Marketing and Public Relations - Getting Your Name in the News

In Marketing and Public Relations it’s all about getting your name in the news. But, if you’ve tried issuing press releases with only modest success, what’s next?
You have to understand that magazines and newspapers are looking for the larger trends for their readers. They are trying to be the source of reassurance and a greater understanding of the big picture. For example, in real estate the issue behind the scene might be, what can I tell my readers about the next big thing in real estate? What can I tell my readers about great places to live, work and play? Where are savvy people putting their money? What businesses are thriving and why? What have you learned that works, and how can my readers benefit?
Is there a way to catch the interest of the big fish in media? Here are some top suggestions for getting your name in the news.
1. Define a niche that will be your avenue to authority.
2. Be a consistent and authoritative issuer of news. You and your firm must be seen as an authority on a particular issue or topic. Only then will you be seen as someone to turn to for regular quotes and your take on the issue.
3. Claim your stake to larger news. Start searching for stories about you and your firm that are larger than the small pieces you issue about staff changes and additions, charities and charitable work. This is the background to who you are, not who you are.
4. Make project or service news be about your core business first and peripheral issues later. In other words, if you are a developer of luxury hotels and resorts, hold the news about revamping third base of the kids’ ballpark until you have the larger news out there consistently.
5. Bundle your smaller news. Don’t send out personnel and other notices piecemeal, one by one. It becomes larger news, and the media cares that you are hiring, adding space, moving to a new building only when they understand the core nature of what you do. Then, bundle the personnel and other news and it feeds the bigger story. (Oh, they are a firm that does such and such, and now they are hiring and growing.)
6. Try to find a local angle. News is important to a publication only if it is in reach of their audience.
7. Send your press release out with a small pitch. Let the editors and writers know the statistics behind the story, why this is important and why they might care to share this with their readers.
You’ve heard it before—it’s not about you. It’s about them. And no truer words were ever spoken about Marketing and Public Relations, the media and getting your name in the news.