For business owners, getting into the press is a big deal as affinity with the right title and journalist can act like a huge seal of approval on your business which your customers trust and your competitors envy.
But getting into the press can seem daunting and a lot of businesses just don’t know where to start. I used to be a journalist and wrote for a daily newspaper, a monthly trade magazine and consumer titles and I’ll let you into a secret, often pages were hard to fill and we were scrabbling around for content – I’m sure not a lot has changed.
Sadly, the demise of print media is leading to a cut in journalists and the ones that are left seeing a dramatically increased workload so filling those pages, physical and digital, is even harder.
Here are a few tips to hopefully get your name in lights
- Get a good press release written. No more than a page and clear and non-waffly. What is your business, what does it do, what is its USP, who are you and what’s your background and why are you special? Include prices/stockists/product sections when you can. Also provide a quote from you – this will save the journalist having to call you for one
- Alongside this make sure you have good, print quality (300dpi) images of you and your product
- Remember you. You are just as (and sometimes more so) interesting as the things you are selling so ensure that you explain how you got to be doing what you’re doing and what your story is
- Research where you want to be. It’s all well and good saying ‘I want to be in in Elle magazine,’ but what section? Who writes that section? What style do they like? How would your story fit? Once you figure all this out you can target a specific writer, show knowledge on their writing and style and offer something in this vein making it really easy for the them to include you. Also flattery goes a long way so don’t be shy about complimenting them on their last piece
- Don’t forget about local press. So many people aim for the national papers or largest blogs but how about local – we’re all from somewhere and we all run our business somewhere so ensure that you are engaging press at that level as the competition for page space won’t be as fierce and who doesn’t love a local story
- Offer free spaces. If you are running a workshop or an event, be sure to invite the journalist for free in return for covering it for you. This will give you the opportunity to engage and they can see first hand how you work
- Get to be the go-to in your field. All journos have a little book of go-to contacts that they use time and time again. Make yourself known what you are an expert in, what you can offer tips / advice on and hopefully you’ll get on that list
If you’d like to chat further about how I can help you please drop me a line