I’d bet a million dollars (if I had that much money) that ALL businesses want media attention.
Why?
Because this leads to better brand recognition, more public attention, and of course — higher sales.
Unfortunately though, a lot of business owners and CEOs find that it is not that easy to get the press to give them media coverage.
If you’re one of these entrepreneurs struggling with this, there’s good news — there’s a tried-and-tested hack to getting the media attention that you want for your business: sharing survey results from a newsworthy survey.
Yes, sharing survey results is a great way to get media attention.
Every day there’s news about the newest research findings. However, it’s not enough to conduct a survey, you need to know how to share the survey report in a way that will get the attention of journalists and potential customers.
Here are some ways to share your results to get maximum exposure for your business.
Your survey results need a strong hook for a press release
Journalists get hundreds of press releases from companies and PR service providers every single day. These people are busy and aiming to meet strict deadlines, so there’s no way they have the time to read every press release that comes across their desk.
That’s why it’s so important for your email to stand out. In order to do this, use a hook from the results of your survey, something that you know will catch the attention of a journalist and will make them want to write about it.
To achieve this, you and your team should think about the kind of results before you start conducting your survey. Imagine the possible headlines you would come up with if you were a journalist.
If you think of something interesting and press-worthy, then you have a good idea that this is a survey you’ll have success getting media attention for.
Also, make an effort to support your data and numbers with case studies. Real life stories or experiences will:
- Provide additional content for your survey analysis
- Make your research more relevant
- Bring your statistics to a higher level
— which will make journalists feel that an article about your survey could go viral.
Share on social media to establish your authority
Sharing inspirational quotes, blog posts of other industry leaders, or funny videos from Youtube on social media might help you build your following and keep your audience engaged — but it does not establish your thought leadership.
There are a lot of important reasons why you would want media coverage, but one of these is for your authority to be established. You can begin to do so by considering your social media usernames carefully. For example, if you’re on TikTok, you can check TikTok username ideas on Brandsnag because more traffic to the same name, brand, website, and other parameters builds your domain authority.
If you regularly publish original content, including important market research and survey reports that could disrupt or make a breakthrough in your industry, you will get the media attention that you want and instantly build a solid reputation for your business.
Your existing audience is also more likely to read your content if you publish survey results that they can relate to or that can help them see a better perspective about the things that are important to them.
The more readers you are able to attract, the more engagement your social media posts will get — which means more likes, more shares, and more exposure for your business.
You can also run social media advertisements to promote your content to a larger audience, and even target journalists specifically.
If you do this right, there won’t be a need for you to flood journalists’ inbox asking them to write about your business. The goal is that they use your research after seeing your article posted on social media (with tons of likes and shares).
In fact, they may even reach out to you and might even ask for an interview.
Create shareable & easy to digest visuals to accompany survey data
According to the University of Alabama School of Medicine, 65% of the US population are visual learners. Their study shows that colors, images, and other visual elements help a majority of the population with processing, organizing, and learning information.
So if you want your market research to get in front of more people, capitalize on creating visuals like infographics to accompany your survey results.
To show you just how powerful infographics are and how it can be extremely helpful in getting you more likes, shares, comments (and media attention), take a look at the following infographic from a research conducted by Market Domination Media.
Infographics make scary numbers reader-friendly and easier to digest so people will be more likely to read your content, instead of feeding them a lengthy discussion of your research analysis that most people probably won’t have the time or attention span to read.
Use timing to your advantage
Are there upcoming or current events that will get heavy media coverage? Ride the popularity of the event and make a survey closely connected with it.
For example: If you are in the mobile device industry and there’s a major sports event in your country or state like the Super Bowl, you can create a survey to show how many people will tune in using their mobile devices like phones and tablets.
You can also find a time to be socially relevant — to show people how certain products are crucial for them and how it can help them in certain situations.
For example: If your company manufactures portable power generators or battery chargers, you can create a survey on American homes during hurricane season to gauge how many households are prepared when power outages happen.
Bottom line
Getting media attention is not as hard as it used to be.
Journalists are always looking for compelling content, so if you have newsworthy surveys — you will be like a fragrant flower to the reporter bees.
They will come to you.
Just make sure you lead with your hook and time it at the right time.
Aside from that, with the power of the internet and social media nowadays, you don’t even have to depend on media coverage for exposure. You can become viral and create PR buzz on your own.
