One of the biggest marketing challenges you'll face as a startup, small business, or even the marketing division of a large corporation is getting media attention. Especially as a startup, You'll need to rely on alternative outlets and cheap strategies to give you early traction because you have no customers, no name recognition, and little capital to invest in enhancing your reputation. Getting media attention for your startup is one of the best ways to do this, but it is frequently easier said than done. It is challenging to establish credibility, awareness, and exposure for your company if you don't receive media coverage. These are the pillars of PR, and businesses must establish them as firm foundations from the beginning. Media attention is a great way to develop brand recognition, boost credibility, and increase sales. 

Table of Content

01. What is media coverage?

02. Why does your startup need media coverage?

03. How to get media coverage for your startup?

04. How can we measure our media coverage?

What is media coverage?

Media coverage (also known as press coverage) is essentially synonymous with publicity. However, in the world of public relations, press coverage is referred to as 'Earned media.

Earned media and owned media are both organic growth marketing tactics. Meanwhile, paid media is advertising that is, well, directly paid for. While paid media can be useful for increasing traffic to your website, its reach and effectiveness are limited.

Why does your startup need media coverage? 

Positive media attention can be a very effective marketing tool. It presents your company favorably to your target audience by projecting the authority, knowledge, and image you want to show. More significantly, it originates from a reliable source. Have the media ever written about you or your company? What about your rivals? What impact did it have on the public's perception of your company?

1. Gain exposure with no or little financial investment.

The upfront costs of advertising, marketing campaigns, or events are not involved with unpaid media coverage. Even social media channels, which are free to set up, frequently need funding to acquire a steady stream of worthwhile content if they're to take off.

Although it is evergreen and can be displayed on your website for years, just one noteworthy piece of media coverage can bring you exposure to thousands, if not millions, of readers or viewers. You do need to invest some time in planning and providing reporters with content they want to write about. Furthermore, you have no control over how journalists independently report the information you provide them, whereas you do have control over your advertising, campaigns, and events. Because of this, it makes financial sense to invest in skills that will enable you to manage these risks and obtain the coverage you need.

Digital marketing has taken over the world and we can clearly see that when we refer to DIGITAL 2022: GLOBAL OVERVIEW REPORT. The power of digital marketing will be linked to your startup through efforts to gain media coverage.

Send us a message  at any time if you need help getting started in the world of digital marketing or improving your current digital marketing strategies.

2. Obtain incredibly worthwhile shareable content

You can use media coverage to help your own channels grow faster. People enjoy "being in the news" or knowing someone who is in the news, so media coverage generates buzz.

You can post it on social media with words like "delighted to be joining the global conversation about [the subject of the coverage] in this news story" and attach a screenshot or link to it. The coverage will increase word-of-mouth marketing and engagement on your own channels, as well as SEO.

3. Increase credibility and trust.

Media coverage from a third party provides external validation and boosts a company's credibility. When your company is mentioned in a Financial Times or Bloomberg news story, this is evidence that you have withstood their scrutiny and selection as journalists are skilled at finding flaws in a story and can choose anyone to work with. Investors require a reason to believe in your company, and media coverage can provide it. This is especially true if you can show how your company has grown from the time you won your first significant contract to the partnerships and awards you have signed, as well as the transformations you have delivered in the real world.

How to get media coverage for your business?

Positive media attention can be a very effective marketing tool. It presents your company favorably to your target audience by projecting the authority, knowledge, and image you want to show. More significantly, it originates from a reliable source. Have the media ever written about you or your company? What about your rivals? What impact did it have on the public's perception of your company?

Getting favorable media attention is a great way to build credibility. Your potential customers and stakeholders may end up becoming advocates for your cause as a result of an article or review in which you are positioned as a critical thought leader on a pertinent topic or issue.

1. Create your story with owned media.

Before you start thinking about how to get press, you should first get your things in order.

This includes ensuring that your internal messaging, branding and in-house content are up to date. You might find it strange that a guide on how to get press coverage focuses on the benefits of owned media. But believe us. It's well worth your time.

If you pitch to journalists, keep in mind that they will visit your website before deciding whether or not to write about you. They won't be interested in giving you any media coverage if your website is unorganized or just appears amateurish. Or, suppose you do secure some press coverage. As a result, your website receives more referral traffic. However, if your website and branding aren't ideal for the potential visitor, it might sabotage the newfound attention. 

Therefore, the first stage of your journey is to go through your owned media content and make sure it conveys:

-Who you are

-What you do

-What are your values

Send us a message at any time if you need assistance with optimizing your owned media to achieve remarkable results!

2. Setup media monitoring

Let's define media monitoring to get things started. When you monitor the media, you keep an eye out for what people are saying about your company, your brand, your rivals, your sector, and any other issues that are significant to your operations. When you break it down, media monitoring is really quite easy. Use the most appropriate media monitoring tools after deciding what you want to monitor.

