Did you know that all PR practitioners need media relations strategies to get the public’s attention?
It is crucial to invest energy and time into knowing the media. It doesn’t mean skimming the news, reading headlines, or scrolling through social media platforms. Instead, familiarizing your brand with the respective media landscape is mandatory to manage different aspects of communication strategies or public relations campaigns.
Let’s dive into the discussion to learn about 12 winning media relations strategies you can use to market your products.
Table of Contents
What Is Media Relations?
Media relations is one of the types of public relations which refers to the relationship between a company or PR expert with the press. Public relations professionals need to build a strong and meaningful relationship with relevant media contacts or people that can ensure proper brand awareness and optimal media representation of the brand.
If your brand has specific news to release or share with the public, it is crucial to send it to the RIGHT media person as a press release. We can say this because releasing press information is essential as it is a way to establish a symbolic relationship between media and businesses.
Importance Of Media Relations For Businesses
Since you know what media relations are, it’s time to understand their need and importance for your business. It’s worth mentioning that communications and media have the same goal – to reach maximum people. And there is no denying that media outlets have the edge over other mediums companies use to reach more people.
It attracts more people to find your brand stories, making it an ideal platform for various companies. Incorporating media relations strategies into your marketing plan is a reliable way to improve brand awareness.
Sure, there are ways to buy awareness. You can invest in Facebook and Google ads to speed up brand recognition. Google ads and Facebook ads will do that for you. However, these tactics are not affordable. It is especially true if you’re a startup or have a limited budget to invest in marketing campaigns.
A creative and smart media relations campaign gets you featured on various popular radio shows and websites, in the press, on TV, and on podcasts that can reach millions of individuals. This is, without a doubt, a powerful brand awareness method to spread information among your target customers. This is important for everyone including the artists involved in the music industry. Since, the music industry is changing rapidly with the use of digital apps, PR for music is more than ever important.
The brand not only gets a boost from media coverage during the initial phase but also receives favorable media coverage that’s substantial in this digital era. Your reputation entails a digital footprint. And if you know how to leverage SEO and related disciplines, you can enhance your brand’s search profile by getting meaningful and comprehensive media coverage.
The best way to create and use media relations strategies is to seek professional PR experts like Los Angeles Public Relations to manage your online reputation and help to ensure your campaign’s success.
Are Media Relations And Public Relations Different?
Many people use media relations and public relations interchangeably as they both entail a meaningful engagement with various external media outlets to build the audience’s interest in the brand. However, there’s a distinction.
They have a connection, but you can’t use them interchangeably. So let’s break down the terms to understand them better.
Public Relations or PR
According to the PR Society of America, public relations refer to a strategic communication process to build a mutually beneficial connection between a brand and its public. The word public includes anyone among its competitors, consumers, and media shareholders.
Typically, it creates relationships with different entities, such as the media. A professional PR must be able to increase positivity of the brand and rightfully communicate to the audience. Without doing so, a person is failed as a PR professional. If you’re wondering to increase your PR skill to become a PR professional, visit How do I get good at PR?
Media Relations
As mentioned above, media relations are a part of public affairs, focusing on strategic brand communication with different media outlets. Put simply, organizations use various media outlets to broadcast or communicate their messages and brand story in media relations.
Unlike PR, organizations don’t engage in strategic communication with the public. While both public relations and media relations have a common connection, media relations serve as a part of several PR avenues that brands can use to reach the public.
Media Relations Campaign - What Should It Include?
To achieve their PR goals and objectives and reach customers, brands must develop a comprehensive media plan. The plan defines
- Who the brand wants to reach
- What goals the brand wants to achieve
- What is the action plan to achieve the goals
- How will the brands assess their success
Whether a startup or an established enterprise, creating a media plan is essential to structuring your PR campaign. It includes the following key steps;
- Defined objectives
- Established clear goals
- Identified target Market
- Researched opportunities
Winning Media Relations Strategies
There are different reasons as how social media benefits in PR. So, let’s get into the details to find some effective media relations strategies to help your brand improve its public image and strengthen its relationship with consumers through media:
- Write Impactful Guest Articles Or Guest Blogs On Targeted Publications
- Use Press Opportunities On "Help a Reporter Out"
- Rank for Subjects People Read about Frequently
- Build a Media List on Quora to Establish Relationships
- Target local Newspapers and TV Stations
- Develop Assets with popular Theories
- Consider the Visual Aspect of Your Strategy
- Go for a unique Trend
- Try a PR Stunt
- Make an Impactful Case study
- Use Anniversaries and Awareness Days
- Become a Talking Head in Media
Write Impactful Guest Articles Or Guest Blogs On Targeted Publications
You might have heard a lot about guest blogging from different people to improve media relations. Many brands consider it a powerful way to get plenty of backlinks. It can influence readers and become a part of a comprehensive media relations strategy.
Backlinks are a bonus, and brands like Moz have generated over 140 comments from their hyper-targeted audience.
