You got some positive press. Time to get up, maybe do a dance – celebrate! But, after that, what can you do to get the most out of your media coverage?
Being mentioned in the media is an excellent opportunity to reach a new audience and build relationships amongst consumers. Most people just share this great news on social media and then they are done. There is so much more value to be gained from positive press.
Pro-Tip: Before you can make a plan to get the most out of your media coverage, you need to know you were mentioned in the media and you need to know as quickly as possible. We recommend utilizing Google Alerts and Mention.com. Surprisingly, Mention.com is quicker and tends to capture more coverage.
Now that you’re in a position to know as soon as you’ve received some positive press, let’s talk about what to do after you’ve got the press.
First, you’ll want to create a list of all the ways this particular media coverage could be utilized to benefit your business. Could this coverage help boost your brand’s recognition or authority in the community? Could it help increase your presence in search engines and grow sales?
List every possible idea you have. After you’re done, prioritize the actions that will bring the most value.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Build relationships and drive traffic
Did the media publisher include a link to your website? If not, reach out and ask them if they could add a link to your site. This can help push traffic to your website as well as provide SEO benefit.
Press pages are valuable to businesses for two key reasons. Press pages serve as a way to communicate your community involvement, accolades and other things you want to share with clients, potential clients, partners and employees. In addition, if people link to the media coverage, you will benefit from additional traffic to your website, and the links can improve your positioning in search engines.
You may also want to build a list of websites and influencers that are talking about your story and reach out to start growing these relationships. Maybe they could mention your story in their content. They may want to link to the media publisher themselves – that’s great! If the publisher links to you, the more links that point to the publisher’s page just increases the value of that link.
Share smart, share often
When you share the media coverage, be sure to tag the media outlet as well as other organizations that may have been mentioned. They will appreciate the additional exposure and it can help put you in front of additional audiences.
Reminder: If posting from a personal account, make sure you’re posting “publicly” so everyone can see it and share it. Be sure to share the news from your company page and use hashtags if appropriate.
Don’t be a “one and done!” You can share this great news multiple times in the coming days, weeks or even years. The frequency will depend on the platform.
Push content to clients, partners
Thinking about sending this great news out to your email, text, or push list? What about only a segment of your list?
Share with your clients to keep it top of mind that you’re not only a “thought leader,” but also that you’re active in the community, that you won an award for your awesome work, or whichever message you’d like to convey.
Quality user experience boosts your reputation. Utilize logos and media coverage to help provide confidence to your users that they are working with a company with a great track record.
Target your ideal audience
The two types of paid promotion are utilized in different ways to expose new audiences to your content. Spread the great news even further with some paid social promotion. Make sure you are aiming for your target audience. Hopefully you already have tracking pixels installed for Google and Facebook! If you do you can very inexpensively get this news coverage in front of everyone who has recently visited your website with paid remarketing.
Offline and other options to consider
Though we live in a digital age, don’t forget about all the other offline areas that you can derive value from your media coverage. Printed materials, such as sales collateral, brochures and banners can be highly effective at gaining exposure.
Other traditional advertising options include newspapers, radio, television and job postings on career sites. Share the content internally with team members and during future presentations.
Media coverage presents numerous marketing opportunities to grow your digital presence and build trust with your audience. A little extra effort to cultivate online relationships can pay dividends over time. So, buckle up and build your brand!
Kevin Getch is the founder and director of digital strategy for Webfor, a creative and digital marketing agency focused on delivering enterprise-level digital marketing and web design expertise to small- and medium-size businesses. Follow him @KevinGetch.
