The Public Relations Blog

Is it possible to guarantee your story will get covered in earned media?

One key aspect of public relations is getting your story told in the media. This is called earned media, and it’s the one thing everyone wants from public relations plans. However, getting an earned media story is a long process that requires successful pitching, finding the right journalist(s) to pitch to, and allowing them to transform your story into theirs. The reward is well worth it, but the process is difficult.

An addiction to appearing in the media can throw your public relations efforts into disarray.

Everyone loves media appearances. Heck, one of the goals of public relations is to get your company in the media via positive appearances to increase awareness of your company or brand. Getting positive media appearances is never a bad thing, right? Not always.

Learn how to improve your company’s online reputation with our host, Jason Mudd. Jason is the managing partner of Axia Public Relations.

Learn HARO and ProfNet best practices and how to give your query the best chance at a response with our guest Allison Richard of Cision.

Guest:

Our episode guest is Allison Richard, opportunities manager of members and content at Cision. Allison has been in the industry since 2003 and started as the media research supervisor for Cision.

Four key reasons why media monitoring is essential for your company

If you had the chance to read everything that was ever said about you or your company, negative or positive, would you do it? It’s probably in the best interest of your company to stay in touch with what the media is saying about your company.

With media monitoring, you can keep an eye on the public’s perception of you and your company.

Earned media coverage should be important to your company

Pitching the media can be daunting, especially if it isn’t something your employees do regularly as part of their job. As a PR firm, this is something our team does daily for companies. The dirty little secret that no one in corporate america – no one in your company – wants to talk about is how much corporate marketers hate pitching to the media. It’s a combination of fear, of rejection, of insecurity, of making a cold call, and of not having newsworthy content to share. 

Earned media coverage should be important to your company because it builds a brand while advertising supports it. As a company executive, it’s not your job to micromanage, but it is your job to ensure your company sees success by building credibility and awareness. Give your marketing team the resources it needs to be as successful as possible. 

Understanding image quality is essential

Sending images to a news outlet or vendor may seem like a simple task, but it’s importance can often be overlooked. The image quality you provide can affect whether or not a reporter chooses to cover your story. 

Images are measured by DPI or dots per inch. A high DPI references a high-quality photo. 

Know the best way to connect with reporters

Pitching to the media can be difficult, especially if your PR and marketing departments aren’t used to reaching out and connecting with the media on you and your company’s behalf. It can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. That’s why we created the 21 mistakes you’re making when you pitch the news media – to help your team feel more comfortable and confident as they reach out to journalists. 

One mistake we often hear from companies is their teams are sending more than one email to a single outlet. This is number 12 in our list of 21 mistakes. There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. 

Don’t make this distribution mistake when pitching to the news media

PR and marketing departments get busy. They know they need to share their company’s news with the media but far too often, they simply get caught up in day-to-day tasks. When your PR and marketing departments get busy, then they can get lazy about distributing news to the media. Here’s a mistake your team may be making, why it’s a mistake, and the right way to handle it. 

Be a better resource for the media

As newsrooms continue to shrink, they rely more and more on their reporters to write for print and online as well as take their own photos and videos. With reporters doing more, newspapers also rely on PR professionals and a company’s PR and marketing department to submit stories – in an inverted pyramid style – and images for publication. 

Story ideas and submissions are relatively easy to provide to a media outlet. Many companies struggle with submitting photos that newspapers and magazines will and can use. Here are some tips that will help you and your team submit quality photos the media will use.