5 Things B2Bs Must Know for Better Media Relations

There is a common misconception about what media relations is and what it entails. While social posts, news releases, and blog posts are sources of news, media relations is the process of communicating such news directly to a journalist, in the form of a pitch.

Media relations is handled by a company’s communications officer or a third-party media relations professional acting on the company’s behalf. In either case, the biggest challenge is getting interest from journalists, since one in four receive over 100 pitches per week.

I’m offering five truths about media relations to help ensure greater success:

1. Relevance is essential. We’ve established that journalists are up to their ears in pitches. For this reason, they must be compelling to gain a reporter’s attention. According to a recent survey, topic relevance is the most important pitch component to journalists at 42%, followed by personalization at 35%.

Media relations professionals must consider whether the news they’re pitching is presented in a way that is relevant to the publication’s readership. They should ask themselves, “What is this reporter interested in and how can I fit within that scope?” Scheduling the topics pitched to media in alignment with their editorial calendars is also a good way to establish relevance and timeliness.

2. Bigger isn’t always better. All CEOs dream of their company being featured in the Wall St. Journal or on CNBC—and it’s true that securing such top-tier media is considered a home run. However, it can be equally important, and sometimes even more important, to gain coverage in smaller industry publications that are highly targeted to your audience.

Let’s say you’re a cybersecurity company that lands an article in SC Magazine. While the publication’s audience is smaller than that of The New York Times, its readership is comprised of cybersecurity professionals—the exact people you want to reach. Conversely, the New York Times’ readership, while great, will be comprised of only a small percentage of your target audience.

3. Product news (on its own) is rarely considered “news” by the media. Naturally, a new product launch is exciting news to a company but be aware that such things are considered “feature” material by the media only when it’s connected to a significant news hook. For example, a compelling angle could be that the new product is first to resolve a major business challenge or is riding an emerging industry trend.

Media relations professionals must consider how their product news can be woven into a larger conversation. Let’s go back to our cybersecurity company example: Instead of straight product news, could your pitch be based around a rising security threat or recent major hacking event?

4. The most effective strategy is to have a variety of news over a span of time. While we do our best to accommodate compressed schedules, such as ahead of a trade show or an urgent funding release, the most effective media coverage campaigns involve strategic pre-planning, a diverse portfolio of content to pitch from, and a multi-stage process for engaging media. The latter might include a 60-day period to brief analysts about news under NDA first, followed by two weeks of advance pitching to top-tier media to get the most important influencers behind you prior to a broader dissemination date.

Further, the best media coverage is typically secured from reporters who are already familiar with your brand because they’ve received several high-value communications from you—such as thought leadership commentary on their recent stories, for instance.

5. Lack of coverage doesn’t always mean failure. If you’re steadily dispersing news—which we recommend for projecting a sense of activity—accept that not every story will be covered. If you’re pitching eight stories a year and half fail to receive coverage, something is wrong and requires reassessment, but it shouldn’t be expected that every pitch will convert to editorial space.

When a story isn’t picked up, it doesn’t mean it was a failure, as it’s keeping your solution on journalists’ radar. Such visibility is important since they’ll likely reach out to you when they’re working on a story that fits your category. A 60% to 70% pitch success rate is realistic.

Consider news posted to the wire and pitches sent as seeds planted that can be “found” when journalists go searching for a story. I had one national news reporter call me months after a press release on a client’s research report was published because they needed a time-sensitive interview, and our report was the most compelling they’d found. More recently, I pitched a healthcare story in fall 2021, and a reporter who saved my pitch called me in spring 2022 because they wanted to interview my client now that they had a correlating story and hard deadline assigned.

While most media I pitch are quick to respond, these are two examples showing the power of steadily planting seeds that grow relationships and make you an editorial resource to the media versus a promotional agent.

If you need help getting media coverage for your company news, we can help. Our media relations pros have experience spanning industry verticals, top-tier business publications, bloggers, broadcast media, analysts, and more.