Everywhere you look there’s material that speaks to the importance of content in a marketing strategy. They talk about brands thinking like publishers but there are far fewer people offering practical tips for those with less influence and money.

Most SMEs I speak to suffer from not having a newsworthy story to share, or no budget to buy up native advertising space, or both. Even if they want to explore content marketing, beyond creating for their own channels, they struggle to amplify their message and reach a broader audience through earned media due to story and/or budget constraints.

Creating stories that resonate with the press is a challenge you’ll be familiar with if you’ve tried using content to earn the attention of the media. How do you balance getting placements while also being a dependable resource for journalists and bloggers? The special sauce is in a blend of creative and strategic thinking …

1. I don’t have a story

As someone who wants to offer clients as much value as I can, I’m often under pressure to find the ‘golden thread’ of stories that are interesting enough to pitch to the media. I’ve had more journo rejections than you can shake a stick at but that’s par for the course. Finding the sweet spot between building a newsworthy story, making your journalist connections happy and getting results for clients is a delicate balancing act.

Adopt big picture thinking and research to create content with purpose. What are the macro issues affecting your client’s world? Consult with your clients’ wider ecosystem; in some cases, you can approach competitors to extract several perspectives for a well-rounded story that has a purpose beyond serving a single brand.

Research is helpful in building a meaningful story to pitch to journalists. While conducting unique studies can be complex and time-consuming, you don’t always need to do it by yourself. Find governing industry bodies and associations and see what recent research they have on a subject – use it to support your story.

Workaround: Don’t alienate your hard-earned media contacts by pitching average stories. Exhaust yourself in finding newsworthy angles. Do research and behave like a journalist would in chasing a story.

2. My story is too small

No matter how niche your subject is, thanks to the long tail you’re likely to find a devoted community for it. Look for existing content within these communities and familiarise yourself with the creators who are covering the subject. Contact them with solid ideas to update carefully-selected pieces of content.

To optimise success rates, I sometimes send a sample, crafted in a style that matches the existing content, for their consideration.

Workaround: Identify opportunities for building on existing content in the media. Note this works for digital content only.

3. The press ignores me

Being ignored is an unfortunate reality of being on the distribution end of the content spectrum. That said, there are some low-cost ways to increase your chances of getting a successful placement over the line. It isn’t applicable in all cases, but offering product is one way to get a journalist interested.

If the client has allocated product to your outreach efforts, you can contact journalists and ask them if they’d like to sample the product in the hope of getting a shout out from the recipient. This is better known as a product drop. Send it their way with a brief, polite note but never ask for a favourable review.

Workaround: Offer product and increase your chances of getting a successful placement. Before you do this, check to see if the media target has policy governing product drops … is it allowed and whose hands should the product reach to heighten your chances of securing a shout out?

4. My story is placed but it’s not getting traction

You’ve secured a placement, the piece goes live, and your job is done. Wrong. Why not share the post with other industry participants? Ego bait is irresistible to brands and nine times out of ten they’ll share the post with their followers, especially if they copped a mention.

Workaround: Remember those competitors I approached in point 1? Let them know about the story and they are likely to share it with their audience.

The story’s visibility is important for two reasons in the content marketing context: growing brand awareness and getting the media to realise it was worth their while to feature it.

5. I’m out of ideas

Don’t be in the business of creating content for the sake of it. Everything you put out there should lead with a desired, results-oriented outcome. When you’re struggling for fresh ideas, take some time to assess what you already have in your content portfolio. There’s a lot to be said for investing time in reviving old content but it should be approached strategically which means having a look at the data to understand which content is going to give you the most ROI –  Neil Patel has a good post about this.

Workaround: Pull up your analytics to see which content is worthy of a refresh. Revise and revive old resources.

These are low-cost ways to put your content to work and hopefully secure some nice media exposure. You will also need to develop a sixth sense which can only be honed over time and is influenced by too many variables to mention but that’s for another post.

If you don’t have the time or experience to do this contact me and let’s chat about how I can help.