One the main concerns business owners, entrepreneurs and corporates have is their ability to get media coverage. Most organizations feel that they do not receive the media coverage that they deserve or are not able to generate enough interest for the media to cover them.

If you have ever asked yourself the question(s)

• Why do I not get media coverage?
• Does my organization deserve to be covered by the press?
• What do I need for a journalist to notice my brand?
• How can I get a news story in the right publication?

You are not alone; these questions are definitely on the top of every business owner, marketer and public relations professional. However, the real question is – where do they go from there? What action do they take?

There are very clear, simple actions that you can take to start generating the visibility, the relationships and the coverage that you want, but most times this is not a structured approach and ends up not meeting expectations.

If you want your brand to be a media magnet then having a media outreach plan and relentlessly executing it is the only way actually to achieve the results you want.

So the first question that needs to be asked is – Do you have a plan?

Starting here is the most crucial aspect of your media strategy. What are the critical steps you are going to take on an ongoing basis to bring about brand awareness among journalists and media strategy houses?

Keep the following actions/tasks as guidelines when putting together your media outreach strategy

RESEARCHING AND IDENTIFYING THE RIGHT PUBLICATIONS/JOURNALIST.

How many journalists and media agencies/points do you have on your email list? Are they relevant to your industry/ business/niche?

Start building this list immediately, look for articles, papers, and coverages that pertain to your industry – that are relevant to your area of expertise and identify who are the journalists writing about it. Find their contact details, connect with them on LinkedIn, and follow them on what they post online and in print. By identifying these individuals – the geography they represent, the content they write, you will have great insight into what they may be looking for as information for their next publication.

Similarly identify the publications which focus on your niche, on your industry and have a story to tell about it, the chances are that they want to know about a new organization in that industry or even some industry insights that you may have.

CREATE THE FIRST TOUCH POINT

Once you have identified a few of these contacts, Create a touchpoint through a simple interaction; you can

send them an email mentioning how much you enjoyed the article and how you see the same trends.

Retweet their point of view adding some of your thoughts.

Send them a message on LinkedIn saying you enjoyed it so much that you are now following them.

Acknowledge their point of view and if valuable add a few of your own thoughts.

By merely creating this touch point you are making them aware of who you are, the next time you send them something they are more likely to take notice. This is a crucial interaction, and it is important that you are polite and genuine in your approach as well as appreciative of their efforts.

NURTURE THE RELATIONSHIP

Continue to look at their pattern and continue to add value where you see fit if you find a piece of research which may help them with their next article – share it with them and tell them you would love to see their point of view on the data shared.

Better yet you can also conduct some research or share a valuable point of view and ask them what they think and if they would consider writing about it.

At this point, your focus is to still add value to them and continue to build the relationship.

REQUEST COLLABORATION

Once you feel comfortable with the relationship, now is the time to reach out to a journalist or a media platform and ask them if they would be interested in an article that you are writing. Would they like to collaborate with you or could you share your research and commentary? Let them know they are welcome to add their expertise to it. This can start to illustrate your knowledge and industry expertise and take the relationship to another level. As you continue to do this – you may get some positive and some negative responses – the idea is to keep at it till you find common ground which works perfectly for all involved.

These relationships are for a long-term entry into getting the coverage you want without having to drop a hefty sum of money and break your marketing budget.

The more such relationships you build the exponential will be your growth regarding media coverage.

If you can build in this framework into your overall Marketing and PR strategy, your potential to stay visible and be recognized as an expert will increase multi fold. So what are you waiting for?