Building and maintaining a consistent and impactful earned media relations program in the United States (and indeed the UK) is a long-term investment for scale-up technology companies.
In the challenging US-based tech media landscape, when a tech scale-up has ‘allegedly’ a great product proposition, and a sound business strategy, but no exposure, they can easily get buried among their lesser competitors. These ambitious tech businesses, with no media presence will find it even harder to stand out from the crowd, with current and prospective, investors, customers, partners and employees. So what can be done?
Here are some tips from one of our top quality PR partners on the west coast of America, who has outlined the Seven Tips for a successful US-based media relations program.
1- PR could actually stand for personal relationships. Build them! Read, read, read. Do your homework on EACH journalist, their beats, their story writing style, their foibles, their proclivities. Today, social media offers ample opportunity to see what makes them tick and discover that entry point.
2– Strive to be a resource of insightful information to journalists. Be steeped in knowledge, not just a buzzword bingo pitcher. And don’t just pitch your client, but broader industry topics that have relevance for the reader, and your client.
3— In your pitches, set out the context and the why now. Answer the 5Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why and how. These are the basic tenets of journalism.
4– Email blasts don’t work. Period. Once you accomplish #1, you will craft smart, custom pitches that can grab the media’s attention.
5– If at first you don’t succeed, try try, again. Timing is everything. Make sure your pitches are in sync with the news flow – e.g.: in tech, don’t try to pitch journalists on the day Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft (or those other larger beasts) are making their announcements, or you’ll be drowned out.
6– Have your own opinion. Vocalize. Be clever and smart. Maybe even a bit sassy. This builds your own brand and establishes street cred. As with #1, follow journalists, go where they are (including on the right social media platforms), read their work, engage in conversation on the topic, the trend, the news developments relevant to your work.
7 — News? The old adage man bites dog still rules but most times we do NOT have real “news” to offer the media. Yet clients often believe they do. Our job is to properly position the client within the larger industry and to pay attention to timely market news and trends, where the client is relevant and has something to say. Help the journalist understand that by talking with our client, they will gain greater insight into their beat.
Hopefully, you are living by these lucky seven tips (and we’re sure there are more), but if you want to discuss your US (and/or your UK) PR and media relations program needs, then click here to call to book a short intro strategy call to discuss your comms needs for 2024.