Three ingredients for media relations success

As you may have seen through our regular coverage cup blogs, we at Spark are no strangers to securing great coverage. But what’s our secret? Media relations is more than making one phone call or sending a single email – so it can be hard to put your finger on exactly what it is. I wanted to share some insights from an internal media relations panel session we recently ran – these are three vital ingredients needed for media relations success:

1) Be tenacious

Tenacity is crucial if you want to secure media coverage. This means having clear goals of the type of coverage that you want, spending time researching relevant journalists and trying different avenues to reach them. It also means if a sell in isn’t going to plan, understanding when to revaluate it. From there, the team can work together to try and come up with a new angle that will resonate with the media. Or sometimes it even comes down to something simple, such as changing the subject line to make it catchier. After all, a subject line can make or break whether or not a journalist even opens your email in the first place.

2) Believe in the story, and question it if you don’t

It’s not unusual to feel nervous about calling or following up with a journalist. However, one of the most important things to remember is that journalists do value PRs, and they rely on information we share with them to create their stories. Spark takes a very targeted approach to media relations, which means we can feel confident going to a journalist with whatever we’re pitching and believe that the story is of value to them. If you don’t believe in it, they won’t – so always feel you can question it if you don’t!

3) Make it personal

Building relationships with journalists is PR 101 – and where possible, this should be on a personal as well as a professional level. When speaking to a journalist on the phone or on email, it’s important to put a bit of a personal touch in your pitches. Whether this be chatting about football or what they’ve been up to at the weekend, personalisation is key to building relationships. During the pandemic, we may have got more used to making friends remotely. However, you should never underestimate the power of building relationships in person. Meeting over lunch or a quick coffee can help understand how they like to work, and build long-lasting relationships.

Keep moving forwards

Having these tips in your back pocket will be key to securing great coverage. However, these are just some of the key ingredients for success – a true media relations master is always open to learning new information and evolving their approach over time. The media landscape is constantly shifting, so if you do not make an effort to keep pace, you will soon be left behind.