If you’re ‘thrilled to announce’ corporate news like a new hire, journalists may be considerably less thrilled to receive a press release in their inbox about it.
For B2B companies exploring media relations as a channel, keep one golden rule in mind: Journalists do not owe your brand anything.
You might have launched a product, raised a funding round, or you think your technology is changing your industry, yet journalists are not guaranteed to care about the things you care about.
This is because journalists work with, and answer to, their editors and also care about how each article meets what their audience demands. This is the lens through which much of their editorial judgement comes from: does this story ‘fit’ for the publication’s editorial output and its audience?
This question clearly does not neatly align with marketing objectives you might have for a campaign or announcement.
What does earned media really mean?
When thinking about how to get earned media coverage for a B2B company, there’s a fundamental difference between media you can control, such as advertising, and media that journalists produce for their readers.
Put simply, earned media is where your brand features in a story a journalist has freely decided to produce and publish, without any paid aspect involved. The journalist has full autonomy to write the story in the way they see fit, with any request for input typically limited to fact-checking certain details within any article.
By contrast, when you pay for sponsored content or an advert, you have a huge degree of control over what is published. While some publishers will have certain rules about where such content appears, you, as the brand, have a high degree of your own autonomy in choosing what the content contains.
To be crystal clear on what we mean by editorial coverage, this means no payment for placement has occurred and the journalist decides whether something is a story, what angle they are going to take, and what ultimately gets published.
Within this editorial decision-making process, the journalist whose name is on the piece doesn’t make all the decisions, with other managers or editors likely to decide what headline a story has, what format a piece takes and even getting as granular as a word count (especially within feature articles, which tend to be in-depth, longer editorial output).
The two most important rules to remember before even pitching B2B media
The first rule is to be relevant.
We often say at Wise Up PR that earned media has ‘rules to the game’ and relevancy is one of the most critical. This thinking has to be applied to every pitch to media and every piece of media-facing content that is shared with journalists.
For example, a trade media publication in the defense or fintech sector is not going to publish a story about a new fruit drink or a celebrity endorsement, while an international business publication like the Wall Street Journal is likely not going to feature a story like a new hire at a company.
Yet, when we apply relevancy to the above examples, this changes what is possible. If the celebrity endorsed a fintech brand, you might have a chance at securing very targeted trade coverage for this story, because this has relevancy to that industry. Meanwhile, for the new hire story, if this person has a prominent name within the business world, again, this could, if handled right, secure an earned piece of coverage with a top-tier business publication.
The second rule is even more fundamental: apply judgement to what is or isn’t worth bringing to journalists.
For your company, sure, a new senior hire is a genuinely big moment. But is it actually interesting to a journalist who does not work within the four walls of your office or know of this person?
Judgement is crucial here. Take a moment to be honest about what makes a story newsworthy; it can save a lot of time as well as set expectations internally on what could be achieved from earned media. Also, it means you won’t compromise existing or potential relationships with journalists by pitching in something that is not newsworthy or relevant to their beat.
A B2B PR agency can be a huge help here in discerning what will or won’t appeal to media (we’re a team of former journalists at Wise Up PR and have much experience in the editorial process).
How does a B2B brand appeal to journalists?
Meet the media where they are, rather than where you, the brand, want them to be. Fundamentally, that means that journalists need genuine stories that fit what they and their publication will publish, not marketing copy.
If we could sum this up as simply as possible: something significant needs to have happened.
For companies in the B2B space, that can be anything from a funding round closing to an acquisition to a product launch, along with other major business milestones.
Insight or a point of view into industry or wider economic trends is also very powerful beyond your own corporate news pipeline. Having access to proprietary data can build a steady stream of newsworthy stories. Also, if your brand doesn’t have access to first-party data, you can work with reputable third-party research companies to build media-ready data stories. Journalists are often asked to ‘stand up’ their stories, which refers to providing proof. If you can provide the raw data or statistics, or provide credible research sources to substantiate the findings, you will answer one of a journalist’s crucial editorial requirements before they even ask.
Meanwhile, your executives are experts in their field too. This makes them a powerful resource in any media relations outreach; they can provide industry expertise and knowledge on topics and issues journalists are covering.
Having a well-defined perspective on an issue is very powerful: media will often need comment that addresses both sides of a topic to provide editorial balance, meaning that if a journalist knows what your spokesperson is likely to say, that makes them much more likely to proactively request an interview or written comment. This does, however, require effort upfront to work out where your company’s experts can fit into the news agenda: mapping out their areas of expertise, what they can comment on, and assessing what opportunities are a fit.
For example, within the daily news agenda, as stories break, journalists are always looking for relevant comments from actual experts. Because such stories break fast and journalists are under pressure to file and publish a story quickly, they often take written content, known as reactive commentary, in the form of quotes that are dropped into the final article to provide expertise and insight into this news. Therefore, every day in B2B media, there are potentially numerous relevant opportunities to provide commentary and connect your company to the wider news agenda.
One overlooked reason why media aren’t covering your B2B company
One of the biggest frustrations that journalists speak about – and one which is incredibly common – is that a brand hasn’t made it clear what the company actually does.
In my experience, this can often be a driving reason as to why a time-pressed journalist will decline to cover a company and its news. Sometimes, when our team gets under the hood of a new client and begins putting a PR program in place, many of the core, fundamental pieces of content that should be easily accessible or available to the media aren’t in place, or are wildly inconsistent across a brand’s touchpoints.
These foundational content assets give journalists exactly what they need for their editorial output: a one-liner on what the company does, topline details on your products and biographies of the founder or CEO. Importantly, when working with an agency, they’ll make sure that there is a consistent message and framing across all these content assets.
Ultimately, getting B2B media coverage starts by understanding the media outlets that cover your sector. What do they write about? Who is writing these stories? What types of experts are being quoted? Where have your competitors been featured? By having such an understanding of where your brand fits into these publications, as well as the news agenda, you can identify what stories and expertise you can offer to get your brand featured.
Not sure what stories your B2B company has that journalists will actually care about? Talk to Wise Up PR – our team of former journalists can help you find and build the media angles within your business that will resonate most with the media.