PR outreach

Image Source: Better Marketing

 

When you’re striving to market your business, boost awareness, or broadcast a business success, you’re undoubtedly hoping for some press attention. And you’re not alone!

Creating interesting content to promote your business is one thing, but quite another to get it in front of the right people who care about what you have to say.

Getting media attention, on the other hand, is not impossible. You can quickly gain media attention for your business if you make an effort to include guerrilla marketing in your marketing campaign and put some thought into your PR outreach plan.

 

 

What is PR Outreach?

 

We now have many media channels to choose from, but there is no “one-size-fits-all” option for approaching members from various media branches. This is where public relations (PR) outreach comes in. 

PR outreach is presenting information about your products and services to journalists, bloggers, and other industry influencers to gain press coverage, brand mentions, high authority backlinks, and additional publicity for your business.

 

PR outreach

Image Source: AirTract

 

It would be best to consider several aspects while developing your PR outreach plan to achieve the best potential outcomes.

 

 

#1: Know your target audience.

As you might think, the first phase is to research your target audience.

Each public relation outreach has its own set of goals, and you should be aware of them (journalist or blogger) you intend to approach. Identify the media sources (newspapers, magazines, and blogs) and individual journalists you want to engage.

Additionally, read as many blog posts and articles as you can by journalists and bloggers knowledgeable about your product, subject, or content.

 

 

#2: Making the right content choices.

It’s hard to establish targeted outreach without selecting what kind of content you’d like to promote. 

You must demonstrate the worth of your product and services to both the journalist and the audience by explaining why it matters.

Predictable and uninteresting content about your business will not attract customers, get shared, or generate hits. Content that has a storyline,  on the other hand, draws the customers in and keeps them wanting more.

 

 

#3: Make your media pitch unique.

While there are many internet tips for preparing your media pitches, it is likely that your business competitors have gone through them and will use the same strategy.

So, it’ll be better for your business to personalize both the content and the style to make it more noticeable. 

 

 

#4: Provide free samples of your products.

Businesses who want to promote their new product are sometimes against stiff competition. Product samples can come in handy in this situation.

Although journalists are not permitted to accept presents, they are free to receive product samples in exchange for reviews.  

So, instead of promoting yourself and your story to journalists and bloggers, offer them a free sample of your products in return for an honest review. 

With a product review from journalists and bloggers, you can increase your brand recognition and media exposure.

 

 

#5: Leverage social media.

Many journalists use social media to stay updated on industry news and development. So, please make the most of it!

If you consistently share newsworthy content on your social media channels, reporters, editors, and other journalists will think of your company as a go-to source for story ideas.

Make sure you’re uploading anything exciting and newsworthy because you never know who could be browsing your feed and decide to write a piece about your business.

 

 

#6: Focus on building relationships.

Building ties with the media is vital to achieving positive media coverage. 

Introducing your story to a journalist or blogger is a great strategy. Still, it doesn’t always succeed, primarily if they have never heard of your business or know nothing about you. 

Start by identifying common ground with the journalist and bloggers you’re considering. Again, you can offer them the opportunity to try your products or services for free. 

Always remember to do things that will make you stand out and be recognized so that when you have words to share, they’ll be more willing to cover your story.

 

 

#7: Make an eye-catching subject line.

You have a few seconds to make your email pop out amid a journalist’s bulging inbox when it concerns pitching.

It is where a great subject line, one that piques interest, may help.

So what is a subject line’s purpose?

To stimulate the interest of the target journalist or blogger receiving your email. After your target journalist opens your email, you have a better chance of convincing them to read the email’s body text with a compelling hook as the first sentence. 

 

 

#8: Don’t spam.

Make sure you’re not emailing the entire staff when you contact a publication. Unfortunately, it is common when sending out automated emails. 

 Messages received to a generic email address at a newsroom are forwarded to a large number of persons in the newsroom.

This move will annoy the media and result in less chance of media coverage. And when several emails are sent from the same account with the same content to multiple persons, those emails will be thrown out faster than tofu at an all-you-can-eat ribs competition.

 

 

#9: Demonstrate the worth of your content.

Your pitch will fall short if you don’t show the journalist and their audience how valuable your content is to their audience.

So make sure you emphasize how your information is relevant to their goals. For example, show how the reader will be educated, entertained, or inspired.

 

So there you have it!

With the help of this post, I hope you’ll be able to maximize your PR outreach. For more marketing strategies, check out our blog post on 12 Guerrilla Marketing Campaigns that will undoubtedly get the media’s attention due to their unique and unusual ideas for advertising your business.