That is to say, guest blogging or writing articles on targeted media publications can help you acknowledge their efforts. It is a way to build an audience from scratch without effort. You can borrow the audience of the publication you write the article for. By writing for them, you get access to the search engine authority by inserting the right keywords. The guest article gives you visibility and traffic if it ranks for various valuable search items.
Essentially, writing articles for publications allows you to reach an audience that isn’t a part of your network. You have access to a variety of hyper-targeted readers looking for expertise. It doesn’t end here, as it can offer many benefits besides backlinks. Some of these benefits include
- Improved reputation by getting published on a blog that ensures your brand’s quality.
- Access to quality leads by linking to the brand’s targeted asset in CTA.
Use Press Opportunities On “Help a Reporter Out”
Did you know you can get good media coverage in top-tier publications and newspapers without chasing bloggers and journalists?
A unique media relations strategy takes just 15 minutes and is entirely free.
How?
Via HARO!
HARO refers to “Help a Reporter Out.” It is a popular service that can connect journalists with different sources. It sends out emails to various members in its morning and night editions. It includes an extensive list of bloggers and journalists who need quotes for different stories.
It has a master email, including all the sent queries and category-wise journalist lists. Members of the platform can choose the emails they want when sign-up.
Rank For Subjects People Read About Frequently
Imagine that you need to write an article or blog about managing a sales team. Since you don’t know enough about the specific subject, you Google it and find the article ranking on top relevant. You read it, collect the needed information, and mention it in the post.
The brand’s article doesn’t have to do anything since it is already getting this exposure. As the article ranks at the top, the brand can get the traffic roll every month as other blogs write on the topic. As a result, many companies work on their ranking for competitive terms in their respective industry.
The process is about attracting passive links, one of the often-ignored media relation strategies. It can offer dual benefits as it gets you links and helps your brand rank for key terms. Here are some benefits of posting on subjects that people read about frequently.
- Helps generate a consistent stream of relevant people links without investing time.
- Helps you maintain Google’s rankings while ensuring that your brand is visible.
So how can you use this media relations tactic?
- Search for subjects that writers in your industry frequently post about or require references for (it can be anything, including studies, statistics, or valuable content supporting their assertions.
- Create in-depth and comprehensive content on the topic.
- Build multiple backlinks to the content and try to rank it on the first top page for target keywords.
- Once your ranking improves for the topics, you will naturally start attracting several backlinks from content creators, bloggers, and writers looking for different sources.
Build A Media List On Quora To Establish Relationships
Quora is a Q/A platform where members can ask questions about anything. Interestingly, it has an important role in media relations. Wondering How?
Top-tier publications or their media contacts get tons of pitches weekly. Fractl’s survey found that 1 percent of renowned publications consider these pitches valuable. When you establish a relationship with a media outlet or a journalist, you’re not just an unknown company; you become a potential collaborator or a friend. This is one way to ensure that the relevant audience reads your press releases.
The main problem with this is creating a relationship with the media in the first place. There are many insincere and unauthentic media outlets. An easy way brands can solve this problem is to associate with Quora or build their media list on the platform.
Target Local Newspapers And TV Stations
Local outlets can also be one of your media relations strategies if you aim to reach millions of people on national media. Of course, it doesn’t mean that if top outlets such as Live Wire or Tech Crunch don’t feature you, your strategy isn’t good.
How about getting featured by different local media websites millions across the country watch for news? Sites are often under the radar of local businesses as they don’t have the same visibility as Forbes and Buzzfeed.
Yet, incorporating them into media relations strategy is an excellent way to yield rewards, particularly for the effort and visibility you or your brand needs.
Develop Assets With Popular Theories
A recent iSeeCars’ study shows that gathering data and answering popular questions can help you get plenty of mentions and backlinks in massive outlets like FoxNews.com. The concept behind this tactic is simple:
- Collecting data to answer popular questions
- Creating assets that can condense the data into an easy and shareable format
- Distributing it to different targeted publications and getting press mentions and backlinks
For instance, many bloggers question the ideal length for search engine optimization.
Brian Dean published a study that answers this question with states, info, and data. The study earns thousands of links. Remember that you don’t always need original research to get backlinks. You can get them by synthesizing complex info and data from many sources into an easy-to-digest report. This is an effective strategy to get many relevant press mentions and backlinks, regardless of the asset size.
For instance, this blog uses data from BLS.gov and Forbes to answer “how can popular music composers make salaries?” Unfortunately, it isn’t original research but a compilation of available data.
Some easy ways to make this media relations strategy work for you are;
- Give a definitive and thorough answer to the most asked query/question (as in “how to make a blog SEO-friendly?”).
- Give a new perspective to current data
- Counter widely held beliefs or beliefs
Consider The Visual Aspect Of Your Strategy
When you develop a media relations strategy, consider its visual aspects and images. You may find plenty of news coverage featuring influential and powerful images to support content and complete the equation.
No matter how great the story you want to present to the world, you’re missing out on the media coverage it deserves if you don’t add images or use meaningless ones.
It is because, in print media, such as newspapers and magazines, images dictate the format and layout of the page. Images play a crucial role online as users don’t want to just read an endless pile of text.
Do you see?
