All businesses must strive to gain media coverage, as it will not only create rapport with their customers but will also grow an audience base that will support their brand growth and development. Below are 6 simple ideas that you can implement to increase the reach of your business.
1) Make it Easy
The simplest thing to do is to make your website easy for visitors to navigate.
You want to make it easy for journalists, publications, or bloggers to contact you. This can be achieved by creating pages that include up-to-date news about your business and contact information for all aspects of your business, such as media, wholesale, and general inquiries. By making it easy for external sources to find your information you will increase your chances of being contacted.
An “About” page is essential. This section will share a brief background on your business and an idea of the key figures within your business team. This is a great way to focus on highlighting the best-selling points about your story and brand, and choosing the right keywords can help your site rank higher in search results.
By making information readily available you can avoid interactions regarding small questions about your business that may not lead to sales. Instead, you will receive communications from people who are genuinely interested in your products and services.
2) Act Like a Journalist
Craft a story that will drive an expansion of your audience base but will also maintain previous customers and drive returning sales. Your story aims to draw people in and get them excited about your business and its future.
Every good story includes:
- Relevance – why is your business story current?
- Significance – why is your story important?
- Relatability – can the audience connect with your content?
- Public interest – why is this exciting?
- Conflict – was there a conflict and was it resolved in your story?
The more guidelines your story meets, your chances of getting featured across media platforms is increased.
If you are stuck, look at an example of previous journalists’ stories and attempt to replicate their style into your business story.
3) Target Audience
Research your target audience, do not make assumptions. Finding out these factors can make your strategies more effective:
- What platforms do they use? Every platform is suited to a certain demographic.
- Your customer demographic – age, gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity.
- What is the most effective way to communicate with your audience? Online, physical media, or a combination of both may be the best way to reach them.
- When is prime time? What time are most of your audience able to see your advertising?
The better you know your audience, the more effective and efficient your marketing plan will be. Hence, if you are targeting the correct media publications, the likelihood of your business being recognized in multiple media sources will increase.
Choose your media companies carefully!
4) Social media game plan
Every successful team has a game plan, and it is no different within the media world. Your game plan should have an end goal, and every step and strategy that is taken or introduced will bring you closer to that goal. If that means hiring someone to look after your business media accounts, then do it.
Ensure that the steps that are being taken are maintainable into the future, to ensure that your business keeps moving forward rather than constantly backtracking.
It is always good to be ambitious, but you also need to be realistic with your goal. For example, if your goal is to reach 100k followers on Instagram in two months, then ask yourself how can I achieve this?
Here are some hints for online media engagement:
- Optimize your online accounts – your bio should include the business founder/s name, link to the website, profile picture
- Having a regular posting schedule – research the most effective time to post
- Schedule posts – to ensure that to remain active online, set-up a schedule that will post your content regular
- Promote your socials everywhere – have links to your socials on all your communication platforms – website, social media pages, magazine, and emails
NOTE: There is a fine line between posting regularly and bombarding your audience with information, through research you will be able to find the perfect happy medium for your posting.
5) Time equals reward
The more time and effort that is placed into your communications strategy, the more publicity you will receive. The time that is spent researching, preparing, and connecting with people will be rewarded by time in the media spotlight.
If you want to be successful in expanding your media coverage you need to be willing to put in the time to achieve success.
6) Confidence is key
It is unlikely that your business is going to become an overnight success, but that should not deter you from putting in the hours to achieve your goal. If you remain up to date with trends, your target audience, media communications either online or in publications, and are confident with your work, then you will see success.
Have faith in yourself and your co-workers, and create a positive environment. That positivity will be reflected in your marketing and social media posts and will encourage everyone to strive for business success.
