DIY publicity generation for your organisation

Generating publicity is quite easy.

If the stories you have to share are worthy of space in publications and programmes that have easy access to more content than ever; are up-to-the-second new; are easy to understand for those that have no knowledge of technical background of the story; can make a difference in average people's lives; easily forms part of the news cycle; and is supported by trusted relationships with journalists and editors, then generating publicity is easy.

So let me restate the first line ... generating publicity is quite easy ... if you have the time to spend on it.

Generating publicity, or making sure you take care of the earned media part of your integrated marketing plan, is however still one of the best ways to spread the word about your organisation, its products, services and activities. A steady stream of great editorial content published on platforms read and listened to by your potential customers helps immensely in shortening your sales cycle.

Here are a few tips to help you get started without breaking the bank:

Start small
Don't set your expectations sky-high; rather aim for one great piece published in a publication, or one fantastic conversation on a broadcast programme that you know reaches your target audience.

Do your homework
One of the easiest ways to do this is to read the publication or listen to the programme yourself. This sounds quite obvious, but it is the number one oversight.

Listen and learn
Identify the type of stories that are published on the chosen platforms, and figure out which of your stories are the best fit. Another way to go about it is to contact the journalist or presenter and ask them what type of stories they prefer to publish.

Create valuable content
Newsrooms are incredibly busy, and prefer to receive content that conforms to their requirements. This means content submitted for editorial consideration should be written with facts as the focal point, and should not contain your marketing or sales messages.
Remember, journalists are tasked with informing the general public on issues that have an impact on their lives; your content should reflect and understanding of this.
Also keep in mind that photos submitted must be high resolution, and that you should obtain approval from every person quoted in the content before you send it to the media.

Build relationships
Journalists are people, and they like dealing with people, not representatives. They are however very pressured for time, so will not necessarily want to attend a lengthy introduction meeting or event. Communicate with journalists with the aim of helping them, not selling to them.

Know the difference between important and newsworthy
Many people find it difficult to distinguish the difference between news that is important to those already familiar with the organisation, and news that is worthy of editorial publicity. Make sure that the content you send to a journalist is current, relevant, and can make a difference to the lives of readers/listeners.
Don't worry, you can still use your important news to build your reputation by publishing it via your paid, shared or owned platforms.

Keep your ear on the ground
Make sure that you find out whether your content was used. Journalists are usually too pressured to help you with this, so try to use tools like Google Alerts, paid-for media monitoring tools, or even just by reading and listening to the publications you submitted your content to.

If you need more guidance, or simply don't have the time to follow all of these steps on a regular basis, give us a shout to see if we can help.