How to Get Media Coverage: 7 Tips

Garnering media coverage can help your company broaden its audience and expose itself to more potential customers. Just how do you do it? Journalists read pitches from numerous companies, so standing outis important. Here’s how to create a great media pitch and a few best media relations practices to win that coverage:

• Treat Journalists How You Want to Be Treated

Remember, it is you who is looking for a favor from a journalist, not the other way around. Treating a journalist well can compel them to run your story while being rude can shut them off, leaving you with no editorial media coverage at all. Being nice is always a good idea.

 

• Have Something to Say

Make sure your story is actually worth sharing. Ask yourself if it is relevant to the type of customers you want to be bringing in and if the journalists and their audience would actually care about what your story has to say. Is it relevant to their lives and will it pique someone’s interest? Picking the wrong story to share can get you off on the wrong foot, so make sure you choose wisely.

 

• Keep It Brief

Your pitch should not be so lengthy that it loses your reader before they get to your point. A pitch should not be more than 3-4 sentence paragraphs and should grab the journalist’s attention so they want to learn more. Rather than including every single detail about your company in your pitch, reveal a little—what is pertinent—to interest the journalist and provide resources so he or she can learn more. Offer to send more info or samples, or to arrange an interview to talk further.

 

• Link Back to You

This brings us to linking back to you. You can allow the journalist to learn more about you by providing the link to your website. If they are really interested in your company or story and you have made it easy for them to learn more about you, they will be more likely to do so. This also saves you from overwhelming the journalist unnecessarily in your pitch with too much company information while still making that information accessible.

 

• Proofread, Proofread, Proofread

Proofreading is always absolutely necessary, especially in a professional context. You want to present the best face of your company to a journalist and proofreading for any mistakes or ways to improve can help immensely.

 

• Be Prepared

Before contacting journalists with your pitch, make sure all areas of your company they may want to access or check up on are ready. Make sure your website is up to date and you have hi-resolution images of your company logo, your products and headshots. Hi-resolution shots are at least 3×5 in size and at least 300dpi. Anything else unique about your company that a journalist may need to access should be prepared, such as samples of your products.

 

• A Thank You Goes a Long Way

Stand out from the masses and show how much you appreciate the time and effort the journalist put into helping your business. Send a hand-written thank you note with an included business card to every journalist who covered your company. You never know what opportunities you may be able to work together again and keeping those relationship bridges strong can only help. Who knows – you might be the first business that comes to mind when that journalist has another story opportunity.

If you ever have any questions about how to get media coverage or want to learn more about preparing a great media pitch, we are here to help. Contact us today and let us help you meet all your marketing goals.