Reach out to local media for free awareness
Reaching out to local media is one of the easiest ways to get quick exposure for something that you may want to promote. Local newspapers, blogs and even influencers are always looking for new things to cover. If you or your business has something to announce, then reaching out to a local media outlet is a great way to get your announcement in front of a relevant local audience quickly, and at low cost. Even if you don’t have something specific to promote, you can just reach out to local media outlets to see if a lifestyle article could be written about your company, or let them know that you’re available to be quoted for other pieces.
If you do have something specific that you’d like to promote, like a new product or service launch, then writing up a press release is a good first step to consider. Your press release doesn’t have to be long at all, and really just needs to drive home the point of the press release. If you are announcing a new product, describe the product and its benefit to customers. If you are announcing an event, give an event description along with lineup of who will be at the event if you have vendors. Give enough information that a reporter or blogger can write an article of their own about, pulling quotes from your press release, but don’t go so overboard that the reporter or blogger gets overwhelmed reading it.
A good start for a press release is around 5 paragraphs, or longer if your announcement warrants it. Introduce the announcement, describe a few aspects of the announcement, then conclude the announcement with a summary. Write a headline at the top of your release. Write your business’ name, your contact name and any relevant contact information at the bottom of your release. List links at the bottom if necessary. Once you have your press release written, save it as a .pdf so you can attach it to emails. Saving as a .pdf is important because not everyone uses Microsoft Word or Pages. It is best to use the universal file type, .pdf, which can be opened on all devices.
After writing your press release, figure out an image to go along with it. Not every outlet you send your press release to will use your image, but providing an image will strengthen your press releases chances at coverage. Choose an image that represents your announcement and is neutral in tone. As you’ll be sending your release to different outlets, try to not pick an image that would fit one outlet really well and another one not. For example, you could provide an image that an outlet could turn into an attention getting graphic, but sending that attention getting graphic to all outlets may hurt your chances at wide coverage.
Once you have your press release ready to go, research a few local outlets that may cover it. In a city this will be easy, as there are newspapers, alt weeklies, social media outlets galore, etc. in a rural area or smaller town, this may take a little more time. Most areas have some sort of local newspaper and social media outlet. For Chicago, you may consider the Daily Herald and @choosechicago. If there is a local influencer that has a large local following, sending them your press release works too. Sending your press release to as many relevant outlets as possible will increase your chance at coverage.
Reaching out to local media is a generally free, always great way to get quick media coverage local to your area. Starting out trying to get the attention of larger, national news publications is a daunting task, unless you know someone who works at a large media company. Reaching out to local, smaller media helps you build brand credibility and awareness. Once you get a lot of local media, your business may just start to get organic coverage without you even having to try. Start with a press release, get your business out there and see what happens. What will you announce?
