5 Steps to Your First Media Feature - Shella Gardezi

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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:30:23 Unknown Hey everyone, and welcome to my presentation Five Steps to Your First Media feature. My name is Shella Gardezi and I am pleased to be part of the June Jumpstart sessions, because I know that many entrepreneurs haven't really considered using this strategy in their marketing stack, so I'm happy to be here to introduce it to you. Or if you have tried it and you weren't successful.  

00:00:31:00 - 00:01:11:03 Unknown We're going to learn how to be successful. Or if you are a regular contributor to the media, this might be interesting to you as well. Before we get started, I just wanted to introduce myself and talk about why I am teaching this particular type of presentation. Before I became a full time agency owner, I was a journalist. So I covered a lot of business stories, especially local businesses, and I learned what makes a good business story and what can we do better.  

00:01:11:03 - 00:01:37:10 Unknown But before we go into details about the strategy, let's talk about why media coverage is something you should be considering for your business. Because I know you are probably already overwhelmed with all of the strategies that are out there, but I am going to make the argument that media coverage is one of the best strategies because it is more attention grabbing.  

00:01:37:12 - 00:02:29:00 Unknown It opens you up to a huge number of new people, and maybe you've had this experience on social media or other strategies that you have, employed that it's really hard these days to get a new audience coming in. But when you aim to get featured in a publication, then suddenly you have a huge number of new traffics coming into your business and having your story featured in the media makes you more relatable, because the media is all about telling stories and people love to hear stories, whether it's about why you started your business or what makes your business different, or what's the mission and values behind your business.  

00:02:29:02 - 00:03:02:12 Unknown When people read about this or hear about this in the media, they remember it because usually the journalist will help you frame it around a story. And that's something we're going to talk about today as well. How to frame your story. And it helps you to create memorable messaging, because once you have nailed down a few important stories that say a lot about you and your business, these become your brand stories and people remember them.  

00:03:02:14 - 00:03:27:04 Unknown Everyone remembers that Steve Jobs opened or started Apple in his garage, because that is a memorable story, and it became part of the story of Apple. Even though he wasn't part of Apple for a long time. But it just kept getting told. And it became part of the story of Apple computers. And it helps you to stand out from your competitors.  

00:03:27:04 - 00:03:54:05 Unknown Because if we have two insurance agencies and one is writing a regular column in the paper and the other one isn't, then people are more likely to remember the person who is giving them helpful tips and advice in the newspaper. So you can rise above your competitors and really stand out in your field, and it allows you to develop a personal connection with your audience.  

00:03:54:07 - 00:04:25:13 Unknown When I used to work in offices, I used to get media coverage for the executive, and they would go on the TV or the radio, or they would be interviewed by a print journalist, and they would, as soon as that interview aired or was published, suddenly the calls into the office would increase, and the people who are calling were much more interested in sharing their personal problems to see if we could help them.  

00:04:25:15 - 00:04:54:13 Unknown Because by being in the media, the company had overcome the struggles to create the know like trust factor, which is so essential in marketing. So immediately you will have a deeper connection with your audience because they will feel that they know you. So what don't you need in order to do media features? Because a lot of people here are thinking, yeah, I'm probably too small for this.  

00:04:54:13 - 00:05:24:13 Unknown Maybe I'll do this some time down the road, but right now I'm just getting started. However, it's important to remember that you don't need a big audience because everybody has a story, no matter how large or small your audience is, and you don't necessarily need a unique business. If you are an accountant and you know that there are millions of accountants out there, you can still tell an interesting story.  

00:05:24:13 - 00:05:49:13 Unknown And we're going to talk about how to do that. In a future step in this video. And you don't need a lot of fame or status. You don't need to be famous in your industry. You don't have to be the best performing manager in your district or whatever it is. You just need to have a good story and you don't need to hire a PR firm.  00:05:49:15 - 00:05:55:19 Unknown We're going to talk about how you can do this yourself.  

