Whether for sales support or brand awareness, it’s a central tenet for any marketing campaign that organizations must be active and differentiating on a continuous basis. Generating an ongoing stream of news is often the most powerful approach to keeping a company’s public profile high, yet most organizations lack this. The question then becomes how to generate interest among media during those “no news” periods. Here are a few proven ideas that work:
Surveys
Properly executed surveys can uncover new trends and highlight specific opinions among a targeted group of executives. Two keys to a successful survey are envisioning the headline of the survey results in advance and crafting the questions to yield that headline. The second is to have a well-articulated goal of what the survey is designed to accomplish. Some examples of goals include supporting lead generation and earning media coverage. Surveys can range from in-depth interviews with as few as 10 people, to statistically significant surveys of hundreds or thousands of respondents.
Other Reports
In addition to surveys, organizations can generate media coverage by producing other types of reports. A few examples of different report types include:
- Predictions – Typically limited to year-end and mid-year, predictions reports allow organizations to share opinions on their market prospects. Essential for a successful predictions report are ideas that are differentiating — contrary to general opinions, counterintuitive or communicating some type of disruption.
- Internal Data – Some organizations collect customer data that can be aggregated and organized into a trend report. In addition to being newsworthy, this type of report must preserve customer privacy, and marketers must make it clear these results are not statistically significant.
- Aggregated Data – Organizations can create reports based on predictions or themes and then collect publicly-available data to support those predictions or themes.
For everything you need to know about creating effective reports, please see our recent blog, Reports That Get Attention.
Trendjacking
Monitoring for news from other organizations and then making your organization’s executives available for comment can generate media coverage, support your organization’s thought leadership positioning and support your differentiation messages. It is also easy and low-cost to execute — monitor media, secure the executive team’s opinions and push out the insights via email or media alert.
Media Pitch Drumbeat
Woody Allen once said that 80% of success in life is showing up. We often recommend that our clients push out a new media theme monthly, designed to keep our clients’ names at the top of their minds and position them as idea people, bringing new article ideas to them regularly. Often these pitches spark a conversation focused on the theme provided, writing on a related piece, or we may not hear from an editor for six months until they contact us saying, “remember that idea you sent me earlier; now I’m ready to write.”
Social Media
Many journalists post on their social media channels announcing topics they are writing about, requesting sources, or requesting article ideas. Below is an example from Kevin Roose at The New York Times:
Staying active on social media and contacting journalists offering sources and article ideas can be an easy win.
Most organizations don’t have continuous news, but maintaining a high profile on an ongoing basis is essential, whether for sales support or brand awareness. There are multiple strategies for addressing these challenges, some are more work than others, but all can support an organization’s marketing goals.
Let us know if you want to learn more about these strategies!