You’re in the Press – Now What?
By Natalie Hays
Few things are more exciting than seeing your brand online, in print, or even better on TV! All of the work and samples have paid off in an ideal feature, but what exactly do you do from there? You aren’t the first business owner to wonder this, but you also shouldn’t sit idly by and let the features age without working some traction on them first. Earned media should do some heavy work on all fronts besides getting eyes on your brand, but sometimes you need to leverage it on your own to better your business on all fronts.
Let’s be honest – everyone loves humblebragging about their company from time to time. In these cases, you should be sharing your brand’s features with everyone in the company. Whether that be through email chain or company Slack, be sure that you are sharing your features with everyone so that they can see how your PR is doing! Even better, be sure that you have the features posted on your social media channels for your business and share them with your friends and followers. Your friends and family will be just as excited about your media success as you are and help improve your social media metrics.
While sharing is caring, that can only hold over for song long before older features fall out of the timely news category. These features may not fit the season or current news cycle, but that does not mean they irrelevant from here on out. If you have a company blog, it might be the perfect solution for some of these older earned media features. Depending on your blog topic, it is a great idea to link back to relevant news articles that your company or product is connected to in a positive light. For example, if you have earned several features related to summer recreation, it might be time to write an article about the different use cases for your product in the summer. While you’re writing that blog post, link over those previous media features that support the post in the body of the post itself. Hyperlink these articles in words that would peak the interest of the reader, that way it does not disrupt the flow of your writing. It makes you look more credible, while also allowing articles and keywords that are connected with your brand to get a better standing regarding SEO.
Don’t think you are done just yet connecting your features with your SEO. Now we know almost everyone has a press tab on their website to post most of their latest features, but many business owners could be doing more on that front. If your brand lands an amazing feature on a big name show or publication – show them off on your main page. Not everyone is going to click over to that press page, so grab the visitor’s attention from the get-go with the big names first. They are likely to spend more time on your site when you present your brand’s features this way, which can help your SEO and your sales overall.
Last but not least is sales, and we’re not talking about the sales you get out of the gate when the earned features drop. Media coverage can go even further beyond when you leverage them correctly into your sales practice. If you have a creative team, have them create some sales material that includes the various media features your brand earned recently. Big publication names add credibility to your product and business, especially in fresh and timely reference material.
The attention you get from good PR isn’t short-lived, especially when utilized to better your business long term. Leveraging your earned media is bound to benefit your SEO, social media, and sales if you stick with this kind of post PR strategy. Orca Communications wants to see you succeed – both in the media spotlight and onwards.
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Natalie Hays is the Social Media Manager of Orca Communications and former editorial writer with years of experience in social media success and management.