Marketing campaigns play a crucial role in promoting products, services, and brands, and the success of those campaigns is most often determined by the number of leads or sales generated. But marketing isn’t the only way to get a message out – public relations (PR) news pitching tactics can be used to earn media coverage on your campaigns, a great way to increase awareness of your campaign without adding extra spend to your budget.
Although often grouped together, marketing and PR are different disciplines – marketing works to drive leads for the company or product; PR works to develop or maintain a positive reputation for the company or product. However, both aim to build stronger relationships with target audiences using varying tactics and strategies.
So, how do you identify if your marketing campaign is worth pitching to the media? Evaluate your campaign to see if it meet the following parameters. If so, there’s a good chance it’s newsworthy!
General Interest
Does your campaign have elements that make it interesting, relevant, and valuable to the general public? A new marketing slogan, product feature, or promotion likely won’t cut it – news outlets and journalists seek information and stories that will benefit, educate or interest their publication’s readers.
Timeliness
News cycles change quickly, and journalists are usually seeking stories or information around what is happening at the current time or what is to come. Campaigns are much more likely to gain news coverage when they address relevant issues, resonate with ongoing news coverage, or align with current trends or themes.
Non-Promotional
One of the big areas where marketing and PR differ is promotional language or copy. Marketing campaigns typically use promotional and commercial content, whereas PR is completely non-promotional. If you are using promotional language in your marketing campaign, make sure to tweak it to be more educational when pitching it to the media.
Research & Data
If your campaign presents or is backed up by compelling data, research, or surveys, there’s a good chance it can be newsworthy – as long as there is general interest. Journalists and media outlets are often attracted to academic and scientific research from trustworthy sources when it offers new information to their readers.
Subject Matter Expert
When pitching anything to the media, it’s imperative that you have a subject matter expert at your organization who can speak to the campaign or related news story. Journalists look to subject matter experts as a trusted authority who can provide accurate information on the given topic, and they often quote the subject matter experts they interviewed in their related stories. If your campaign is based on research, pitching the head of the research as a subject matter expert is a great way to get media attention. Just make sure the subject matter expert is aware, prepared, and available!
Partners and Integrations
Are you partnering with another organization for your campaign, or does the campaign introduce a new integration that has general use and interest? Campaigns involving partnerships with other notable organizations and brands demonstrate collaboration and mutual support for the same cause, and tend to be of interest to the media.
Social Impact or Philanthropic
Campaigns that support or highlight a social cause, promote sustainability, or address big social issues can be quite newsworthy. Media outlets like to share good news when it is largely impactful; however, it must be genuine effort – just donating money to a organization likely won’t cut it.
Although marketing and PR serve distinct roles, they often work together in an integrated communication strategy to reinforce each other’s efforts and achieve the organization’s overall goals.
Next time you kick off a marketing campaign, take a moment to consider if it’s worth pitching to the news.
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