Public relations are the bread and butter of most awareness campaigns and for good reason. What better way to get your name out there than to be covered by the Huffington Post? In this edition of Google My Business Problems, we’re joined with Christina Daves from PR for Anyone to talk about public relations. She’s going to teach us how your competitors are getting featured, how you can get featured, and what to do once you have the media coverage.
Let’s dive in!
How Are My Competitors Getting Media Features?
Christina hears this classic story all of the time “I’m so much better at my niche but they’re the ones in the media!” Truthfully, it’s not because they’ve got some magic in their back pocket- it’s because they’ve learned how to do public relations. They know how to get in front of the media with a story that will do well.
Think of it as a 3-step approach:
- A newsworthy story idea.
- A great hook (subject line)
- The right people to submit your story to
To do this well, you need to do some homework. Use Google to identify who is writing about your niche. Call the newsrooms. Identify where the media is coming from and reach out! It’s really that easy.
How Can I Get Public Relations Going For My Business?
According to Christina, the easiest way to get national media coverage is to use websites like helpareporter.com. And before you say ‘I don’t need national media coverage!’ understand that getting out there on a national level improves your chances of getting SEO value from the content. More importantly, it’s a great way to impress current and potential customers. What’s better than saying: “You can see us in the Huffington Post, Forbes, and The Wall Street Journal”.
With Helpareporter.com (also known as HARO), you will get an email that will take about 5 minutes a day to find media opportunities. This has helped Christina get features on Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, and Forbes.
Are you new to the business game? You’re in luck. The media loves new. Refer to the 3 step process above. The first step is creating a newsworthy story. To find that story, identify your unique value proposition. Look at your competitors and see what they’ve done to identify where you stand out of the crowd. What makes you different? Once you’ve found that you can start reaching out to publications.
What Do You Do Once You Have PR?
Christina hears a lot of people complain that their PR hasn’t been doing enough for them. The truth us, it’s not enough to just get placed in the media and leave it there. You need to push your media placements through social media, email marketing, LinkedIn, and much more. You can even add ‘As seen on’ on your website and add the logos of the media outlets on your website. With that, make sure it’s a true placement. Don’t just submit a Press Release everywhere and then claim you were on Forbes.
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