00:05:55:21 - 00:06:21:05 Unknown So here are the factors that you actually do need in order to get featured in the media. You need a story that really says something about you and your business. And we're going to talk about that. And you need to understand what the news business is looking for. Because they're not looking for you to tell them about your sales and your products and services.  

00:06:21:05 - 00:06:52:13 Unknown They do not want to hear any kind of advertising at all, because there is a very strict dividing line in the media between what is called editorial, which is the stories, and what is called ad advertorial or advertising, which is the ads. And sometimes, there are sponsored stories. In fact, sponsored stories are becoming even more popular due to the influence of content online.  

00:06:52:15 - 00:07:19:22 Unknown But we are going to talk about what kind of values you need to show in your story in order to get media attention, and that doesn't mean that this is not worthwhile as a marketing tactic because you can't advertise. It just means that we are going to focus on other things such as mission, value, origin, etc. and you need a strategy.  

00:07:19:22 - 00:07:36:00 Unknown How are you going to make this sustainable in your business? And once you know what you're doing, you will have enough confidence to go forward and speak confidently to the media.  

00:07:36:02 - 00:07:46:04 Unknown So step one, we need to discover what stories in our business are newsworthy.  

00:07:46:06 - 00:08:25:13 Unknown So stories that evoke emotions, highlight challenges, triumphs, or personal journeys are typically stories that the media wants to hear. The media is always interested in hearing real human stories. What did that person do? How did they feel, what obstacles did they face, and what did they overcome? When I was a journalist, the biggest problem I had when I was trying to do interviews was not getting enough personal details or enough of the personal story, the human interest story out of the source.  

00:08:25:14 - 00:08:55:22 Unknown And sometimes people didn’t want to share that. But it's important for making sure that the media can find your story newsworthy. So think about some challenges that you overcame, either in the starting of your business or in the development of your products and services, or what problem did you pinpoint out there the world that you needed to solve.  

00:08:55:24 - 00:09:28:14 Unknown And also an inspiring origin or mission is always a good frame for our press release because that will help to tie your story back to your business. For example, I worked with a person who started an agency and she only wanted to work with B corporations, which are corporations that, have a mission to help social justice and making the world a better place.  

00:09:28:14 - 00:10:03:01 Unknown And she decided this after she had recovered from an illness and decided to leave corporate to start her own business. So her mission was to help others because of her the illness that she had experienced. So that is a powerful story for a press release. What is the impact, of your story? How many people can you help or how are you changing things?  

00:10:03:01 - 00:10:39:17 Unknown How are you changing the industry to be better? Or how are you changing people's lives for the better through your products and services? And also anything that's odd or unusual about you could also be a story. For example, I put here five generations of entrepreneurs, if that's you, then that's a good angle for a story. But think about what makes you stand out that makes you really different.  

00:10:39:19 - 00:11:00:09 Unknown So next, now that we have decided on our story, we want to select the right platform for the story. So by platform I'm talking broadly about whether we are going to be in the newspaper, magazines, TV, radio, etc..  

00:11:00:11 - 00:11:25:19 Unknown So print is newspapers, magazines and trade journals and a lot of people aren't that aware of trade journals, but there are industry trade journals for basically every kind of type of business out there. For example, insurance, real estate, hairdressing, etc., etc. so if you have a beauty product and you want to get it into salons, you might  

00:11:25:19 - 00:11:35:11 Unknown want to target a trade journal that reaches people who are, in the beauty industry and,  

00:11:35:11 - 00:11:57:16 Unknown you might think that print is dead, so why would I bother pitching my local newspaper? Who even reads that thing? But actually all most print magazines, newspapers, etc. put all of their content or at least a good majority of their content online.  

