The more personalized and earnest you can make your correspondence with reporters, the better your chances of getting your story covered.
When dealing with local media, you have the advantage of having a smaller pool of people with which to work. That affords you more time to get to know them.
Use this time to:
- Watch their social media posts to see what they are working on and to identify when you have a good fit for them.
- View a channel’s various newscasts to get a feel for their styles and interests.
- Read articles to see what a reporter covers.
The more you familiarize yourself with these media contacts, the more personal you can make your outreach.
For instance, you might recall someone’s online bio stating that they like horses. Since your event includes free pony rides, they may have a heightened interest in your news. Use this knowledge by making your headline appeal to them. Instead of a subject line like "UMC summer festival coming soon," consider their email subject line to be "Ponies and fun abound at UMC summer festival." You could change the press release headline to mirror this line or only have that be in the subject line. But this simple notation can help your email to stand out.
When you send a press release or media alert, you can send it as only the release or start your email with an intro paragraph that personalizes things to the specific reporter to help capture their interest. The more personal, typically, the more interest you peak.
Other things to keep in mind that let media know you’re being mindful of their needs:
- Keep reporter correspondence to relevant information. If you consistently send outreach without regard to a reporter's "beat" / area of focus, your future emails aren't likely to be opened.
- When personalizing a message, consider including their name and media outlet name. Always double-check to make sure that both are listed and spelled correctly.
- Consider the calendar seasons and national and fun holidays to which you might tie your news. This connection may give them a timely reason to cover you.
- For example, May is National Foster Care Month. When your team is reaching out about a ministry operated by United Methodists that helps foster children, try timing things around May and then mention the awareness month in your pitch. But if that timing doesn’t work for them, the dad in the story might also lend to a great Father’s Day feature. Give media timely things and options.
- Tie your story to a cultural trend to show anticipated audience interest.
- Invite media to your community events. Whether or not you garner coverage from a specific invitation, the outreach can build relations with reporters as you treat them as welcomed members of your community.
Just as we all value being seen and heard as individuals, our media contacts appreciate the same courtesy. Building your relationships with local reporters strengthens your ability to have exposure through their channels and make a more significant ministry impact in your community.