Top Tips for generating local media exposure:
Gaining positive local media exposure is a very important part of your local public relations activity. Effective local media exposure can positively inform and educate your target market in a way that matters to them.
There are lots of ways you can generate free positive public relations through your local press (paid for and free), and local/regional radio and television.
Anyone and everyone can do Local PR, just remember that your local media are most interested in the “local angle” and that what is happening in their area is either, brand new, the first, the biggest, the best or involves a celebrity or members of the local community.
Remember, journalists receive many press releases a day and you have only one chance to make your story stand out.
So how do you do write the perfect Press Release?
- Target your media carefully – check that your proposed release is relevant to the publication, its readership and overall style of the magazine.
- Search your chosen media (local papers and lifestyle magazines) and see what stories are getting coverage. Consider how and why these have succeeded.
- Consider any current news opportunities where you could step in and help?
- Identify any current topical issues that you could exploit (this is less hard-sell than straight contacting).
- Find out the who the different editors for each newspaper and the different producers/researchers for your local radio stations (eg Health, Fashion etc.).
- Obtain the editorial calendars or forward features of any publications you wish to target.
- Consider the potential opportunities within each section/programme – lifestyle, kids, health, fashion, schools, sports and seasonal opportunities, eg Mothers Day
- Call and introduce yourself. Ask what they are interested in, their preferred method of receiving press releases, their deadlines and whether they would like you to follow up your release with a phone call.
- Better still, offer to visit them or even invite them to your premises to see your business. Personal contact is better than press releases in most cases and means journalists/reporters may be more willing to take your calls in future
- Consult with customers, friends and family to generate ideas on possible press features
- Produce a fact-pack of quotes, statistics, photographs etc. that you can refer to quickly if a journalist calls you and wants a story fast
- Remember, journalists are hungry for good stories; helping them by providing the stories they need earns you coverage and more importantly, increased attention for next time.
Best tips for writing a press release:
- Be clear about your PR objectives – remember RADAR (recognition, arousal, desire, action, reinforcement, reminder, reassurance)
- Make your title a simple, attention grabbing, summary of the key point in the story
- Personalise your press releases (write an appropriate headline for each publication and include an individual personalised note before you add the body of the release)
- Then title the body of the release with FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
- Identify the main point in the first paragraph by using What, Who, When and Where. What the story is about, what is new or unique about it, who is involved, where it is taking place and when it is happening!
- Use simple language to explain some facts and details to flesh out the story
- Remember that including a picture increases your chances of coverage; it makes your product or service more tangible.
- Write in the third voice “The Welcome Inn is going to … ”
- Try and include a quote from a third party if you can as an endorsement