00:11:57:18 - 00:12:17:20 Unknown Sometimes it's paid, sometimes it's free, but, people, access it online and it's easy to search for through Google. And even if an article is behind that paywall, it still shows up on Google,  

00:12:17:20 - 00:12:55:10 Unknown So if people are interested enough, they will do the free trial. They will maybe forget that they have the free trial and keep subscribing to the paper, because people really want to get, news. They just do it online these days. And secondly, broadcast TV, radio, public access TV and again you might be thinking, well, this is very out of date, but actually a lot of people do still watch TV news radio news because they can do other things while they're doing it.  0

0:12:55:10 - 00:13:31:09 Unknown For example, I went to a conference once and there was a radio reporter there and somebody asked her, what is your demographic for your radio station? She worked for a talk radio station, and she said, a lot of, people in delivery, type jobs, taxi drivers, that sort of thing. People who drive a lot were listening to the station a lot because, there is not much else to do when you're driving, and music gets kind of old if you're always on the road.


00:13:31:09 - 00:13:57:16 Unknown So a lot of people in that demographic were listening to the station and TV. A lot of people who are stay at home or they are doing things that don't require their complete attention, like washing the dishes and stuff like that. They will watch the TV news, or they will keep the TV news on in the background while they're taking care of their children and all of those things.  

00:13:57:16 - 00:14:14:21 Unknown So TV, radio still very popular, and public access TV again, you might be thinking, who has the time to watch public access TV? But actually some of the hosts of these shows have their own following and they are very popular,  

00:14:14:21 - 00:14:44:03 Unknown And then, of course, there is the whole online world that are seeking guests and speakers and interview subjects for their podcasts, their blogs, their vlogs, their and also online news sites. There are a lot of online news sites that operate similarly to local newspapers. For example, in the town where I grew up, there is a paper of record they call it.  

00:14:44:03 - 00:15:01:01 Unknown That's basically your daily paper. But there is also a website that covers the news and the town. And lately the website has been way more popular than the newspaper. And people just go on to the website to get their news about the city.  

00:15:01:01 - 00:15:43:08 Unknown So what factors should you consider when you're deciding where you want to, pitch your stories? Well, first of all, you probably want to consider the audience because you probably have a pretty good idea of who your audience is. So if you're trying to target mostly a female audience, they are more likely to possibly be watching the morning TV and, if you're targeting, more business professionals, they might watch the 6:00 news or the 11:00 news or they might be reading the local newspaper.  

00:15:43:10 - 00:16:18:14 Unknown If you're targeting a younger demographic, then probably they're using more online sources than traditional sources. And does your audience align with the audience of the platform. And another important thing to consider is location. And I always recommend, especially for beginners, that you pitch your local news because they are more likely to publish you because they have a mandate to cover the local community.  

00:16:18:14 - 00:16:50:18 Unknown So if they know that you are local, they are more likely to pick up your press release. So if you're pitching your local newspaper, always mention where you live and also niche. So we talked about industry trade journals. So that is a very niched down audience. And also a lot of online sources are very or platforms are very niche oriented.  

00:16:50:20 - 00:17:21:02 Unknown And there are news sites that cater to different segments. For example, you might find a blog that only talks about e-commerce news or something like that. And there are a lot of different niches that you could be pitching in the online world. However, if you're pitching your local news media, you're going to reach a broader, less niched down audience.  

00:17:21:04 - 00:17:52:24 Unknown But that's still worthwhile because somewhere in that broad audience is going to be people who meet your demographic. However, it's important to make sure that the editor or the producer or the reporter understands how your particular story serves their audience, which we're going to talk about in a second. Here. As we talk about researching where we went to pitch our articles.  

00:17:53:01 - 00:18:30:23 Unknown So once you've decided where you want to be featured, whether it's on TV, radio or newspaper or online, it's important before you try to pitch them to read, watch and listen to what types of stories they do so that not only can you make sure that your story aligns with their particular, focus, but also you can ensure that you're explaining to the person who's receiving your press release why your story matters to their audience.  

