Building up your brand’s image and establishing your presence via traditional media both have many positive effects for your business. Aside from the publicity and top-of-mind awareness, a strong media presence is the chance for your brand to inform the audience about what your business does and what it stands for.

However, in this cluttered, highly competitive world, getting the word out for your brand through news, features and press coverage can be challenging. Any business coach will tell you that, aside from competing with other businesses, your brand needs to genuinely get the attention of journalists and editors for them to even consider writing or talking about your story. To get you started on the right direction, here are a few tips from marketing experts on crafting PR pitches that grab attention.

Don’t Force the Mundane

While product launches and high impact events are relatively easier to pitch, company announcements, sponsored seminars and other events might not be considered as top priority stories by most media channels. Sometimes, your story is just not worth pitching to the media. Before pitching a story, ensure that your story is worth telling to the media’s audience. Timely topics, breakthroughs in technology/research and human interest stories are great starting points that can help draw attention to your brand.

Don’t sell your brand. Tell a story.

Some entrepreneurs think that press releases should mention their business every so often to remind the audience about their brand. It doesn’t work that way. Press pitches should never be platforms to just repeatedly talk about the brand. Editors and journalists prefer fleshed-out stories that are grounded ih facts and human interest. Instead of talking about the brand directly, focus on an event, story, person, etc. Never hard-sell your brand. A pitch should have an intrinsic value for journalists in order for them to consider writing/talking about it.

Keep It Short and Simple.

Stick to the essentials when it comes to pitching a story. The first paragraphs should immediately tell the readers the essentials: who, what, when, where, how, and why. Use bullet points to highlight important information. Aside from being direct to the point and clear, succinct pitches tease journalists and raise interest about your story by keeping an air of mystique and letting them explore the story on their own.

Find Your Niche

You’re never going to be successful in pitching your story if you don’t know who your target market is and where they get their news/information. Sending out generic pitches and not consciously targeting media that your audience tend to patronise or prefer is a surefire way to end up in pitch limbo. Finding the right channels for your message lets you focus your efforts and personalise your pitch to better appeal to editors/journalists.

Establish Rapport

It all starts with your media relations. Be proactive in approaching and reaching out to journalists. Instead of looking like a moocher, establish genuine rapport built on trust, mutual respect and value. Help reporters, journalists and editors by giving them what they need and helping them flesh out stories. Be a resource they can trust. Always show how you appreciate their efforts in helping you tell your story.

Need more tips on marketing your business and establishing a brand image? Read and download our FREE eBook, The Marketing Pillar. Find out what strategies you can employ to stay top-of-mind and create brand salience through marketing and public relations.