Did you know that some stations have more than 12 hours of news coverage to fill? THEY NEED YOUR STORIES!
Over the span of my 20+ year career as a journalist, I was on the receiving end of thousands of news releases. I was the one who sent the crews to stories and events, I was the one who wrote stories about the events, and I was the one who set up the segment ideas.
I know for a fact that stations NEED YOUR IDEAS, businesses, bloggers, influencers, and entrepreneurs!
They also need your information on file if and when they need an expert on whatever topic you can talk about!
So: MAKE SURE YOU’RE FORMING RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE TV STATIONS IN YOUR MARKETS!
Why aren’t more businesses doing this?
- Many people think news coverage is unattainable. They think they need a PR person or they don’t think there’s anything special to cover. WRONG!
- They’re doing it wrong! There are more people to reach out to than just the generic email on the station website. It’s important you’re reaching out to the right people! PLUS – did you know you could still get news coverage for your business or event AFTER the event is over – even if they didn’t cover it in person that day? Yep! Some coverage is better than no coverage, right???
- They don’t know where to start. So, first, think up ideas you can pitch to stations. Are you brand new? Are you a legacy business? Are you pairing up with other businesses for a charity event? Do you have something super unique and visual? Is something that’s going on nationally affecting your business locally? (Stations always want to do local spins on national stories!) Is there something you’re an expert on that’s timely that you can pitch as an idea? (Do you love DIY and you want to show how to do something timely like an Easter centerpiece or cook a holiday meal or create unique gifts or inexpensive prom fashion?) Think outside the box – it doesn’t even have to be ABOUT your business to be about your business!
Here are examples of stories I’ve covered or gotten coverage on for my clients:
-A restaurant owner I worked with dressed up as the Grinch and gave out gifts (and toilet paper – during the pandemic, lol). Not only did he became the most popular thing in the little city we live in – (he even got asked to do weddings!) and yes, we got TV stations to cover it – and it even went national. The social media for it did amazing! And people came to his store to see him and they bought from him.
-A local brewery paired up with a kiwi farm to create an award-winning kiwi beer. It just so happened that the kiwi farm was struggling that year because of some deep freezes, so covering this was a win-win! Great news and social content, and publicity for the farm and the brewery!
-A local business paired up with a local celebrity to offer dinners for needy families at Thanksgiving. Great news & social content!
There are morning show reporters looking for fun locations to go live from, there are home-grown segments. In part two – I’ll share how you can find some more ideas for how to pitch yourself to TV stations!
If you want a preview, click here to watch this video!