type of mentions they are getting. Is it a full coverage or just a quick mention? When you know the media outlets that published their story, you will have a background on who to build relationships with, and how you can craft a more personalized pitch.
Tracking your competitor’s publicity is important to know how they write their story that gets them published, or how they talk about their business. Is it a simple announcement or a groundbreaking story that scored them coverage?
Knowing all these details can provide you with a comparison of what you may be probably missing. You gain perspective on your strengths and weaknesses. From there, you can improve your campaigns.
When you monitor your competitors, you’ll know relevant journalists and media outlets that you are possibly missing. They may not be on your media list. But since your competitors were covered, you can include them in your next target.
Going back to the question, “Can you earn media coverage without using newswires,” the answer is yes. However, using all the platforms can give you a wider opportunity to land publicity.
When you use all the strategies including pitching to the media, influencer marketing, social media, and PR services, you have a better opportunity to land media coverage. Exploring all the means can ensure that you’re not missing any strategy that will place you in the eyes of the media.
The bottom part of all this is improving media relations. You need to build relationships with the media, influencers, potential customers and investors to have a better chance of getting your story in front of your target.
