Recently I attended the 10th anniversary party of the Financial Mail Women's Forum in London. It was a lovely evening attended by the journalists and feature writers from the Financial Mail, part of the Daily Mail. The journalist that I liaise with at the Financial Mail for my column introduced me to the Enterprise Editor as... "Dee writes a column for us... she's always on time... I never have to change her work and she doesn't promote herself in her columns." This started a conversation with the Enterprise Editor during which she told me that she is continually on the receiving end of pitches from PR agencies and small businesses keen to get coverage in the paper. She's lost track of the amount of times someone has asked her to lunch in exchange for some coverage, invitations she politely declines. She gets frustrated when she asks a person to contact her at less busy times yet they still persist in pitching to her.
If you are looking to gain media coverage for your business here are a few suggestions. They have stood me in very good stead with the journalists and editors of both local and national publications.
- Study the publication that you want to feature in. Will your potential story appeal to their readers? Is it consistent with the style, look, content and feel of the publication? The more current, topical and relevant you can be the better.
- Find out the contact at the publication - journalists are more accessible than you think and you will often find their contact details in the publication itself.
- Don't leave lots of answer phone messages. Bide your time and keep trying until you get through.
- Make a polite and professional introduction. Ask if now is a good time to talk. If it's not back down. Call at a better time. Don't come across as being needy.
- When you do call, make sure that you can outline your story within 60 seconds. Don't be afraid to ask the journalist if they think that your story will interest their readers. You want to open up a dialogue. You may need to offer up information about you - a journalist is more inclined to feature your story if they have some facts about you that underpin your experience, credibility and integrity.
Put these tips into practice and you will strike gold. It won't necessarily be the first journalist that you approach in this way that will accept your story. Sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs to get your prince!
Your thoughts? How easy it or challenging do you find it is to get media coverage? If you have a question, pop it below and I will answer it.
Written by Dee Blick
Dee Blick is a multi award-winning Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing with 27 years marketing experience. She specialises in working with small businesses. Dee is the author of the Amazon number one bestseller The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book which currently has 43 out of 43 five-star reviews on Amazon.
It also became the fastest selling book to date for the Chartered Institute of Marketing when it was promoted as their book of the month in August. If you want to find out more about Dee and her small business marketing boot camps and annual summit in 2012, visit her websitewww.themarketinggym.org
