You’ve gained coverage for your business! Fantastic: now what should you do to maximise it? At Blue Lizard Marketing, we suggest you make the most of it by doing some or all of the following!
Use it to influence and drive leads to your website
If you already have a customer newsletter or are working with prospective clients, make sure you share your coverage with them by sharing a link to the coverage. Doing so creates third-party credibility and helps generate further interest in your business. Your customers will want to hear what others are saying about you!
Top tip: If your coverage is showing as a guest blog on another site or publication, you can ask the owner to include a link back to a specific landing page or your website. If you have linked Google Analytics to your website, you can add a tracking code to the link so you can measure leads and potentially goal completions from the link to your website.
Share it on social media
You are likely to have your business social media accounts already set up, so make sure you share your coverage on all of them.
We all search online for products and services first and are likely to look at referrals before we take the next step towards purchasing. Sharing media coverage makes sure your brand is top-of-mind and helps build that important credibility.
Top tip: Tag the media outlet or journalist – or both – in your social media shares. It helps drive traffic to their story as well as expand the potential readership of your coverage. When they are looking for further expert input, they may well remember you!
Print it
Print off some hard copies of your coverage. Add them to your company brochure for prospective clients and take copies with you to any event you attend.
Frame it
If you have an office that others visit, they'll be impressed by a story or stories about your business.
Top tip: Get it framed and printed by an expert. It's worth the small cost to have the piece look as professional as possible.
Mention it to others
When you are out and about, make sure you mention it! If someone asks you how your business is doing, you have a great answer! You can state your company was just covered in the media by XYZ!
Include on your own website or blog
Make sure you add the feature to your website media or news page and share it via your blog. If you have coverage for a product you are selling, having a ‘featured on’ or ‘as seen in’ section on your news page or website will help build credibility with your customers.
Top tip: People like visual, so adding an image of the article to your website is perfect. Just make sure you ask the media outlet for permission to ensure you are not breaking copyright terms.
Send it to your local newspaper
If you've received coverage from a national media outlet, chances are your local newspaper, particularly the business section, will be interested in the story and may cover it again locally.
Connect to reporters
Make sure you connect with the reporter you have been working with and engage with them time to time to help keep your relationship alive.
Top tip: Connecting on Twitter and LinkedIn is simple and both offer quick options to stay in touch easily.