Guest blog post by Chicexecs, a PR agency specializing in getting product-based small businesses massive brand visibility.
Media coverage is an important part of growing your brand.
You can improve your brand’s position in your industry, build trust, and increase buyer confidence. In the long term, media coverage can even increase your sales. For many media-savvy brands, the right coverage can grow your business rapidly.
But wait! Before you fire off those press releases, you need to position your brand for media coverage first.
Failing to position your brand could waste all of your hard-won media coverage. You could send across the wrong message, send conflicting signals, or, worst of all, do real damage to your brand.
Smart positioning is the difference between media coverage that gets your business and coverage that falls flat.
Follow these 5 tips to position your brand for media coverage.
1.  Build thought leadership
Journalists want to work with trustworthy people. The best way to earn their trust is to become an expert thought leader in your industry.
Give your brand’s founders more opportunities to share their voice. Write blogs under their name. Overhaul their social media profiles to share relevant, timely, and valuable posts.
Seek out more interviews for your founder(s). Whether at podcasts, events, conferences, charities, or even local TV, interviews immediately build credibility.
Over time, your founders’ names will be everywhere. As they share valuable information, they’re able to educate others while subtly boosting their authority.
Media coverage comes more naturally when you provide valuable, expert information.
2. Tell a compelling story
Chances are, your product or service is similar to other businesses.
Your customers don’t necessarily choose your brand because of your offerings. Customers choose you because they like your story; because they care about what makes you so different.
You need to tell the world how you’re different. The best way to do this is through compelling, engaging storytelling. After all, the human brain is hard-wired to remember information in narrative format.
Quality matters here. Invest in quality content as well as high-quality video or images. If you don’t have a professional in-house, hire a photographer or videographer to get the job done right.
3. Create a media kit
Journalists are very busy people. Media kits make it easy for them to understand your brand quickly. The easier it is to understand your brand, the more likely a journalist is to pick up your story.
Provide a high-quality media kit on your website. Include information like a company bio, your services, and contact information. Remember to use quality images and clean branding.
Don’t make journalists dig for this information on your site. Create a Press page where they can easily download your PDF media kit.
4. Know your competitors
One of the best ways to position your brand is to clarify what you aren’t.
You can’t be in business without some understanding of your competition. To position your brand for media coverage, conduct a thorough competitor analysis.
This will help you see how your brand is different. Once you know your differentiating factor, it’s much easier to score media coverage.
Look at your competitors’ services, market share, marketing strategies, website, and social media. Note their strengths and weaknesses. What is their voice? How are you different from them?
This is a great way to figure out your own niche and what will set you apart from the rest. Although they are your “competitors,” you’ll still want to collaborate and support the businesses that are like-minded as yours. Competitor analysis is really just to provide an understanding of what makes your brand unique from theirs to cater to the beat of your own drum.
Possess an in-depth understanding of your competitors. This will help you differentiate yourself from other companies in your industry.
5. Build an engaged online community
If there’s a lot of buzz about your brand on social media, there is a very good chance a journalist will pick it up.
Always include social sharing on your website, especially if you’re writing thought leadership content. Readers can share your content more easily, increasing the chance your name will land on the desk of an interested journalist.
You might be considering joining every social network in existence, but that will only dilute your brand. Instead, be on the social networks that make the most sense for your brand.
At the end of the day, remember that social media is about connecting with other people. Reply to comments and encourage participation.
You can also look at forums like Reddit to start conversations. Just remember to be genuine. This isn’t the time to don a corporate facade. And never, ever post super spammy content that doesn’t provide value.
The bottom line
Who doesn’t want media coverage? If you want to build buzz for your brand, make sure you’re in a position to maximize every ounce of coverage.
Build confidence in your brand, understand your industry, and create genuine relationships. Before you know it, you’ll score even bigger media placements—and a growing bottom line to show for it.
Are you interested in learning about how to get your brand more exposure? Contact ChicExecs by visiting http://www.chicexecs.com/contact/ or call directly (760) 992-9113.
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