00:18:31:00 - 00:19:00:23 Unknown And we're going to talk about pitching at the end. But, for in the meantime, make sure that you understand that, that outlet that you're pitching very well before you pitch them, and also understand who you are going to send it to, because you're going to have a much greater chance of success if you know who is going to receive the press release.  

00:19:01:00 - 00:19:30:09 Unknown So what reporters, editors, hosts or producers do you like? For example, if you are submitting to the drive home talk show on your local, NPR radio station or whatever, they have a producer who is deciding, helping to decide what kind of stories they're going to cover. If you like a particular reporter, don't be afraid to address that reporter.  

00:19:30:11 - 00:20:03:08 Unknown Usually you would send your story to an editor, but if you really feel aligned with what that reporter is doing, you can email them directly. In most cases. So, for example, if you want a profile of your local brick and mortar store and you know that there's a reporter that does a lot of business profiles, then you can just contact that particular reporter, or maybe you have to send your press release to a section of the publication.  

00:20:03:10 - 00:20:33:22 Unknown For example, a large newspaper like The Seattle Times will have various sections and section editors. So if you have a story about, beauty products, then you want to find out who is the lifestyle editor and send your pitch to that person. And we talked before about the audience. So understand the demographic and psychographic characteristics of the audience of the publication.  

00:20:33:24 - 00:21:19:22 Unknown So demographics has to do with where they live, how much money they make, etc. and psychographic has more to do with audience attitudes, preferences, even political views, that sort of thing. So understand who is reading that publication and if you're not sure, look on their footer for anything related to advertising because usually, publications or broadcast channels or whatever are trying to find advertisers and they will let the advertisers know about who their audience is so that the advertiser can decide whether or not they want to advertise there.  

00:21:19:24 - 00:21:43:00 Unknown However, we're looking for free coverage, but still, we can use that same section to understand if this is a good place for us to pitch and also to, target our pitch when it's time to make our pitch. But before we make our pitch, we have to write the press release.  

00:21:43:02 - 00:21:49:16 Unknown So it's a good idea to structure your press release around the story.  

00:21:50:01 - 00:22:09:17 Unknown That really grabs the attention of the reader. And you can describe the problem or obstacle that you faced. Or if you're talking about a client, you can describe their problems and obstacles and explain how it was overcome.  

00:22:09:17 - 00:22:27:17 Unknown And then what impact did your solving the problem have, for example, now that you know how to, attract people to your store, how many people can you help now?  

00:22:27:19 - 00:23:05:02 Unknown How have you helped the community or your industry? What clients have you served, etc. and it will all depend on what story you choose, who will be impacted. But try to explain what the impact is so that the reporter or the journalist knows why this matters to more people than just you. For example, when I was a reporter, I used to get calls all the time from this person who was upset that people were walking across his lawn.  

00:23:05:02 - 00:23:21:22 Unknown So that is a problem that only affects him. It's not a, widespread problem. So make sure that your problem has a large impact in order to attract the attention of the media.  

00:23:21:24 - 00:23:54:13 Unknown And add the key components to your press release. You want to have a headline that is not too long. It should fit on the, one line, and you can have a subheading with a few more details and make sure your headline is very active. Don't use the passive voice, use an active verb and summarize your story in the first paragraph so that the editor doesn't know, so that the editor knows what it's about.  

00:23:54:15 - 00:24:21:05 Unknown Because sometimes I find that marketers will try to tease information in order to get someone to read the whole thing. However, in the news you don't want to do this at all because it will frustrate people, because they have only 1 or 2 seconds to decide if your press releases, right for their publication. So don't leave the key details till the end.  

00:24:21:07 - 00:24:48:14 Unknown Make sure you summarize everything that's important about your story. The five Ws, who, what, where, when, and where, why. In the first paragraph, and generally the first paragraph is about 25 words. And then as you go through your story, you can add details such as facts, dates and numbers and make sure that you fact check your own data because nothing.  

