Press or media coverage can take many forms. It could be a featured article secured in the national business press, a mention on a niche blog, commentary drafted by your team and included in a local business journal, or a variety of other pieces published by a publication outside of your organization.
Regardless of the medium, there’s nothing quite like media coverage and the feeling you get when opening a glossy magazine to see your CEOs commentary or clicking a link to find your brand name surrounded by favorable remarks. But that feeling of satisfaction doesn’t just fall in your lap—a lot of work goes into securing quality media coverage and that in itself gives brands an incentive to make media coverage live longer than just that first click or page turn.
If you think media coverage is a one-and-done type deal, you couldn’t be more wrong. When it comes to B2B marketing, coverage can—and should!—be used in owned and paid promotion, as well as in sales content and relationship building. If you’re not leveraging media coverage in other ways after it runs, you’re missing out on a valuable marketing and sales tool that shows third-party credibility.
Here are a few easy ways you can get additional value from the press coverage secured by your PR team:
1. Share It as Social Media Content
It might seem obvious, but all media coverage should be appropriately shared through your company’s and leadership team’s social media channels. It’s important to keep the strengths of each platform in mind. For example: Twitter’s public nature and popularity among journalists makes it a great platform for sharing a trackable link to coverage, allowing you to measure how many people click, and tagging the editor’s handle to show your appreciation.
2. Rework It as a Blog Roundup
One area companies often forget is the value of repurposing media coverage through their corporate blog. Creating coverage roundup blog posts not only revisits positive coverage, but also gives readers who may have missed your coverage the first time around another chance to read. These coverage roundup blog posts should outline between one and three pieces of coverage – aim to create this type of post once per month.
3. Use it to Follow Up with Sales Prospects
Earned media coverage is a strong follow-up touchpoint for your sales team. Articles by third-party sources show credibility for the brand, product validation, and builds trust toward executives. If your sales team has been struggling to reach targets, press coverage may be just what they need to provide valuable information through a medium that prospects trust.
