7 Steps to Effective Publicity Strategies [How to get the coverage you want]

Posted by / Communications Strategy, Lean Communications Framework, Lean Communications Methodology

Want more media coverage? Follow these seven steps to effective publicity strategies.

Desired Commercial Outcome

1. In the top left in the box called ‘Desired Outcome’ write down one desired commercial outcome directly from media coverage that is achievable within the next 90 days. It must be realistic, specific, and measurable.

Assumptions

2. In the top right of the canvas marked ‘Assumptions’ write down the names of the 6-10 publications you need to have coverage in in order to achieve the desired outcome in the box titled publications.

3. Staying in the top right corner of the canvas, think about the journalists that you need to have relationships with in order to secure the media coverage. Write them in the media relationships cell and then benchmark your relationship strength with each of them on a scale of 0 – 10.

4. In the angle box, in the top right of the canvas, write down angles that could be potentially interesting to key journalists. Would result in coverage that also helps deliver the desired commercial outcome.

5. In the box marked sources write down other third-parties that will be important in shaping the story a journalist will need to write the story you need writing. With each source, score your relationship strength with them on a scale of 0 – 10.

6. You now have all the elements needed to write your hypothesis. Write this in the box marked hypothesis. An example of a hypothesis is, ‘if I contact X journalist with Y angle, and offer Z sources to validate my story I can achieve coverage in publication A.’.

7. The final box, titled, risky assumption is the one thing that we don’t know. For example, can a reporter convince their Managing Editor to run the story if they write it. Will the people you need to see the story see it if it is published. When you have identified your riskiest publicity assumption you’re ready to run your first experiment.

Publicity Experiments

You are now ready to run your first publicity experiment.