Providing successful media relations, publicity, and event management for for high technology and franchise clients in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Queen Creek, Chandler and Gilbert, Arizona

Media Relations: Success with the Press

Ten things you should know.

CNN News? The Wall Street Journal? BusinessWeek? How about the front page of your favorite trade publication? At Front Page PR that's our specialty. For many PR folks, the biggest fear is picking up the phone and calling a reporter. Our team loves it and understands that building personal relationships with reporters and editors is the key to success with the press. Building relationships isn't magic, all it requires is a little knowledge on your client's product, how it works, how much it costs, what problem it solves, what the ROI is and an idea of why each and every reporter might be inclined to write a story for their readers.

Here are 10 tips that we use to get our stories published in leading publications:

1. Have a Great Story Ready to Go. I worked six years as a reporter covering high technology stories. I could usually tell in the first 60 seconds whether or not I was going to cover a story. There is nothing more time consuming than working with an executive that doesn't have a story ready to tell. If you're going to set up set interviews with the press, make sure you have a fully developed story that the reporter will be interested in hearing. Don't expect a reporter to have list of questions. Instead, make sure you tell them a story so unique and colorful that the reporter can't help but want to ask more questions.

2. Research the Reporter's Editorial Environment. Half the battle in performing successful media relations is researching a reporter's style and their editorial environment. Nothing will surprise a reporter more than if you quote something out of one of their most recent articles. You might agree with something they said, or point out something they might have missed. One trick that we have used in the past, is researching the last three articles a reporter has written. Find the one that closely resembles your product line. Re-write the article by switching the company and the product names, and then replace the copy with the features and benefits of your product. When conducting your interview with the reporter, tell your story in such a way that it closely resembles what they would have written any way.

3. Give Reporters a Scoop The best way to get your story on the front cover of a trade publication or a newspaper is to promise them an exclusive. Nothing makes a reporter or an editor happier than beating the competition to an important story. The most effective way to do this is to give the story to one publication a week ahead of time, make them promise to embargo the story until the following Monday when the issue comes out in print. Make sure that your press release goes on the wire the same day that the article is published. The next week give another exclusive story to another top trade publication, etc., etc. Make sure you rotate exclusives so that all your top tier books are getting their fair share. Once reporters know that you are handling your media relations this way, they will be calling you for the scoop, not the other way around. (Hint: Don't try this method if you are a publicly traded company.)

4. Pre-pitch Stories a Week Ahead of the Release If your company doesn't allow you to pitch exclusives, then at least offer the story to your favorite reporters a week before the release hits the wires. It is a much better strategy to call a reporter and tell them you have some news to share with them that is going out next Monday, than doing follow-up calls to see if they got the release. If you call a reporter about a release that went out on the newswire yesterday, you are completely wasting your time. Yesterday's news is exactly that. However, next Monday's news is worth looking into ahead of time.

5. Turn Your Online Press Room into a Library. The more information you have online that a can reporter can research, the better your chances will be of getting a large, full-length article on your company's products and services. Your press room should have every single thing a reporter needs to do a story, except an executive quote. We recommend have the following items available in every corporate press room:

Recent Press Releases with Full Media Contact Information

Recent Press Coverage

List of Briefed Analysts

Byline Articles

White Papers

Customer Testimonials

Case Studies

Question and Answer Sheets

Competitive Comparison Grids

Bios and Photos of Executives

Product Descriptions and Photos of Products

Product Spec Sheets

Low and High Resolution Logos

50-word and 100-word Company Descriptions

Pricing Information

List of Websites, Retail Outlets, Resellers and Distributors that Sell Your Products

Believe it or not, I have actually worked for PR agencies that have said that it isn't worth their time to research, write and publish this type of information on the Internet. Their mindset is that reporters need to come through "ME" to get this information. The sad thing is that most of this information is stored on agency hard drives, protected from the people who need it most - reporters on deadlines. Put this type of information online where reporters can find it in their time of need and journalists from around the world will be able to write full length stories while you're gatekeepers are sleeping.

6. Build a Competitive War Room In media relations, your biggest asset to a reporter is your knowledge of the industry, your client's product line, and, of course, the competition. While your executives may not pay attention to what the competition is saying, as a PR professional, you need to become an expert on your client's business as well as the competition.

Most large agencies build something that's called a war room for their top clients. The war room contains panels that display the competition's marketing literature, advertisements, direct mail pieces, press releases, white papers, etc. They do this for the client's top three competitors. And, they also build one for the client. This is the way top marketing executives compare what their teams have built compared to the competition. If their client's press kit looks like crap compared to the competition, guess who works overtime on the weekend to get things looking superior?

7. Become the Resident Expert If you take the time to build and compile the information mentioned above, you, no doubt, will become an industry expert at what your company or client's business does and why they do it better than the competition. You will be able to cover every single bullet point a reporter can think of because you have done more research and compiled more information to the subject matter than they could possibly imagine. Not only will you know the answers, but you will be able to refer them to a full library of informational links where they can download and research the information for themselves.

8. Experts Are Always the Best at Media Relations If you've followed all the steps mentioned above, you're now ready to call the press and pitch your polished story angles. Reporters will instantly recognize the fact that you know how the product works, how much it costs and what the return on investment is for the customer who buys the product. If a reporter asks you 10 questions, but better have 10 answers. "Let me check with the Client" or "I don't know" means "you won't get a story." It is much better to have a entire arsenal of information at your fingertips where you can direct reporters. Dazzle them with your brilliance, the inundate them with information. Follow these steps and it won't be long before a reporter is calling you to set up an interview to get the rest of the story from your executives.

9. Write the Story for Them. That's right. Make the reporter's job as easy as possible. As mentioned above, read the publication thoroughly and develop something that will fit easily into their editorial environment. Read their existing articles. What is the lead? What type of quotes do they use? Study different types of stories -- features, executive changes, news articles. If you know what the reporter needs and give it to them, you'll get a great story every time.

10. Measure the Results. At Front Page PR, we keep track of the value of the story in advertising dollars. If a full page of advertising costs $40,000 and the page size is 70 inches, you can figure the cost per inch. If we generate an article that is half a page or 35 inches, then it is worth $20,000. If the PR firm's monthly retainer is $10,000 per month, then you're getting a 200% return on just one article.

Proving that your service is delivering a great return on investment is the key to building long-term Client relationships.

When we get a front page story, we frame it and hang it the Client's lobby. Lots of framed stories in a lobby communicate an important message to all prospective customers and vendors waiting for an appointment -- this company is a leader and we should be doing business with them!

Robert Hoskins is the CEO/president of Front Page Public Relations. Mr. Hoskins is an expert at building successful media relations with high profile media outlets and has been successfully generating front page stories for clients for the past 16 years. He can be reached at robert.hoskins@frontpagepr.com or visit www.frontpagepr.com.

Front Page Public Relations Services