In this article I'll walk you through the six essential rules of thumb that can dramatically increase your media coverage success rate with our Exclusive Publicity Program. These rules have been proven extremely effective in practice time and time again.
So if you are interested in stepping up your earned media coverage, follow these rules to a T.
#1 Respond Quickly
Do your absolute best to submit your answers as soon as possible. I can’t stress enough how paramount it’s to be one of the first experts to submit your commentary, especially for the top tier publications such as Forbes, Insider, CNBC, etc.
Oftentimes reporters from these top publications receive 20-30 submissions within a few hours from posting their request from which they will select up to five experts’ commentaries.
So, if you were the one of the first experts to submit your insightful commentary, you have a good chance to get picked. If you just follow this one essential rule of thumb from all the others I’ve listed in this article, it will double your media coverage success rate at the very least!
#2 Provide Insightful Answers
No respected reporter or journalist will use commentary with obvious, general, and easily obtainable information in their articles. They want ‘meaty’ answers with substance. Therefore, make sure you always provide insightful answers accompanied by specific details as much as possible. That said, you don’t have to write the whole article either.
The length doesn’t matter here. What matters is that you provide a complete answer to a reporter’s question. Whether that complete answer constitutes one paragraph or five, it doesn’t matter. As long as your response fully answers a reporter’s question, you’re in a good shape.
#3 Use Creative Angle
To make your pitch stand out from others, always think of a creative angle you can approach reporter’s answers with. Reporters love insightful answers that are also interesting, unordinary or even provoking.
While it’s not always possible to utilize this strategy, make sure every future commentary request you receive you ask yourself whether there is a potential creative angle to leverage for your pitch.
#4 Provide Relevant Answers
Reporters and journalists, especially at top tire publications, have limited time and too many candidates to sift through. Therefore, keep your answers directly relevant to the requested questions.
Exclude irrelevant details in all costs. Otherwise, your pitch is subject to get disqualified simply because reporters will not bother wasting their time trying to extract relevant information from your answer.
#5 Provide Unique Answers
Provide an answer exclusively written for the reporter. Reporters can’t use any materials you may have previously written for other purposes (e-books, articles, blog posts, videos, etc), even if they contain an answer.
If you do try repurposing that existing material and get caught, that reporter will most likely blacklist you for all the future stories. However, it doesn’t mean you can’t re-use your other answers that you wrote for similar subjects in the past, which didn’t get published.
Absolutely no self-promotion! Don’t mention the advantages of your company or include other forms of self-promotion in your answers. Reporters instantly disregard such answers. They abide by their publications’ guidelines, which are normally very strict with regards to any sort of promotions.