Free PR is a highly valued commodity in today’s business environment. Companies that can plaster their messages across the media landscape are more likely to get seen by their audiences than their competitors, driving brand awareness and potentially sales.
Getting journalists interested in what they are doing remains challenging, though. Business activities need to be newsworthy to make it onto the front page of websites, magazines, and other publications. Journalists won’t just publish any old article about companies. There has to be at least some news component to it.
Help Reporters Out
Helping reporters out is often the first step to building a relationship with news organizations and shoe-horning company messaging into the public forum. Companies that field experts assist journalists with expert advice and information-gathering are more likely to be perceived positively, increasing the likelihood of mentions and backlinks to their sites or bio pages.
Helping a reporter out or “HARO” is a common tactic, but what HARO is and how to use it isn’t always clear. “Businesses need a better understanding of HARO if they are going to dominate the awareness-building phase of the buying cycle,” according to Joe Davies, founder of marketing agency FATJOE. “Companies need to understand how to build relationships and get their foot in the door to access larger and more lucrative opportunities in the future.”
The process, according to Davies, is simple and doesn’t require a great deal of time. “Many journalists will simply ask for a few quotes or clarification on technical issues. Just having an expert comment on their stories is a great way to add legitimacy and authority to articles, and engage readerships.”
Of course, companies that help reporters out should still focus on providing newsworthy content. Most quality publications will not accept marketing editorials. As such, firms must carefully consider the value of what they convey. Journalists want to feel like talking to them is helping them get to the “meat” of the issue for their readerships. It needs to be valuable to someone reading the news or wanting to know more about developments in a specific area.
Make It Click-worthy
In an increasingly digital landscape, news stories need to be click-worthy. Articles should stand out in newsfeeds, promising users unique or novel information that entertains or informs them, or somehow improves their lives.
As such, brands looking to work with journalists should focus on making their stories click-worthy. There should be a strong incentive for users to click the link to learn more.
“We’re seeing huge demand from journalists for interesting and novel stories,” Davies confirms. “Publishers want to put out wacky or fascinating articles that excite their readerships and encourage them to continue to learn more. All brands need to do is insert their expertise to gain immediate authority among audiences without sounding overly promotional.”
It’s this latter tactic that is likely to be most effective in a banner ad-saturated world. Firms that can blend their advertising into content natively are the most likely to succeed.