For instance, at Publicize, we keep an eye on a variety of industry terms as well as our own brand and the brands of our rivals.

• Startup PR
• Tech PR
• Silicon Valley PR
• Digital PR

Here are some tools you can use to media monitor:

3. Plan your PR strategy to gain media attention.

There are numerous types of earned media successes available to you. Here are some of the suggested tactics for gaining media coverage:

Guest Articles - This is a piece of content that you write and then publish under your own name on the website of a third-party media organization. It's widely regarded as one of the most effective earned-media strategies, and we employ it frequently for our clients. It increases your credibility and exposure and is beneficial to SEO if done correctly.

Press releases - The oldest PR tactic in the book is the press release. However, there have been rumors circulating in the PR industry that they are no longer effective. That is untrue. If you actually have something newsworthy to announce, which is unfortunately only once or twice a year for the average startup, press releases still have their time and place. Competition is fierce because of the enormous volume of daily submissions that journalists receive. As a result, we advise you to use them in moderation and dedicate some time to learning how to create press releases.

Podcast appearances - A great way to show the human side of you and your company is to appear as a guest on a podcast that is pertinent to your field. It's also the best platform for you to demonstrate your expertise in the field and position yourself as a thought leader.

Reviews - are a great way to gain earned media because they cut through the blather and, if the review is favorable, only highlight the features and advantages of your good or service.

Newsjacking - This is when keeping an eye on the media is useful. If a news item about your industry is making the rounds, take into account the following: do you have a fresh viewpoint? Do you have a response to my claim? If so, you can ask for a response or even suggest to a publication that you write a thought piece analyzing the news item. This is excellent for increasing your exposure and brand recognition.

Interviews - Similar to podcasts, interviews allow you to demonstrate both your human side and your expertise in the field. Do you or your business have an especially intriguing past? Additionally, you could mention this in interviews.

How can we measure our media coverage?

This can also be a little challenging given the vast amounts of data that are currently at our disposal. It used to be simple (and often inaccurate). All you had to do was use AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency). AVE was calculated by determining the worth of any article by contrasting it with the price of an identically sized advertisement space; it was essentially a calculation of column inches.

It is not a good idea to measure success by comparing earned and paid media inch for inch, and it is even more absurd to assign an arbitrary price to it. PR and communications professionals can now evaluate success in a variety of ways, thanks to the advancement of media intelligence and advanced media monitoring tools. 

If you aren't confident about which KPIs to use, send us a message at any time and we would love to assist you!

Let's go through some of the KPIs we can use to measure the success of our media coverage.

1. Sentiment analysis

Have you ever wanted to learn about the attitudes, opinions, and emotions expressed in every mention of your brand? You certainly can.

Yes, sentiment analysis is a very useful metric for gaining an overview of public opinion on pretty much anything.

Let's go back to 2015, during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership campaign for the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. According to the tracking data, 80 percent of newspaper articles contained negative attitudes toward the politician. The tone on social media, however, was quite different. Fifty-two percent of conversations had a positive tone. implying that journalists and voters had very different perspectives on the issue.

2 . Share of Voice

Another clever way to assess your media coverage is to compare it to that of other campaigns. This is where Share of Voice (SOV) comes into play. SOV is a metric that determines how you compare to your competitors. It can reveal how much coverage your company receives in comparison to your competitors. A metric that will help you keep your brand ahead of the competition.

This strategic advantage enables you to identify opportunities and implement strategies to increase the influence of your brand. Winning.

3 . Volume of engagement

Tracking engagement, perhaps the most precise of the metrics, may not have the boardroom 'wow factor,' but it will give you a concrete idea of how your media coverage campaign has landed. All you have to do is observe your audience's reaction. This can be accomplished via email, social media, or comments on a blog post. Did they participate? Or did they completely miss it, as we did with the final season of Lost?

Look for engagement metrics such as clicks, retweets, and shares. Email open and click-through rates, as well as comments and replies on social media posts. If a user takes the time to respond or comment on your content, you're doing something right.

There you go!

You are now aware of how to obtain the most media coverage and how to use it to propel your startup to the next level. Media coverage is only one component of your startup's success. Read the blog posts below to learn more about growing your startup.

If you have a killer pitch and aren't confident in how to pitch it, This guide will help you!

If you want to pitch a deal and ace that deal, this guide will help you!

and if you aren't familiar with what common pitch deck errors to avoid while creating yours, check out this blog.

And if you still need more assistance,

Don't worry! here at CreativeHub, We help startup founders all across the world to kick-start their startups and we help existing start-ups to take their dreams to the next level.

Check out our success stories here. 

Send us a message at any time to discuss your start-up.