When you secure media coverage, whether it’s a news story, a feature, a case study, product placement or a comment opportunity, you want to ensure you’re making the most of it and getting it in front of as many eyes as you can. With that in mind, here’s our top five tips on how you can take advantage of and maximise your well-earned media coverage:
Share media coverage on your social media channels
The first action and something really simple to make the most of your coverage is to share it on your social media channels. If you’ve secured a product placement feature in say a gift guide, sharing this on social can help to add credibility to your products and may make your followers interested to see where it’s been featured. This could also lead to increased sales, as they might be more likely to click on a product featured and praised by someone else, as opposed to you directly sending them to your site. Sharing features, comment ops and news stories can also be a great way to add diversity to your content mix and gives your followers something interesting to read about your brand/company that could educate and inform them further about what you do and what you’re all about.
Sharing these pieces also allows you to potentially reach a wider audience, as your followers might not have seen the feature on the news outlet. Of course, it can be assumed they are interested in your content as they follow you on social, meaning they’re likely to click the link as you’ve directed it to a relevant audience. A further way you can aim to reach a wider audience and get your brand name out there is by tagging the journalist, the publication and any other relevant people in your social posts. They may be encouraged by this to share it onto their feeds, furthering the readership of the feature and increasing your brand awareness.
Add your media features to your company website
As well as sharing the coverage on your social channels, you should also consider adding all or a selection of media features to your website. This is a great way to showcase and shout about your coverage, but also acts a portfolio for prospective customers or people who visit your site. For people who might be interested in working with you or engaging with you, it can give them an additional feel of what your brand is all about and offers a third party opinion – which is helpful to increase credibility.
A really nice way to do this is to have an ‘as seen in’ section on your website. This would consist of simply showcasing the logos of publications/outlets you have been featured in (they could be hyperlinked directly to the coverage if you wish so), to give customers and website visitors an indication of where your brand has been featured at a glance. If you wanted to go the extra mile, you could even include snippets from the media coverage, such as quotes about products or features, which would act as a testimonial for your company.
Include coverage in mailers, newsletters and brand promotional tools
If you’re looking to get your coverage and features directly in front of an audience who are likely to engage and be interested in it, it’s definitely worthwhile considering including your recent pieces in any communications you send out. These should be included in your weekly mailers, newsletters, promotional emails and communications. By doing this, you’re sending it to people who you know are interested in your brand – as they’ve signed up to receive your promotional emails and learn more about you. Therefore, it will be relevant to them and something great to showcase to further enhance your brands reputation and credibility.
If you’re targeting new people, who haven’t already shown an interest, sharing your media coverage with them can be a really good way to engage them. Hearing from other people, as opposed to yourself, about your brand is a really great way to enhance credibility and gain their interest and trust in you. So it’s definitely important to bring these features to their attention as well.
Use secured features and coverage as a hook to engage in further conversations with journalists
Establishing relationships with key journalists and media outlets is obviously of high importance for anyone if securing coverage is something you wish to achieve. Utilising the ops you’ve already had as a hook is a great way to do this. Contact the journalist who featured you and express further commentary you could give and other areas you could add value, including topics you can offer comment on and any new product releases.
By doing this and helping to build a relationship with them, they’re much more likely to start coming directly to you for any reactive commentary and feature opportunities that they may have. Make sure you’re clear to them about the topics and conversations that you can add value to, in addition to the piece they have also featured you in, as this could serve you well in the future if they’re looking for something specific for an article – they may well remember you and come directly to you due to the relationship you’ve established with them.
Compose a press kit/portfolio that features all of your media coverage
You could do this the traditional way and print out hard copies of your media coverage and display it either in a book or frame key pieces throughout your office/workspace. Not only will this be a nice memoir for your team, but it will also show prospective customers and any office visitors testimonials of your brand, enhancing credibility. It might also be worthwhile to do this in a PDF format, which could be available on your website for people to download should they wish to discover more about your brand and seek thoughts from others on your products or company.
It’s also a good way to help journalists and media outlets see what topics and discussion points you can comment on. It should be situated on a press page on your website, which could include latest business news and press releases as well as links to media mentions. If you keep on top of this and add new features when they occur, this can act as a way for journalists to see where you can add value and also identify key spokespeople that they could talk to that might be relevant for their upcoming features.
If you’re interested in delivering a successful media relations campaign, you can always get in touch with us. We help and assist brands in all sectors to secure media coverage and features by establishing a successful press office and devising strategies that helps brands with their goals and to reach their target audience.
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