00:24:48:14 - 00:25:09:03 Unknown will annoy a journalist more than faulty numbers, especially if they rely on it. And suddenly someone calls them up and says, that's completely wrong. Where did you get this information? So make sure that you are double checking anything that you put in your press release.  

00:25:09:03 - 00:25:37:23 Unknown The next thing you want to make sure that you're including in your press release is a compelling quote. Because when you send out this press release, the editor or the journalist or whatever is going to want to interview you. So you need to make sure that you have a compelling voice that they want to that grabs their attention and makes them want to talk to you directly.  

00:25:38:00 - 00:26:00:15 Unknown And lastly, you want to give them a call to action. And usually this is going to be contact me for an interview or to set up an interview. But sometimes you might have other calls to action. For example, you might want to invite a reporter to an event your hosting or you might want to send them a free sample.  

00:26:00:17 - 00:26:09:05 Unknown It all depends, but usually it's contact me for an interview.  

00:26:09:07 - 00:26:42:08 Unknown And it's always a good idea to make sure that you're getting the most bang for your media feature by tying it back to your business. Because you want to use the media to help people understand your business at a deeper level. You don't just want the attention, you want this to serve your business goals. So one way it can serve your business goals is by highlighting your mission.  

00:26:42:10 - 00:27:02:11 Unknown So emphasize how your unique story sets you apart from other businesses out there, and explain how your story influenced how you developed your products or services. For example, there's a, eyeglass company that,  

00:27:02:11 - 00:27:25:04 Unknown has, a mission centered origin story because their founder, one of their founders, was traveling through Europe, and he was a grad student, and he lost his glasses and he realized how necessary glasses are to education and how expensive they are.  

00:27:25:06 - 00:28:04:23 Unknown So this company, Warby Parker, is on a mission to make eyeglasses more affordable to people around the world so that is a story that highlights their mission. So do you have a mission and is there any particular reason why you chose that mission? Is there a story behind it that you could share with the media? Because that will help people understand your business better and make sure that you are getting ROI from your media feature.  

00:28:05:00 - 00:28:41:20 Unknown So lastly, now that we have our press release, we need to send that along with a pitch to, the media outlet that we want to be featured in. And you can send it to several outlets depending on how, how much, bandwidth you have for people calling you back and that sort of thing. So the easiest way to get featured is to simply send out your press release in an email with a short one paragraph pitch, because if you put it on a press distribution service, it's going to be very hard to find.  

00:28:41:22 - 00:29:27:04 Unknown So just pick the reporters, the editors, the producers that you want to contact, get their names and emails and send the press release directly to them. And if you don't know their email, you can find usually find somebody who works for that organization and then find their email and format the email in a similar way. So for example, if the you find the sales director's email and it's jsmith@newspaper.com, then probably the reporter is first initial last name at the same organization.  

00:29:27:06 - 00:29:51:10 Unknown So you can figure it out. That way you can use a service like hunter.io, which is what I usually use. Make sure that you're sending it directly to the right person, because if you just put it in a general inbox, then it's probably going to go through a low level staff member who might not understand why it's important.  

00:29:51:12 - 00:30:22:12 Unknown So try and find the right email address and then greet the recipient by name. So if you know you want to have a story done by the reporter who always does the business profiles, say, hi Sarah, I understand that you are doing a lot of business profiles and I have a great story for you and give a 1 to 2 sentence summary of your story and the angle that you want to,  

00:30:22:12 - 00:30:24:02 Unknown feature in your story.  

00:30:24:02 - 00:30:25:15 Unknown Because  

00:30:25:15 - 00:31:05:05 Unknown you don't want to go in with something really broad, like, I'm opening a new salon. You want to make sure they understand what is special or different about your business compared to all the other ones that are out there. And the angle might be your story. For example, former fashion model so-and-so is opening a salon on Main Street, so that would be your angle that you worked in the fashion industry and now you're going to be providing services in the community, and mention why it's relevant to their beat.  

