Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

What to do if the Media Aren’t Interested In Your Story

CHuntly

You have developed your campaign, put the work in to build your launch story (and your perfect pitch!), and you have actively been pitching and following up with the media with your beautifully written media release. Unfortunately, you are sitting and waiting in silence. You can’t seem to get any media interested in the story you have to offer.

There are a few reasons why the media might not be interested in what you have to say:

  1. You targeted the wrong media. Do your research to make sure they cover stories like yours.
  2. There is no relevant connection to an overarching newsworthy storyline (ie. Current events, pop culture, etc.)
  3. You didn’t give the media enough time before your launch or event. They need to have time to put together the story before it’s past.
  4. Bigger news came up. Do your research to make sure there isn’t a major event happening. However, it’s impossible to predict when the latest scandal or huge news story will break!
  5. Your pitch was too long.
  6. Your subject line wasn’t attention-grabbing.

Maybe you have done everything right. From a media perspective, sometimes they get hundreds of pitches every day, so despite how hard you try, your email or Twitter pitch may just get lost in the shuffle.

Here are three ways you can get creative with your outreach strategy to build buzz if you need can’t seem to get through to the media:

  1. Build a strong content strategy. If you have built a great brand story for yourself or your business, you should also be putting out great content on all of your marketing channels – your website, social media, blog, e-newsletter, etc. You have to make sure you are putting out great content on a regular basis. That means setting up a schedule for posting and keeping up with it so your audience expects it from you and they can engage with you. Sometimes a strong content strategy will actually put you on the radar with media who often look for story ideas online.
  2. Become a guest contributor. Try connecting with publications, industry-related blogs, and blogs of associations you are part of. They are often looking for great content, and this is a fantastic way for you to get your name out there and showcase your expertise.
  3. Be active on social media to grow your community and brand awareness. Social media is all about relationship building and empowering others to talk about your brand. Keep it social and go on at least once per day.

The key is that you shouldn’t give up on generating buzz about your brand just because you can’t get media coverage. Media coverage is a great goal, but there are so many other ways for you to get your brand out there that shouldn’t be ignored.

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making it unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

How to Build a PR Campaign

CHuntly

Now you know all about PR and what it can do for your business, it’s time to put together a fabulous campaign so you can start seeing great results. But where do you start?

Here are nine steps to building a great PR campaign:

  1. Set goals: What do you want to achieve?

What does success look like to you? Once you decide what the end game is, then you can decide how to get there. There is no point in putting together a strategy if you don’t know what you want to accomplish. In fact, you will find that your strategy will lack direction, which means you could end up doing things that aren’t right for your brand.

  1. Decide on your budget

This always seems to be the toughest thing for any business to do, especially small businesses or start-ups. There are a couple of things you should do before setting your budget. First, conduct a bit of research to determine industry best practices. If you plan to hire a third party to help you put your strategy together and execute, that also has to factor in. The two most important things to realize are that you won’t get anything for free and you need to be honest with yourself. Even if it’s time spent knocking on doors and you want to do it yourself, that is time spent away from your regular business operation – time is money. When you factor in a third party (like an agency), they usually base their fees on an hourly estimate. The cheapest is not always the best option, but neither is the most expensive. Find an agency that will work with your budget. You have to make sure that you are honest with how much you can spend and work within those parameters. If you are working with an agency, it’s frustrating for both parties if you say there is no budget and then you complain when you see the proposed quote that it is too high.

  1. Decide on your timeframe

Depending on what your campaign’s objectives are you can determine when you would like to start/finish your campaign. Make sure you are giving yourself enough time to get all the prep work done at the beginning!

  1. Identify your target audience

Is this campaign meant to target a niche audience? Perhaps there is an audience that you think your brand would be perfect for, but you haven’t really had the opportunity to tap into it yet. Decide who you want to reach and then make sure you learn everything you can about them – where do they go online? Who influences their decision-making? How do they like to learn about new brands? Etc.

  1. What is your story?

Determine what story you are telling. That means finding the unique sweet spot that will make your brand stand out from the rest of your competitors. You need to be able to identify why this is important for your target audience.

