The Case for a Proactive Media Relations Program

What Is a Proactive Media Relations Program?

“A proactive media relations program aggressively seeks opportunities to communicate with the healthcare media and manage those opportunities to the best advantage of the company.”

 

The first step in describing a proactive media relations program is to define the difference between public relations and media relations. The terms are often used interchangeably; for the purpose of this white paper, we are going to use media relations because we will be discussing how to deal with and interact with the healthcare trade press media — not how to influence general public opinion.

A proactive media relations program simply means being proactive in conducting your media relations. Many companies just wait for something to happen before doing a press release; then, they react to a specific situation. A proactive media relations program aggressively seeks opportunities to communicate with the healthcare media and manage those opportunities to the best advantage of the company. It’s as simple as that!

There are two keys to conducting a successful proactive media relations program. The first is you must have a dedicated resource that will actively work, on an ongoing basis, to identify and qualify legitimate press release opportunities. The second is that you must also have a resource capable of turning the identified opportunities into professionally written press releases that the healthcare media will actually use.

What Are the Benefits of a Proactive Media Relations Program?

A proactive media relations program is extremely important, to the point of being almost imperative, in today’s competitive healthcare marketplace. The benefits are many; here are just a few:

• A proactive media relations program can establish and continually build your company’s profile in the healthcare news media.
• Editorial coverage is considered more credible and can garner more positive attention from your target audiences than paid advertising. Recent studies have shown that positive editorial coverage generates up to nine times more visibility than paid advertising.
• Media relations campaigns are an economical way of promoting your organization.
• You can build a reputation as a “news media source” by sending regular press releases.
• Writers and reporters are always looking for reliable and respected sources to quote; therefore, developing positive media relationships can give you an advantage over your competition and potentially increase your coverage.
• Regular media exposure builds credibility because it enhances the reputation of the individual and the company being written about. There is a subtle, yet real perception, that mentions in magazines, newspapers, or on television must be important.
• Good media coverage can positively enhance your bottom line, by increasing your marketplace awareness and driving prospects to your web site.

How Does a Proactive Media Relations Program Work?

First, it is important to understand the needs of your target media (healthcare magazine and e-newsletter writers/editors). You can then begin to build relationships and set your media goals/objectives. It is critical to provide quality information to your target media. Even then, media relations can be “spotty,” because there are no guarantees you will get coverage; however, if your message has merit and you continually share it with your target media, they will eventually take notice and use your materials.

What Are the Steps to a Successful Proactive Media Relations Program?

Whether you are a small to medium-sized business, or a large corporation, there are several key steps in the process for planning and conducting your proactive media relations program to insure it will be as productive as possible. Here are some of the critical steps:

1. Set your goals and be realistic — What do you want the program to accomplish? You need to have a plan. This involves setting goals for what you would like to achieve — increased web hits, leads for the sales force, media interviews, speaking engagements, case studies/white papers written and placed. Other strategic general goals might include:
   • Establishing name recognition within the healthcare industry and media
   • Establishing marketplace awareness in a specific market segment
   • Developing partnerships that will mutually foster all business partners
   • Having your company acquired
   • Attracting investment capital
2. Select your target audience. No matter what your market niche, you are not going to sell everybody. It would be nice, but it’s just not going to happen. Tailor your message(s) to your target audience.
3. Document your media relations strategy. Once you have set your goals, your strategy is your overall plan to achieve those goals. Identify the activities you must accomplish to reach your goals.
4. Decide on the tactics and tools you will use to fulfill your strategy. Will you use press releases, case studies, white papers, blogs, webinars, email blasts, press tours, or a combination of all of these?
5. Decide what your persuasive message(s) will be. Once you have developed your goals, strategies and tactics, you need to develop the message(s) you will be delivering to your target audience in order to achieve your documented goals. It is critical to stay on your defined message(s).

Measuring the Results/Value of a Proactive Media Relations Program

“For small to medium-sized businesses, the ability for proactive media relations to cost-effectively accelerate overall growth is substantial.”

 

How can you measure the results of your proactive media relations program? Most business executives accept as a given that positive media coverage and attention add value to their company. There is one drawback — a media relations program does not specifically translate well to the bottom line. Most CEOs and CFOs value black-and-white data; a media relations program is almost always some shade of grey. However, there are ways to measure your media relations value — and not all of them are expensive or elaborate.

One method is do-it-yourself media monitoring or counting the physical number of clips/articles in which your company’s name appears. This is the simplest measure for quantifying the success or failure of a media relations campaign. Knowing the number of stories (or hits) a company generates — and how those numbers stack up against their competition — offers a window into the mindshare that a company has in the healthcare media and in the industry in general.

A step up from physically clipping articles is using online tools to create alerts for specific keywords, such as your company or product name. Google, Yahoo and many news sites that use RSS feeds offer these services for free. Most deliver clips from at least a few sources, although they vary in selectivity, sensitivity and range.

One concern with monitoring via search engines and RSS feeds is information overload. Web alerts are likely to grab articles that aren’t always pertinent, so you need to review each clip for relevance. This can be almost as time-consuming as manual monitoring and can also lead to inaccuracies in data collection.

Paid clipping services are another method and they provide the best means for accurately and efficiently tracking coverage. These manual clipping services are still available today, but the cost and unwieldiness make this option unattractive to most healthcare business owners.

Electronic clipping services, however, strike a good balance between accuracy, efficiency and timeliness. Of further benefit, electronic clipping services can be programmed to monitor a multitude of company names, keywords and phrases. This gives you the opportunity to have them not only track your own coverage, but that of your competitors and your industry. This kind of industry awareness can help you react quickly to unusual events and potentially alter your communication strategy as a result.

The only downside to an electronic clipping service when compared to do-it-yourself methods is cost. However, for a company intent on monitoring news coverage and determining the ROI of their media relations efforts, the expense is justified.

You should also analyze the content of your coverage to the best of your ability. Measuring the true value of media coverage is a topic that continues to confound marketing and sales executives the world over. The reason is simple: The task requires that you objectively analyze something that is largely subjective — a balanced article to one person may be a hatchet-job to another. It’s hard to be objective when the subject being discussed is your “baby” — your company.

Fortunately, as with media monitoring, there are computerized systems that automate much of this process and, in doing so, bring a measure of objectivity to the subjective data. These systems combine the features of an electronic clipping service with a series of algorithm-based measurements to capture, categorize and assess company-specific coverage, as well as coverage of competitors and the industry at large. However, they are expensive and not an option for most small to medium-sized healthcare vendors.

Conclusion

There’s little question that strategic, proactive media relations can have a positive impact on your company’s bottom line. For small to medium-sized businesses, the ability for proactive media relations to cost-effectively accelerate overall growth is even more substantial. However, to achieve this result, your media relations must be conducted proactively and consistently by a dedicated resource — either externally or internally. This resource should also be responsible for monitoring and measuring your efforts to insure you are achieving a true ROI.