Write a guest blog, use the Issue Calendar and focus on local media. These are 3 of the 11 tips that will help you get media attention. These PR tips and tricks always work and will put you in the spotlight.
1. RUM (Call U)
This Facebook group is intended for journalists. They place calls here when they are looking for interview candidates. Think of a call like: 'for an article in a large women's magazine I am looking for female entrepreneurs who work according to The New Way of Working'. People who feel addressed and are members of this Facebook group (registration is free), can respond and have a 'chance' of an interview.
So, be sure to join this group and respond to calls that are relevant to your company. Respond as quickly as possible with a personal private message and provide your contact details immediately. This way, you make it easy for the journalist and increase your chances. Tip: there is also a group for Belgian journalists , if you want to become more known in Belgium.
2. Issue calendar
The online Issue Calendar lists all the days, weeks and months of the year that are special. Think of International Hamburger Day, Left-Handers Day or Breast Cancer Month. These moments are fixed for each year. Ideal to think of a tie-in for relevant days in advance . The Issue Calendar gives you the time to track down the days, weeks and months that are relevant to you and to prepare yourself well. This way you will come across as playful when the moment comes.
Don't forget moments like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, summer vacation, Gay Parade, Sinterklaas, Christmas and New Year's Eve. See what you can tap into to create another PR moment for yourself. Other large companies, such as HEMA , do the same.
3. Focus on local media
Don't know where to start when it comes to PR? Leave the Telegraaf or the FD for what it is for now and start a bit smaller. Instead, approach your local or regional daily or weekly newspaper. These media are generally eager to report on successful residents. Moreover, in many cases the audience is also mega-relevant. PR with focus, instead of shooting with a shotgun. The big national media are for later!
4. Google your competitor
If you are not known, you have to be smart! A tip for all entrepreneurs who do not know where to start: google your competitors and see which media have written about them. Which media have interviewed them? Which media have they appeared on with a guest blog? For offline media, you can check this by searching on Blendle. Then you know which media write about similar entrepreneurs, and which media would therefore also possibly want to write about your company. These are the media where you can pitch yourself.
5. Offer your press release exclusively under embargo
This tip always works well when you are going to send out a press release: approach your favorite medium a week before you send out the press release. In this email, you offer the press release under embargo (this means: not to be published before a date set by you) and ask if the medium is interested in being the first to place the press release exclusively.
If the press release is relevant, the media will often be interested. They are always happy to be the first to report the news. This is an advantage for them: after all, they increase their own authority as a news medium. Win-win, because you have already received a top publication. You can also offer an interview.
Apart from the moments in the Issue Calendar, france telegram data there are of course other moments that you as a company can use for publicity. Think of the power outage that Oreo used or bol.com with Black Saturday. Unfortunately, you don't always see such moments coming in advance. It is therefore important to act quickly as soon as the opportunity arises.
Heat wave? Emergency meeting with your team to come up with a fun action. Cabinet fallen? Be ready to jump on that. Apart from fun hooks on your own social media channels, you can of course also approach media with a pitch why they should interview you about the news. New privacy law? As a lawyer, you can say something useful about that, for example.
7. Write a guest blog about a cool event for a trade media outlet
As a company, you don't always have enough news value to send out a press release. And the media doesn't always have time to write articles themselves. How can you still get publicity and help the media? Write a guest blog about a subject you know a lot about (and that your business is about) for a medium that writes a lot about this subject and has the same target group.
It is best to pitch an idea first and start writing after approval. This prevents you from writing a whole article and not getting it published anywhere and you can tailor the article completely to the medium. Tip: never pitch the same guest blog to multiple media. Media only want to publish exclusive blogs.