A sharply focused business communication strategy in lifestyle must use a press strategy to build awareness and desirability around the brand. Today we share useful tips to create your communications roadmap and boost your press relations.
Lifestyle brands or services must make themselves known to their different target audiences. One of the best -and traditional- communication tools is to create a public relations plan, which includes the press. The goal is to build informative and direct channels to promote the brand and to communicate any news happening inside the business.
Many entrepreneurs or lifestyle brand managers are not aware of how they should forge their press strategy. The first thing you have to keep in mind is that before contacting the media, we must do preliminary work in our in-house communications department.
Having a press strategy will help us to be known around editors of different types of media. With fluid communication, we will know when editors are planning content meetings, so we can pitch interesting story ideas and topics to cover in their news space.
The primal objective for creating a well-thought-out press strategy is not necessarily looking for immediate publication, instead it is important to think of the long-term scenario. We must create a strategy for what kind of content we would like to see published in different media outlets, and to plan- in detail- the smartest way to achieve it.
Although social networks are a great help when it comes to the promotion of our businesses and to get marketing leads, print publications such as magazines, newspapers, and supplements provide the added value of an editorial board, and their point of view, helping us to build a good brand image positioning.
How Can I Start a Press Strategy? Five Things to Keep In Mind
- Develop an Image Bank for the Press
It is important to produce your own photographic material. That could be images of your products or collections, still-life photographs where the product itself shines- as an editorial- and also campaign images for advertising the brand. Once you have the images of the product , you must think of other photographic material to promote the brand, such as headquarter offices, work environments, or our retail location. Create stylish compositions to reinforce your brand’s lifestyle idea concept. After that, you can take a corporate profile picture of you- if you are the entrepreneur- or the brand’s founders, as well as create a professional biography. That information is extremely useful in case of a request for a profile interview when the editor wants information about the interviewee’s background.
- Create Your Database of Editors, Stylists, and Key People
Information is power, and the right contact list means connection with the right people -at the right time- to become newsworthy.
To develop a consistent press strategy for your lifestyle brand, you must create a database of journalists, editors, stylists, and content creators. This is a hard assignment as you will have to play detective; search for the magazine or the newspaper editorial staff, call main offices, or send emails, to build your list of contacts.
- Design Your Media Kit and Your Calendar for Information Release
Once you have the images and the contacts ready, you will need to write down press releases containing relevant brand information, for example, a press release focusing on the newest collection or service. It is strongly recommended to create a media kit, containing images, the brand’s press dossier – with key business numbers-, and any other information about the brand’s mission. It is also very important to develop a calendar with key brand dates such as product launches, campaign launches, new brand ambassadors’ activations, or store openings to stay ahead and know when to send press releases.
- Invite Key Media to a Press Day Event
Having a press event is a great opportunity to socialize and get to know the editorial and creative staff of our targeted media. The gathering is useful to show the latest products to the press, comment on further brand plans, schedule your advertising budget, or talk about story opportunities to be published in the media.
- Short-Term or Long-Term, Which Press Strategy Should I Follow?
Both are important for any lifestyle business. However, the press does not work in the short-term unless you have bombshell news. The best roadmap is to take the long-run approach. You should keep informing them, keep sending beautiful images worthy of publishing, build a trust relationship with the editorial staff, and pitch your ideas to create a story they might want to cover.
Traditional media has changed a lot in the last decade. Many of the traditional media outlets work between creating and publishing digital and print content products. Creating a press strategy for a lifestyle business is all about creating -and maintaining- a strong media relationship. If you want to build a relevant reputation for your brand, prepare your strategy and start right away.
Do you want to learn more about this topic? Find more in the Marketing and Communications for Fashion & Luxury Brands program.