Develop a Media Strategy to go with Your Business Plan
Contributed by Steven Davis
When I first started my company about 5 years ago, I didn’t think that every journalist in the southeast was going to be banging on my door for an interview just because I hung up a “yes we’re open” sign, but I was surprised to find that even journalists in my own area weren’t interested. Since I wasn’t about to sit back and read the news that everyone else in my area was making, I needed to rethink my strategy and come up with a plan to get my name and my company’s name out there.
Thinking back, coming up with a media plan was the first step I should have taken when I opened up my company. I started to outline the steps that I needed to make to get the media interested in what I was doing. First and foremost was grabbing the calendar and plotting the times of year that my business had the best chance of finding its way into the news. For an accounting firm, this may be during the first quarter of the year when people are gearing up for tax season, or a retail company may look for seasonal exposure when they bring in the new fashions. With this kind of timetable in front of me, I could plot the most strategic times of the year for me to get the media interested in my company.
Now that I had the timetable in place, I had to decide what type of newsworthy angle I could add in to get the journalists’ mouths watering. We were a small company that wasn’t introducing a new product, we weren’t opening up another location, and to be honest, without the right media exposure, we didn’t have any big-time clients to brag about either. One thing that I did know, however, was that if I was just trying to get publicity, reporters weren’t going to give me the time of day. I already had ads in the paper, but those tended to be geared toward the products and services we had and not an actual voice of the company.
I thought about how I could make it easier for journalists to get a hold of me and how they could have easier access to what my company had done in the past to generate exposure. Searching through the Web, I found that almost every major company had a press room section on their Web site. They were full of information about the background of the companies, executive bios and photos, frequently asked questions, and even downloadable company logos. I started to build my own press room complete with a press release section that was in chronological order. Had the name, full street address, phone numbers and email of the company as well. I found that having this information easily available to the media was a huge benefit when I sent out future press releases since it gave them a resource to do a little bit of research before they contacted me. Putting subsequent articles written about us on there as well helped journalists see what kind of interview they were going to get.
One thing I wasn’t prepared for was how relatively easy it was to not only become the voice of my company, but to have reporters come to me for my analysis and interpretation of trends within the marketplace. Most media professionals are overworked and on a deadline. They don’t have time to find the most prestigious expert in a field. What they need is someone who is opinionated and available. I’m certainly opinionated, and with all the telecommunications technology available, I’m pretty easily accessible as well. I’m certainly not the smartest person in my field, and I had no intention on becoming a talking head, but it’s hard to beat advertising that makes you look like a recognized expert.
Since I’ve implemented this marketing strategy, I’ve found my name mentioned on various Web sites and magazines that I hadn’t even thought to target with company news. Sure, there are times when my press releases get less exposure than I’d like, but that’s the nature of the business. More than anything else, I’ve learned that I need to be flexible if I’m going to stay ahead of the game, even if I have to adjust my strategy in a year—or maybe even just 6 months from now.
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