Media Coverage without Impact is a PR Fail

You develop a press release, send it out to a large media list and you garner huge amounts of coverage. You’re in the major dailies, maybe even on a national newscast, and you earn millions of impressions. Fantastic! After all, the more eyeballs that see a brand’s name, the better the success. But what if your strategy missed the mark? What if your seemingly successful relations was actually a total public relations flop?

When an organization wants press coverage, it is likely seeking to gain exposure for its product, brand, event or executives, with the end result being better sales, increased attendance to an event, or sometimes just more favourable recognition.

All the press in the world won't matter if you don't target the right audience with the right message/

Given the goals above, it makes sense to go after media that can give you the biggest audiences. How wonderful if you can score a story in top tier media like the Globe and Mail or on CBC News. Surely, that is media relations success. Yet, if the brand’s audiences aren’t reading the Globe and Mail or watching CBC, then your coverage has very little impact. Similarly, if your message is not properly articulated or doesn’t translate to your end objective, that too is a lost opportunity.

Before commencing any public relations campaign that relies on media , you need to step back and think about your priorities: who do you want to reach, when do you want to reach them, what do you want them to know or do. Only once you have identified these goals, can you measure the real impact of any resulting coverage.

The Audience

Bigger audiences aren’t always better audiences. Sometimes a brand is better off targeting trade magazines or local publications. A firm that works with agricultural clients, for example, will have better impact in a prominent but smaller farming publication where all the readers are potentially interested in their services, than in a top-tier newspaper that targets corporate or urban audiences.

Similarly, a company hosting a women’s issues event, would likely have better success increasing interest and ticket sales with a local newspaper, a women’s magazine or feminist blog, than with a national publication that might skew more towards male readers.

Before any media outreach begins, a company must first understand each outlet’s audience demographic. Then, it can target audiences that are in line with its brand, even though it may be tempting to simply go after the most prestigious or wide-reaching outlets.

 The Timing

 Sometimes timing is as important as the message. When putting together any PR campaign, it’s important to begin with establishing the objectives of the campaign. In the case of event PR, one objective may be to increase ticket sales, attendance or engagement. In that case, accrediting a list of reporters to attend your event, no matter how many stories they end up writing, does not help your objectives in the slightest. A campaign focused on pre-promotion of the event in local markets where potential attendees would see it would make more sense in this case.

The Message

 Even when a company does manage to get its message in front of the correct audience at the correct time, it can significantly lower its chances of reaching its objectives (increased sales, attendance, etc.) if the messaging does not actually relate to the goal itself.

 For instance, companies often put out media stories when they’ve released interesting new research, and so they should. But if that company’s goal is to drive audiences to its website, coverage of that research will not necessarily translate into click-through rates.

 Unless those news stories also include some mention of the website and a call to action or reason why readers should visit, then they will likely read the story and move on to the next.

The Impact

 Determining your clear objectives and then identifying your audience and key messages is a far more successful public relations strategy than simply blanketing random media outlets with coverage. While your number of impressions may be far smaller, you are much more likely to make an impact, and isn’t that what PR is all about?

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