The images you include can vary from simple profile shots of the firm’s spokesperson or executives to comprehensive product images, the firm’s logo, or a vivid shot from public relations stunt. Keep in mind that quality is a major factor when it comes to inserting images. Additionally, the images must have high quality.
Go For A Unique Trend
Most types of media coverage follow specific trends such as
- An explosion in vegetarian food.
- The advanced tech industry revolutionized how people exercise it.
- Knowledge of mindfulness meditation
- The role AI plays in healthcare.
- Society’s adaptation to a low-carbon lifestyle
Brands can either jump on the bandwagon of one of the aforementioned trends with their own story– or look to go against it. Whether it’s print or electronic media, it looks for an exception to get something that can go viral. The unusual makes news.
In short, swimming against the tide is always beneficial in creating effective media relations strategies.
Try A PR Stunt
There is a multitude of opinions when it comes to using PR stunts. Some people consider it a marketing staple that can yield spectacular results. Some marketers consider a PR stunt a gimmicky tactic that annoys customers and doesn’t appeal to them.
In reality, PR stunts can be extremely effective or gimmicky, depending on how you use or apply them. So it’s important to use them in the right quantity. That means it can prove beneficial when you use it like seasoning and sprinkle it on top of the current media relations strategy. So don’t make PR stunts the mainstay of your marketing approach.
When creating a successful PR stunt or strategy, keep the following in mind;
- Your customers aren’t the primary audience of your PR stunt. Your focus should be on media.
- Be sure to align your PR stunt with your brand
Make An Impactful Case study
The media relations strategy to market your product is simple but very effective. However, many media relations campaigns or plans fail to achieve relevant results because they don’t consider the basics.
Journalists or bloggers, predominantly feature writers, require case studies to demonstrate the patterns or trends they want to write about. Whether for a monthly trade magazine or the national press, all journalists and media outlets need comprehensive case studies.
That means if you provide journalists with a detailed and well-written case study with excellent images, they consider it a great favor. Look for journalists using HARO, or put out a request on platforms for a case study, and contact them quickly with a reply.
What to put in a media case study?
- Full name of the people involved
- Any human-interest elements give your case study a unique emotional hook that encourages readers to read
- Detailed quotes on your product or services and how they impact people and improve lives
- High-resolution pictures of people quoted in your case study.
Use Anniversaries And Awareness Days
It is worth mentioning that all media relations campaigns need a unique news hook. Regardless of how small or big your media strategy budget is, if your campaign doesn’t have an interesting or new angle, the media will not pay attention to your stories.
So what can you do about it?
Awareness days are a proven way brands can make a newsworthy campaign. While media is often a little wary of artificial awareness days, the method is tried and tested to obtain free PR.
Awareness days are constructed or made by organizations to provide journalists and people from the media a reason to document a particular cause, industry, or event on a certain date. As a serious form of documentation, writing or publishing on awareness days can help brands and businesses discuss various issues such as cancer, road safety, and diabetes.
For instance, if your brand is related to the education domain, you can use awareness days to promote literacy – Learning Disability Awareness or World Book Days are good examples. Similarly, National Lost Sock Memorial Day can strike a different tone with its fun element.
As a marketing professional, awareness days are an open goal and an excellent opportunity to secure a place in attention-grabbing headlines. Thus, using awareness days in the media strategy is a simple way to help people learn about your brand.
Become A Talking Head In Media
Establishing media relations is not just about posting articles or marketing products with ads and promotions. You can’t be successful until you find ways to get your business or brand on mediums like podcasts, radio, or TV. Many marketers use social media marketing to become a talking head in the podcasts, radio, or TV.
The credibility and exposure you get from appearing on national and local broadcast platforms are huge. It is the type of recognition your brand needs to excel and grow. The best way to do it is to become a talking head. For instance, TV rolling news often has panel discussions that provide opportunities to give interviews as an industry expert.
It is a great way to show the vision behind your brand and how it impacts people’s lives. It portrays you as a leader in your field that directly or indirectly benefits your brands in many ways. People watch you on TV or listen to your podcasts on the radio and take different things from your knowledge and expertise. It helps build recognition for your brand.
Here is how you can become a talking head in media:
Set up a news brief to find the media opportunities relevant to your brand weeks or months before they get on-air
Get some basic media training to familiarize yourself with the type of questions you may have to answer.
Then;
- Research – know about your interviewers and their media platforms
- Key messages – Practice what message you want to communicate in the interview
- Prepare – find out the questions you’ll answer, even if they are related to awareness days
- Skillful answers – acknowledge all the questions and try to give the answers that can impact the audience
- Facts – know all the authentic statistics to back up your argument
- Camera etiquette –look at the interviewer, smile when responding, and give concise answers
- No ‘no comment’ – never refuse to comment
Only a few interviews as a talking head in news panel discussions can help you get the attention that will benefit your brand in the long run.
Summing Up About Media Relations Strategies
All in all, media relations is an extension or wing of public relations that your brand or business needs to connect with the relevant media outlets.
Fortunately, there are many ways to market your brand or products using media relations strategies. Thus, the given strategies are some of them to help you promote your services.
