Most business owners these days understand that public relations can help convert potential consumers into buying customers. In fact, according to research, public relations can generate conversion rates between 10 to 15 times more than advertising efforts. These days this is an especially important figure because many consumers don’t trust traditional ads and are in favor of earned media. However, media coverage and exposure don’t happen overnight or by chance. What can get a company positive media coverage is a strong PR strategy that’s newsworthy and gets attention.
Mastering the art of storytelling
As marketer Rick De La Croix notes, “A good story can tap into a person’s human experience and can move people and motivate them to take action. Good stories can help consumers become more trusting and open to new ideas, thereby turning them into paying customers.”
However, creating a great story isn’t always easy, and there are several different components that companies have to keep in mind when developing a story that’s worthy of media coverage. There are three basic elements to focus on when developing a story: the company’s purpose, product, and passion.
The company’s purpose should be what the business is doing and who the people are that it’s trying to help. What the company’s products do and how they stand out from all the others available should be well defined. Finally, with the help of an authentic tone, companies can capture their unique vision and culture, and deliver a passionate story that will get plenty of attention.
Personalized story angles
Once the company has developed an attention-grabbing news story, it’s time to figure out the best way to personalize that story according to each media outlet or journalist being engaged. What ends up grabbing the attention of journalists is relatively subjective, which is why it’s important for companies to figure out who the target journalists are for a given pitch in advance, and to do research to figure out the right angle for their story.
To make this step easier, companies should subscribe to journalists’ publications and social media feeds to get a better understanding of their interests and their work. This way the company can tailor their story angle according to their interests, and communicate with the journalists in a personal manner. Additionally, to really grab the attention of a journalist, a company should create a newsworthy hook that will relate their story to other topics that the given journalist is interested in. This can mean topics that they often cover or articles that are very popular with their audience.
Metrics and measurements
Once the coveted media coverage has been achieved, the company should monitor how successful its efforts have been through various relevant metrics. Keeping an eye on those numbers is what helps companies further develop their future promotional efforts, improve what didn’t work, and perfect what worked in the first place. Different promotional efforts can be evaluated with different metrics and measurements, and choosing the right ones largely depends on a company’s initial promotional goals.
