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Media coverage essentials—3 key components of pitching strategy

by | Dec 22, 2021 | Analysis, Public Relations

Every company and business owner is constantly looking for new strategies to generate media coverage in the public relations industry. However, not everyone understands what it really takes to reach out to news outlets or reporters, and to have a story ready in a way that will attract the attention of both that outlet as well as their audience.

When companies aren’t able to get media coverage, they generally have a more difficult time building brand awareness, getting exposure, and increasing their credibility. Yet these are some of the core elements of a strong, successful business with a positive audience relationship.

Pitching a story

When it comes to generating media coverage, one of the first steps that companies have to take is researching relevant news outlets and journalists that cover stories in the company’s own industry niche or market. That way, once the time comes for the business to pitch a story, they won’t be trying to talk to a reporter that covers sports stories about finances and investing. The best starting point for finding the right reporters and outlets isthe places that cover topics about the industry niche of the business itself. After that, it’s relatively easy to create a list of people and outlets that might talk about the business.

From there, it’s important to figure out what interests the relevant reporters and what their general story pitching standards are. After that, it’s time for the company to create its story and to pitch it to the right people.

Reasoning

While practically every business can benefit from positive media coverage, it’s not an essential element of growth for every business out there. That’s why when considering media coverage, it’s important for companies to ask themselves whether they really need it, and if they do need it, why. The reasons why a company needs media coverage should be quite strong, such as driving awareness for a new product or improving the company’s profile.

If there’s no clear need for any media coverage for a business at a certain point in time, it doesn’t mean that the business will never have to figure out a way to pitch a story to journalists. However, it’s always important to figure out the real reasons why a business needs media coverage in the first place before pursuing it.  Otherwise the coverage might not lead to success.

Relationships

Finally, an essential element of media coverage for businesses is developing relationships with reporters and news outlets long before that business needs to be covered in the first place. Thanks to social media platforms, it’s quite easy for companies to find the reporters they’re going to be pitching to in the future, and to get in contact with them early on in order to develop a relationship.

Sometimes all it takes is a reply to one of their posts that brings value to the discussion they are having on a social media platform. After that, the reporter is going to remember the business, and when they end up receiving a story pitch in their inbox, they’ll not only be more likely to open it and read it, but to talk about it and cover the story too.

Ronn Torossian
Ronn Torossian is the Founder and Chairman of 5W Public Relations: 5WPR is one of the 20 largest PR Firms in the United States.

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