  1. What channels do you want to utilize?

With so many options available to you, you need to reign yourself in a bit. Don’t spread your budget and time too thin by trying to target too many channels at once. Once you have identified your target audience, then it should become clear as to what channels you can and should use. Keep in mind that your channels may be determined partially by your budget!

  1. Research

At this point in your planning, you need to research different aspects of your strategic choices. If you are having an event, what other events are on the same day in your city/industry that would conflict? Have any of your competitors done similar things? Did it work for them? How can you make your idea unique? What are the costs associated with what you would like to do? Educate yourself on what you need to know before putting your strategy into action.

  1. Create a critical path

A critical path is just a fancy name for a timeline. Work backwards from your end goal and note major milestones you would like to hit in your campaign. Then flesh it out by putting in tasks and who is responsible to get each task done. The best way to track this is to set up a chart. I like to work in weekly increments. I identify the date, the task, and who is responsible in the first three columns. Always add one last column for “status” so you can get the satisfaction of writing “complete” when you have finished a task – it just feels good.

  1. Hit the ground running

Once you feel comfortable with your critical path, you are good to go. It’s time to set your strategy in motion. Don’t be afraid to track results along to way to see if you need to tweak your approach as you go!

Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making it unique to you.

Connect with Candace

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/email/Website

Dating is Like Networking

Martina New

It’s a numbers game.

Every business owner knows the formula for success is that you have to talk to X number of people, to narrow them down to Y number of warm or hot prospects, to succeed in turning Z number of those into clients. As I continue seeking my romantic mate, it occurred to me that dating works in a similar way.

While everyone and their dog is nowadays eternally busy “being busy”, today’s search for romance takes place mostly via online dating sites, with some face-to-face speed dating thrown in for good measure. The end goal remains the same as through “traditional/old-fashioned” ways: finding that one-in-a-million partner who is best suited to you, and vice versa.

In our high-tech 21st century this means going online, resulting in instant, searchable, and fairly anonymous access to not hundreds but thousands of singles looking for love. This is where it’s akin to business networking.

Following above networking formula, you have to first talk to X number of people. That means selecting advance search criteria to narrow down your ‘target market’, e.g. gender, age, marital status, physical stature, interests etc. Then you scroll and skip through several hundred potential suitors, mostly not talking to anyone at this stage but just reading how they ‘talk’ about themselves. This is your Number X.

Second, you need to whittle down those potentials to find your warm or hot prospects; figuratively speaking or literally hot (Number Y). You message several or many. Some will reply, and many will not. In return, you will receive random inquiries from daters far outside your age range, location, or far off any attributes you would consider, even remotely. (Business speak: Know your target market! That works both ways.)

Attending speed-dates can help accelerate pre-selection by providing instant access to 10 or 15 prospects. This is like attending weekly or monthly networking meetings, where you work the room to talk to many business owners, seeking out those interested in what you have to offer.

Through perseverance with either or both of above two processes you then find a few potentials, with whom you communicate back and forth. This is your Number Y.

Third, you talk over the phone and/or meet the best prospects in person and attempt to discern the potential for a positive and fulfilling relationship, this time personal, not client based. If unsuccessful, you repeat the process for Number Y until you reach your ‘goal’ of finding your ideal Number Z.

Re-reading my own formulae and processes above, online dating should in fact be much easier than networking! In business, there are no “advanced search” selection criteria that will automatically pop up to help narrow down your ideal target market(s). No self-description as to what your prospect is looking for. There is just Cupid and his rose-coloured glasses on occasion obscuring your vision and judgement.

I shall ponder that thought. But now I must dash – someone just sent me a “wink”!

Author’s Cheerful Disclaimer: The opinion, experience, and formulae expressed by the author may or may not be true, realistic, and may, or may not, be based on personal experience, and would therefore not hold up in a Court of Law or anywhere else. Suggestions of potentially suitable single males may be submitted to the author via private and confidential e-mail after your thorough and thoughtful pre-screening, at your own expense, and applying your best guess.

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter