You may have recently started your new business venture and looking for comprehensive media coverage. Being a first-timer, you might not have ample knowledge on what to do to get more coverage for your business. More coverage means more exposure to your brand of products/services, thus attracting more customers in the process. Also, it is not possible for first-time entrepreneurs to rely on their personal networks for exposure. The press can do it quite efficiently and quickly, providing amazing results. However, you should know the steps on how to get media coverage.
How to get media coverage: Steps to follow
- Identify writers through Facebook, Twitter: You may perhaps think that posting a story about your new venture on some site or blog will do the trick. You need to understand that it is the individual writers who come up with stories about your business and not news-outlets. You can follow good writers with a large following on different social media platforms. They should have prior knowledge and experience about your industry. You should connect with such writers and get them to write for your business.
- Develop own startup blog and tell stories: An active blog will help promote your business among potential audience. Learning to blog will allow you to write confidently. You will know the reason behind a piece of content or headline getting more shared than others. To get noticed, your product is to offer focused insight of the problem faced by your readers. Therefore, developing an active blog is sure to help your startup to get better coverage.
- Choose new, but innovative writers for your business stories: Experienced writers are quite busy. They get lots of write-up projects to focus on and may work on very less projects at a time. They are hammered literally with lots of pitches throughout the day. Hence, there are very less chances of these writers selecting your story for the write-up. Rather than reaching such busy writers, you are more focused on your niche industry. They may be someone new and young, not bombarded with emails in hundreds every day.
- Craft an email pitch meant for reporters: You can expect only 25% success rate on anything you perform in life. The road to get media coverage for your business is not that easy. You need to work on a pitch. The story to be published should be an exclusive one. Most pitches might not get any response or be declined. Writers are super busy and hence, not respond to you. Learn to move to the next pitch.
- Art and time your pitch: Do not rush with your email pitch. Remember, you have other startups and PR firms as competitors. Hence, you need to include additional personality to your pitch. You can simply Tweet the writer about your exclusive story ahead of sending that pitch. On getting a positive reply, hit that send button. Do time your Tweets and emails. It is crucial to get covered. Approach via social media and play with timing. Focus your pitch getting setting before noon.
- What next after your startup story gets written and published: You need to consolidate on your success by following the given-below steps:
- Write yourself a common. Thank the writer and be grateful for publishing your story. Also highlight points that you liked.
- Monitor comments on post. Respond fast to feedback and provide support.
- Share again the story by highlighting the writer.
- Send the writer a follow-up email to thank for publishing your story and appreciating their work.
Following the above steps will help you to know how to get media coverage for your business.
