As an owner of a massage school, I would welcome a reporter to come by for free assessments and massages. This is one way for them to see and feel first hand the positive impact that massage therapy has on a person.
I also like to share knowledge. My back round is in exercise and chronic pain management for soft tissue injury. Sharing up to date information on new scientific findings is always news worthy.
Thanks
Connie
Thank you for sharing your best practices, Keith. There are quite a few "gems" in here that other participants might find particularly helpful in promoting their institutions/events. Your insight and experience is very much apprieciated.
Shannon Gormley
Generally these are the rule I follow for crafting a pitch and getting coverage:
Know your industry and the Journalists that report on it. One way of keeping in the know is follow your industry journalist on twitter and other social media. This is a great way to establish a relationship with the people who are most likely to cover the story in your industry.
Be direct and honest. Pitching a journalist is exactly like pitching for investment or for clients in that it is a skill. It is a skill that you can improve on with practice but I would encourage brevity and the direct approach to save everybody’s time.
Have a press release that stands out. Always keep up with your competitor’s press release. Use your imagination and make something that really stands out. I have sent small-personalized videos to journalists in the past (YouTube link) or send the press release in physically with some chocolates attached. Make them remember you.
Give your story and angle and create the story for the journalist. Find a way of crafting you story to relate to what is trending in society. You need to pitch something topical, newsworthy and with a nice angle other than “my company is amazingâ€. Well you need to write a really good press release so as they can just copy and paste parts of their articles into their story. Have the right photos ready so as they don’t have to chase you. Get some good quotes ready and send them with your press release. Supply a high-resolution logo. The more work that you can do for the journalist means the less that is left up in the air and the more chances you have of getting your story published.
