How to Navigate an Expanding Media Landscape

Over the last decade, as newsrooms have contracted, the media landscape has continued to expand. Although an abundance of options may seem like a good thing, it can also be overwhelming. At Seismic, we know how to balance paid, earned and owned media, and instead of a channel-based approach, we build holistic programs that favor audience targeting and message development over predefined channels to reach them.

Working with an experienced, data-driven PR agency that can help you identify your goals, target the right audiences at the right time, curate a list of high impact media options and secure results according to a preset plan is the new Holy Grail, and it is highly achievable.

Here are a few tips to navigate an expanded media landscape for the best possible PR outcomes:

Goal Setting. If you start with the end in mind, defining what it is your business is trying to achieve, then every step that follows can be more intentional and much more likely to get you to the results you want. For example, if your PR campaign is designed to elevate the profile of a key executive, you should first identify what conversations you want them to be a part of, which media outlets embrace those conversations, and what you hope to achieve by sharing commentary.

Crafting a High Impact Story. Make sure you are working closely with the executive to create a narrative that is fresh, bold and likely to engage the media that you are targeting. The position that you share must be compelling. Ask yourself as you’re developing the messaging whether or not this feels like something new that hasn’t been shared before.

Minimize Your Media Targets for Maximum Impact. As you work with your PR agency partner, it’s important to evaluate all options for story placement. Do you feel most comfortable owning your perspective completely? If so, options may focus on contributed article opportunities and/or sponsored content placement. This strategy is especially effective in hyper targeted trade publications that have the greatest concentration of the audience you want to reach. If you’re taking a position that may have broader industry impact you may want to uplevel to an industry trade with a larger, more expanded audience. And if you simply want to be quoted alongside your peers to offer perspective on a key issue or trend, your PR agency can undertake a “rapid response” campaign to monitor press coverage and ensure that whenever a given topic is addressed, your company is offering added perspective to guide the conversation.

Measure, Measure, Measure. The ability to listen and monitor conversations across all external media sources – paid, earned, owned and social – is a critical advantage to navigating a growing media landscape. Your PR agency partner should be able to identify new opportunities based on their PR listening tools, as well as measure success throughout the duration of your PR campaign. This data science-driven approach to PR is the most critical step in ensuring you achieve results.

At Seismic, we partner with savvy clients to create a hyper-focused view of success, driven by a greater understanding of what their customers need to hear and where their customers can be found. This strategic approach to PR allows us to harness the power of an expanded media landscape with a laser focus on high impact results. If this sounds like something you might be interested in, reach out and let’s talk.