A recently added client of ours in the B2B service industry had a major announcement so we went beyond our routine marketing & social media monthly scope of work and pitched the press on their behalf. The result was definitely a good buzz, and I’d like to share their story and then a few tips on how you can have a similar result.
At the beginning of November when the news first became public, we wrote an article that was featured on our client’s company website detailing the news. We then shared that link on their social channels to drum up awareness. At GoodBuzz, we’re a fan of Google URL Shortener to monitor and analyze click-through rates and other data about who is clicking your content.
Directly after, we created a news release, developed a target list of publications and key staff who worked at each media outlet, and then contacted each with the news. We targeted regional mass media plus specific national journalists and publications in the focused industry of our client.
Surprisingly, many of the journalists who focused on this specific, narrow industry beat responded back and were very helpful in wanting to share this bit of news with their readers. GoodBuzz got several industry news organizations to feature our client’s news in December in their online and print publications, and then additional media covered the news once it occurred in January with a nice cover story appearing in the Austin Business Journal.
After this positive press, GoodBuzz wrote up an article summarizing the media coverage, published it on our client’s company website, and distributed it out on their social channels.
Together these two articles (the first announcing the news and the second summarizing the media coverage) were featured on the company website and garnered 15 times the number of pageviews they historically got on their articles when looking back at the data before we came on board. When shared out on their social channels, the impressions for this news was even greater — in the tens of thousands. This is just the beginning of increasing their visibility!
From this recent example below are a few press pitching tips:
1. Plan ahead: what newsworthy things does your brand have coming up in the next three months? Begin thinking through how you want to maximize visibility for this and write it down on paper. It’s hard to succeed without a plan.
2. Start a blog or news section on your website and regularly publish to it. Write, edit, publish! Write, edit, publish! You can feature employee accomplishments, team events, company projects or clients, products you sell, and more. Be consistent in publishing content to your website regularly. Doing so helps search engines increase your score so you pop up higher in search results and it brings your audience back to your website for more great stuff.
3. Assemble a list of journalists with contact information. Ideally, start with regional, local media outlets and then add publications that are focused entirely to your industry or trade.
4. Build relationships with your targeted list of media and offer them your expertise if they need an expert to provide a quote or need background for a story. Be a resource. Offer your time and knowledge now.
5. Increase your brand’s social media following. Upload contact lists from your database to social media to connect with your customers, clients, and employees online. Sponsor ads to increase the following now so once you have news to share, there’s an audience to do that with.
If you’re interested in testing your brand’s marketing, take GoodBuzz’s free 31-question quiz with immediate 0 – 100 score here: https://goodbuzzsolutions.com/free-marketing-assessment/ We’d be delighted to review it with you and discuss how we might partner together so you become more visible. Contact us here.
Among Austin marketing firms, GoodBuzz Solutions harnesses the best of marketing, communications, and events to empower the brands of entrepreneurs, public figures, and organizational leaders to become more visible so they can achieve their goals and be the best. Put your marketing expertise to the test by taking the free GoodBuzz Online Marketing Assessment here. The quiz will evaluate you in seven core areas with 31 questions. Your immediate marketing score will identify your strengths and show you where you can polish your strategy – all for free!