HOW TO GET YOUR BUSINESS NOTICED BY THE NATIONAL MEDIA

There will be many Elite Business readers who want more publicity to build credibility and generate leads for their business but lack the budget for a PR campaign

Business owners often discount the idea of trying to get in the press, believing their firm will not be of interest to the national media, whether that is newspapers, business magazines or broadcasters.

While caution is always wise when venturing into the unknown, in reality journalists are usually keen to hear from business owners doing interesting things. What they are not interested in is inconsequential matters such as new websites, minor charity activities and me-too ‘innovations’.

In fact, a quick glance through Elite Business together with the UK’s many other newspapers and trade publications, shows journalists interviewing and profiling SME businesses and start-ups with interesting views and stories.

Some SMEs will have press officers or PR agencies, but there is no law that says you must use one. Coverage can equally come through you simply emailing an idea to the journalist or picking up the phone. In fact, looking around a publications’ website and social media tells you who writes what sort of article, their phone number and contact details simples!

When seeking coverage you don’t need to overcomplicate things, there are just three simple steps to getting in the press and the first one we’ve just covered already - identify the right person at the right publication.

The second key step for success is to approach the journalist with something they will want to write about… attempting to persuade them to write about something you desperately want publicised, but they see as having no interest to their readers, will always be hard work!

What things do journalists like? Well many people look at publications and conclude they like company announcements (new joiners, for example), charity events and writing about company products… and then wonder why they get little coverage for theirs

In fact, aside from a few sectors like restaurants, savings products and cars, journalists rarely review products They get swamped with press releases announcing new appointments or the latest charity sponsorship and fundraiser, and only carry a fraction of these, if any.

Nor is “new business with no customers launches, offering untried software” a great story for journalists to write (or readers to read), yet many business tech start-ups effectively try to launch their products from just such a position.