When starting on your PR journey it can be easy to focus on racking up the coverage and mindset of why be in two publications when you could be in 20. Whilst on one hand it makes sense to want to be seen in as many places as possible it is also important to examine the quality of the coverage and whether it is getting seen by the people you want to see it.
For example, I once worked with a business that specialised in family photography. They wanted to raise awareness of their business and increase enquiries which would hopefully convert to sales (side note PR isn’t a direct sales tool it is part of a much bigger marketing picture). Great I thought, that shouldn’t be a problem, but they were fixated on appearing national magazines. I get it, who doesn’t want to be in their favourite glossy magazine (Red magazine is my personal dream) but before you rush ahead think will it help your business.
In this instance I got the client into a well-known magazine but where they saw the difference in enquiries was when they got coverage in the local papers. One piece of coverage in the local paper garnered way more enquiries that the piece in a national magazine. There are a couple of reasons why. Firstly ,they got more column inches in the local paper and secondly, they were reaching their target audience. A national publication may reach lots of people but if your business is location based, you’d be better targeting media that covers that location. I’m not ruling out national coverage it is brilliant for awareness raising and I get clients lots of it, but I’d always advise going for quality over quantity. Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding which media to target.
· Who are your potential customers/clients?
· Where do they get their information and news, magazine, radio, social media?
· What is your call to action? (e.g., what do you want the audience to do? Visit your website? Buy your book? Book a call?
· Is your business location based? e.g. If you own a single shop in Nottingham (where people can’t buy online) you would be better reaching out via media in and surrounding the area)
· Can your service be delivered to anybody, living anywhere? For example, if you are a service business or have an online product then using local and national media could be beneficial.
· Who are you wanting to speak to? Is it other people in the industry or customers? If you are putting your self out there as an expert in your field, it is wise to target industry publications that your peers read.
I’m sure that there are plenty of other things that need to be considered but this is a good starting point, by considering these things you should be able to create a solid media list of publications that will help you achieve your goals. Don’t worry if there are only two or three things on your list, as like I say quality over quantity. If the media on your list will get you to where you want or need to be it doesn’t matter if there are only a few, in some instances having a smaller list can be beneficial in building those good, strong relationships with the media you want to work with and by being knowledgeable and reliable you could become their go to person when they need a comment from an expert in your field.
If you would like to discuss this further or have any questions about how PR might help your business don’t hesitate to book a FREE Discovery Call.
Rebecca Slater is a PR Consultant with more than 20 years public relations experience. She is based in Staffordshire and provides support to businesses all over the country.
Find out more at www.beckandcallpr.co.uk or email sayhello@beckandcallpr.co.uk