If you’re looking after the PR for your company or use it as part of your mix, there will come a point where your comms plan is in place, your messaging is tight and you’ll ask – “How do I get an article published?”
My suggestion would be to follow one golden rule: Know the publication.
That’s it. Pretty obvious right? But ask any editor or journalist and they’ll tell you that this is seemingly beyond 95% of the marketing/PR execs that they speak to. So how do you join the 5% club?
For a start, read the publication. A lot. It’s not hard but surprisingly few people bother to do it. As a first check, you can confirm the publication is relevant and they’re likely to write about your firm or offering.
Then make sure you know the publication back to font – the regular sections, their editorial calendar, major features, their readership profile and circulation, what flicks the switch of the main journalists.
This means that, instead of calling them to say, “My company/product is so awesome, will you write about us?” your conversation can run more along the lines of… “I enjoy the XXX section you run each month and noticed that you have an upcoming feature on XXX. Our CEO is an expert on this topic and has some interesting views, would you be interested in having a chat?”
Think of it like a sales engagement. The more you know, the more productive a conversation you can have. It shifts from being a one-sided pitch to being a collaborative conversation, where you’re speaking as equals and delivering mutual value.
Your level of understanding will be – grudgingly – appreciated by even the hardest hack. You’ll avoid wasting each others' time with lame, irrelevant pitches and end up seeing infinitely better results.
My suggestion would be to follow one golden rule: Know the publication.
That’s it. Pretty obvious right? But ask any editor or journalist and they’ll tell you that this is seemingly beyond 95% of the marketing/PR execs that they speak to. So how do you join the 5% club?
For a start, read the publication. A lot. It’s not hard but surprisingly few people bother to do it. As a first check, you can confirm the publication is relevant and they’re likely to write about your firm or offering.
Then make sure you know the publication back to font – the regular sections, their editorial calendar, major features, their readership profile and circulation, what flicks the switch of the main journalists.
This means that, instead of calling them to say, “My company/product is so awesome, will you write about us?” your conversation can run more along the lines of… “I enjoy the XXX section you run each month and noticed that you have an upcoming feature on XXX. Our CEO is an expert on this topic and has some interesting views, would you be interested in having a chat?”
Think of it like a sales engagement. The more you know, the more productive a conversation you can have. It shifts from being a one-sided pitch to being a collaborative conversation, where you’re speaking as equals and delivering mutual value.
Your level of understanding will be – grudgingly – appreciated by even the hardest hack. You’ll avoid wasting each others' time with lame, irrelevant pitches and end up seeing infinitely better results.
No comments:
Post a Comment