Ten Tips for Getting Your Story in the Headlines

Front page of the Ottawa Citizen? Lead story on Newsworld? Top feature on Global National? What's your dream news hit?

While nothing invokes more fear in PR pros than media relations, it doesn't have to be foreboding territory to navigate. Remember these 10 tips and you'll soon land your story in the headlines!

Make Sure You Have a Great Story

Whether it's a movie, sitcom, book or news article, every compelling story has a solid theme, a central character and a definite beginning, middle and end. Journalists can smell a great story in seconds, so learn how to tell yours in a succinct and compelling manner.

Know Your Audience

You wouldn't call potential clients without knowing something about their business, so don't call the media blindly either. Before pitching any media outlet, study it. Read the publication, watch the show and look for who covers similar topics to the ones that interest you. Convince them their audience is interested in you.

Build Important Relationships

Reporters will take your call if you've taken the time to understand their needs. When you've got an important story to tell, they'll listen. Best of all, even if they can't help this time, they're likely to refer you to another reporter who can. As with all relationships, building trust is critical. Do what you promise within the timeframe you promised it. And remember, everything is on the record, no matter how close you are.

Deliver the Unexpected

Look for out-of-the ordinary partnerships for spurring media interest and always try to keep things interesting and different.

Have Fun Pitching Your Story

When you make your first call to a cranky reporter, the idea that pitching could be fun sounds like the farthest thing from the truth. Then, you land your first big story and suddenly you've got pitching fever. Here are some quick tips to make those calls easier:

• Tell them you haven't spoken before. Journalists usually miss the first valuable minutes of your pitch trying to figure out who you are. Be upfront.
• Hone your pitch down to a 15-second elevator speech.
• Always ask if a reporter is on deadline. If so, find out a good time to call back.
• Know your story inside and out. This allows you to revise your pitch as you hear objections instead of folding instantly.
• Try different approaches when contacting a journalist. Often a brief, compelling paragraph sent via e-mail can be the most effective, yet unobtrusive, introduction.
• Be sure to follow-up. Many potential leads are lost simply because PR people don't follow through on them. If a reporter tells you to call back another time, make sure you do. Also, just because a reporter doesn't answer your e-mail immediately, that doesn't mean she isn't interested. It could just mean that she hasn't gotten to any of the 150 e-mails received that day.
• Persistence, persistence, persistence. There is a fine line between being persistent and annoying, but if you truly know your story and your audience, there is no shame in steadfastly trying until you get the reporter on the phone.

Be Highly Creative

While it's easy to recycle the same old press releases, infusing your media plans with some innovative thinking will produce stronger, more effective results.

For instance, when introducing Peanut Butter & Jelly Cups from Russell Stover Candies, the company positioned the product as part of the growing retro trend and tapped into adult childhood memories. The ad company sent out "Wouldn't You Like to Be a Kid Again?" personalized purple lunch boxes filled with jacks, jump ropes and the product to the national media.

They reached more than 15 million consumers with the message that their new candy was fun for all ages. Media as diverse as the Rosie O'Donnell Show, Today, Seventeen and Time covered the product.

Employ Strong Writing Skills

Look carefully at how reputable publications such as the New York Times or Wall Street Journal tell a story. What is the lead? What types of quotes do they use? Study different stories: features, executive changes and news articles. For the most part, you'll see the inverted pyramid style where the most important information is in the lead and the rest of the story flows from there. Despite recent e-word mania, it's time to eliminate jargon and buzz words. Say what you want, but say it simply and plainly.

Adopt a Unique Strategy

Don't use the same media strategy for every story. Think about how to create excitement. One effective technique is to offer a "first" to a media outlet (as in a first chance to break the story).

For the launch of Minute Maid's new not-from-concentrate orange juice, Simply Orange, the Wall Street Journal got the first shot. As early as 6 a.m. the morning the story hit, media such as AP, Reuters, the New York Times, CNN and more than 100 other broadcast outlets covered the story.

Build on Your Success

Despite all the counseling, strategy, partnerships, writing and more, clients want media coverage. Until the industry creates better measurement systems, a full page Business Week story becomes a tangible "product" that your clients can hold in their hands and show to their boss. Once your story catches fire, be sure to stoke that fire as long as you can.

Get Results and Go Far

There are two measures of how high you rank on the value chain: knowledge and relationships. Being media savvy and well networked will improve your value you're your clients. Your future success in media relations is a sure way to put you at the top.

Several publications include articles written by vendors, including Computer Technology Review, Customer Support Management, Fast Company, Marketing Magazine, Network World, Ottawa Business Journal and Ottawa Life.

These articles are a great vehicle to further establish your ideas and seminars in the marketplace. The most credible contributed articles don't even mention the vendor's products. These articles can be time-consuming to write and produce, but a company like Marketing Breakthroughs can be hired to write the article in-house for you.

Marketing Breakthroughs specializes in providing highly-successful integrated media and advertising campaigns for our clients. Take a look at our Portfolio for case studies and examples of our public relations and media experience.

Request a meeting to learn more about how we can help you reach your PR goals.

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