The top questions to ask before developing a media relations strategy

You want to promote your brand, or have a new product, service or event to announce. The question is, why would the media be interested?

Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to ask to develop your media relations strategy:

• What are you trying to achieve?
  The starting place for any media relations work is your business goal and comms objectives. It’s not just coverage for coverage’s sake.

• Who do you need to influence to achieve it?
  Identify your audience – before you can change anyone’s minds, you need to know exactly who you’re talking to.

• What behaviour do you want to change?
  What do you want your target audience to think, feel, do?

• What messages do you need to convey?
  Devise a list of key messages that are not only key for your brand to convey, but also that will resonate with your target audience.

• What media should you target?
  Do your research to identify what media your target audience consumes.

• What story can we tell that would be relevant to them?
  What’s the hook? If you haven’t got a strong story your media campaign won’t get off the ground. The story doesn’t have to actually be about the product or service you’re promoting, in fact it would probably be stronger if it offers new insight into a consumer behavior or a wider trend that highlights the need for what your client if offering. Consider what you are experts on and makes you stand out.

• Which journalists are going to be most receptive to these ideas?
  Competitive analysis can help to see which media outlets are covering similar stories as well who is writing about your competitors.

• What timeframe are you working in?
  When should you send out your information to be timely? Keep in mind media lead times and consider seasonal or trends related hooks to make your story a ‘must-cover’.

• How will you measure success?
  Proving messaging cut through, media relevance to your target audience or the actions people have taken as a result of media success are often more important than just circulation figures.

If you’d like support on developing a successful media relations strategy for your brand from our media experts please do get in touch on info@speedcomms.com