The Public Relations Blog

Learn how to use media relations trends to your company’s advantage

Staying aware of and understanding trends allows you to know what’s going on in a particular field and be proactive about the ways they may affect your business. One area that affects all businesses is media relations.

Earned media is an effective method of reaching a wide audience and delivering your messages, but you must first know how to get journalists’ attention.

PR strategies to keep you on top

Getting your message right is only part of what helps you succeed. Delivery, placement, positioning – it all feeds the hunger of the consumer for your product. Refresh your memory about the nuances of good guerrillas. Then, here are seven points on the checklist for you to consider while designing your next great guerrilla campaign.

Make your message stand out in the crowd

Successful guerrilla marketing puts the focus on the public using unique placement and atypical techniques. By employing one of the five types of guerrilla marketing to gain attention and visibility, your business can stand out from the crush of companies on the market. Selecting the right tactic for your campaign is an important step because there are good and bad outcomes tied to each.

One of the best ways to tell large audiences about your business is to secure coverage in one of the major business publications: Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Money, Businessweek, Harvard Business Review, and Inc. These business media giants provide high-quality coverage of top business news, including successful business and leadership strategies and innovations in technology.

Fortune magazine is a great source of knowledge for entrepreneurs because it covers the entire field of business, including the people, trends, companies and ideas of today’s top businesses. Fortune columns include features on the marketplace, career trends, U.S. politics and European business news. Readers look forward to the magazine’s annually updated lists such as “40 Richest Under 40,” “Most Powerful Women” and the “Fortune 500” ranking.

Fortune magazine covers trends in today's top business world and news affecting business people. Each issue includes a section that provides readers with a first look at changing industries and articles devoted to the people behind major companies. An average Fortune magazine reader is a top business entrepreneur or CEO. Publishers prefer pitches that lead them to the big companies and big names behind these companies.

Inc. is a major business magazine guiding CEOs and owners of small- to mid-sized companies toward success. It delivers real solutions for today’s innovative company builders and provides hands-on resources covering market-tested finances, sales, marketing and technology. Each issue offers real-life examples of strategies, case studies and successes and failures to show its readers new ways their businesses can improve and grow. Large and small organizations turn to Inc. to make sense of the ever-changing business world. An appearance in Inc. is a great opportunity for publicity, networking and finding new business avenues.

Entrepreneur magazine is the No. 1 resource for current and aspiring entrepreneurs. It provides tips for readers to effectively start and expand their businesses. Entrepreneur’s topics include advice on new software products, CEO profiles, trends in money and how to grow a business. Getting an article published in Entrepreneur could be a major publicity boost for your business.

If you are a startup or a tech company, your best bet for gaining positive publicity is to get yourself featured in Fast Company magazine, the publication of choice for those in the tech business. Fast Company covers the following areas: design, technology and sustainability.

Fast Company maintains a strong focus on evolution of business and the most creative industry thought-leaders and strives to bring change into the marketplace.

Fast Company magazine has a unique editorial focus on innovations in technology, leadership, and design. The target audience is entrepreneurs in the tech business. Frame your pitch as a story with a strong focus on lessons learned during your journey to completing your project, including your mistakes, frustrations, turning points, eureka moments and inspirations. Your story is your documented experience that you are happily sharing with others in the field, helping them to succeed.

Money magazine is the nation’s largest personal finance magazine. It helps readers take charge of their finances by providing trusted advice about how to spend, earn, manage and invest money. It provides in-depth coverage of stocks, mutual funds, the markets and the economy.

Money magazine is for anyone interested in managing finances wisely. The magazine covers a very broad spectrum of topics involving money for a large audience of anyone looking for information about money management: everything starting from articles helping investors maximizes their investments to information written to help with personal finances (taxes, credit cards and savings). Write your pitch so it would help your readers make better decisions about their money. Include personal examples in your pitch, so that  they can relate. Include facts and links into your pitch, proving that your information is accurate. A catchy title for your pitch is essential.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) is one of the world’s most respectable sources of information about the latest trends, people and practices that are defining the business world. Published monthly, HBR delivers entrepreneurial ideas and insights that help managers strengthen their leadership power. Every issue guides its readers through strategic decision-making processes in the modern world, introduces innovative leaders and offers suggestions on how to motivate employees.

HBR covers stories about strategy, leadership, organizational change, negotiations, operations, innovations, marketing and finance. Busy executives and business leaders, who are the key audience of the magazine, expect not only to stay on top of new developments in management, but also bring innovative changes into the way their businesses operate. The perfect HBR pitch is an authentic story, not published in any format previously before, written by an academic, who pulled a lot of research together to draw conclusions. The research part is the most essential part of the pitch.