PR campaigns – How to get to grips with the media

Paula Gardner of Do Your Own PR gives some practical tips about finding more opportunities in the media

United Kingdom

How many of us are guilty of falling into media comfort zones? If you’re serious about getting great results from your PR you may find that you have to severely challenge your current reading habits!

A recent client completed her PR assessment form with a comment that she had always read a certain paper because her parents had, so she’d just fallen into the habit too.

She now realised that she had to read a lot more widely to understand the amount of opportunities that are out there, and which ones would work for her.

There are four main reasons why being media savvy will help your PR

Before I spill the beans, I thought I’d remind you about the importance of knowing The Sun from The Daily Mail, or Arena from Loaded.

A. You will be aware of what publications are out there and all the opportunities open to you.

B. Different publications, even in the same niche, require a different approach.

Both Woman and Good Housekeeping appeal to women in roughly the same age group but the language they use, and the subjects covered in each of them, are so different. They may even need a different press release to reflect differing reader concerns and language.

C. As you read more widely you’ll come to spot more and more opportunities that you weren’t aware of, perhaps even before your competitors.

D. You may spot publications that you could write for and even earn a second income!

So, how do you get to grips with all the possibilities that are out there?

1. Let’s start by making a list of all that you usually read (and you can do this as a team if there are more than one of you). Include things that you read for fun as well as business, things that you regularly read whilst sitting outside your clients’ offices, and websites that you usually visit.

2. Now go through that list and cross out anything that you wouldn’t want your business to be seen in, or wouldn’t do your business any good to be seen in anyway.

3. Now, looking at your remaining titles and suss out any gaps.

If you’ve only covered one trade magazine, what about the other five that barrage you with requests for subscriptions? If you religiously read The Guardian can you accept that you really should start to become more aware of the opposition?

So, here's List 2 – make a note of all the publications you need to get to know.

4. Now comes the difficult part, fitting them into your daily routine. Understand that you are going to have to move away from your comfort zone.

I love to curl up with the Sunday magazines but I make myself read the newspaper first. You might read through a publication on the train before you allow yourself to relax and settle into your novel.

5. If you work in a team you can assign particular publications to particular people. Each can be responsible for reading your own publication and then giving a brief run down of what you think is important along with possible press opportunities in a regular press meeting.

6. Does your trade magazine have a website?

If time is really strained then this is a fall back for catching up on the latest news.

7. Make catching up on your reading a little bit of ‘me time’ - disappear for fifteen minutes with a publication and a cappuccino and make it into a daily ritual that gives you a bit of time to breathe.

8. Once you really get into it, you’d be surprised at what possibilities are out there.

You’ll spot your major competitor being interviewed in a golfing magazine and sneakily dropping his business name in there. You’ll see interviews on mothers who run businesses in a women’s magazine and notice someone from your local networking group on the page.

Think outside the box!

9. New titles open all the time, so check regularly for new titles.

Read what’s sitting around in the waiting room of your dentist or your clients and don’t be afraid to ask if you can photocopy something if it looks vitally important!

10. Finally –

And this is something I urge you to continue doing: always ask your clients what they read - for pleasure as well as work.

And if Dog Lovers International keeps cropping up, you know what you’ve got to do!

About the author

Paula Gardner is a PR and media coach who runs Do Your Own PR.

You can read more about Paula in the Contributors section –
Paula Gardner - Do Your Own PR

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