00:31:05:05 - 00:31:13:22 Unknown So in this case, we know that this reporter always does business features about brick and mortar stores. So it's relevant to that reporter's beat  00:31:13:22 - 00:31:19:05 Unknown And then copy that press release into the body of the email.  

00:31:19:05 - 00:31:27:11 Unknown These days, people do not want to open PDFs because they could have viruses.  

00:31:27:11 - 00:32:05:04 Unknown And also it takes them longer. And as I mentioned, they only have a couple of seconds to decide if they want to cover your story. So you don't want them to have to waste time clicking and waiting for the PDF to open. So now you have sent out your press release. Now what are you going to do? So if it's a very timely pitch, for example, you have a art show coming up on Friday and it's Wednesday and you really want the reporter to be there, then you can wait 24 hours and then contact them.  

00:32:05:06 - 00:32:32:21 Unknown But if it's not that timely, it's just, your new series has been released and you'd really like a story sometime. Then wait, at least five days and you can follow up once, either by phone or email. And sometimes it depends on the preference of the reporter. Some reporters do not like to answer their phone. They will screen their calls and then email you back.  

00:32:32:21 - 00:33:06:05 Unknown So it all depends on who the reporter is. And just follow up once. Don't keep pestering them because that is very annoying to them and they might not respond to your next press release. And if you don't hear back, don't be too discouraged, because reporters typically are extremely busy. When I was a reporter, I used to write five stories a day, so I did not necessarily have time to respond to everybody who emailed me.  

00:33:06:07 -
00:33:32:18 Unknown And so don't take it personally. If somebody doesn't contact you with a yes or a no, and don't be afraid to send a different press release on a different topic further down the road, because I always recommend making this part of your regular marketing strategy, because the more you are recognized by the media, the more status and, reputation you're going to build.  

00:33:32:20 - 00:33:38:11 Unknown So let's recap what we learned in this presentation.  

00:33:38:13 - 00:34:00:18 Unknown So as I mentioned, this isn't just for big names or famous people. This is for anybody who has a good story to tell. And it's always a good idea to lead with human interest, because if you aren't a big name, then you have to make them know, understand why your story is going to be interesting for their reader.  

00:34:00:18 - 00:34:36:16 Unknown And generally it's because it has a lot of human interest. And make sure you are aligning with the right platforms and outlets to reach the right demographic, and be very clear and concise in your writing. As I mentioned, don't try to tease out your writing and, make it clear what your story is about right at the top, because you only have 1 or 2 seconds to convince the editor that this is worth their time and always build relationships.  00:34:36:16 - 00:34:58:09 Unknown Don't write rude emails if you didn't get a response, because generally the reporter is extremely busy and if they think you're going to be a lot of drama, then they might not contact you ever much less for that particular press release. So make sure you're building positive relationships with everybody that you contact.  

00:34:58:09 - 00:35:26:12 Unknown So my, swag bag, item that I contributed to the summit is a checklist that summarizes everything we learned in this, presentation, because I know it was probably a lot of information. And if you haven't done media before, then you might want to sit down with it and consider, okay, I need a story. Okay? I need to research the platform, etc., etc..  

00:35:26:14 - 00:35:50:02 Unknown So there is a checklist to help you go through the steps in this presentation. And you can send out your first press release this week. And I always recommend, as I stated before, to start with your local area because they are more likely to contact you if they know that you're local. So make sure you are mentioning that you're local.

 00:35:50:04 - 00:36:04:10 Unknown And even if your business is not just local, for example, you have an online coaching agency that helps people around the world. You're still going to get a quicker response from people in your local area if you pitch them first.  00:36:04:10 - 00:36:11:24 Unknown So that's it for the presentation. And to learn more about me, you can visit words-design.com and, start sharing your story.