EPISODE 47: PR TRENDS YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR 2021 | BEST PRACTICES TO GAIN LOCAL AND NATIONAL MEDIA COVERAGE
Live Date: February 19, 2021
Show Description: Joined by Choice’s very own Senior Publicist and Publicist, Olivia and Tiffany break down the evolution of the PR industry, top PR trends for 2021, the importance of keeping up with these trends, how to know if you or your company is pitch worthy, and practical tips on how to begin pitching yourself.
This episode will teach you:
The 3 key questions to ask when determining if you’re pitch worthy
Four top PR trends for 2021 and beyond
Best practices to gain local and national media coverage
How to pitch yourself if you don’t know where to begin
The Big Three (Episode Takeaways):
When thinking through what makes yourself or your brand pitch worthy, Olivia suggests asking yourself these 3 questions:
What is the problem you’re solving?
What is your credibility in the space?
How can you fit into the current conversation? It’s crucial now more than ever to pay attention so you can connect with current trends and fit into the news cycle.
So how do you craft the perfect pitch to stand out and get above the noise? Tiffany shares her simple, but effective top three tips on how to pitch yourself well:
Have a killer subject line – Aim for a short, but compelling subject line that gives media a full picture of your main message.
Addressing your contact correctly – Let’s face it – no one likes getting blanket emails. Being able to actually address your contact by name is an important step you can’t afford to miss.
Researching your contact so you can craft a customized pitch – This goes a long way when the media can see you’ve done your research and can even reference past work they’ve done.
You can count on the PR industry to be ever-changing. With everything we’re currently facing, here are the top PR trends for 2021 both Olivia and Tiffany say you should know about:
With the rise of podcasts, pitching yourself to podcasts is a strategy that can yield great results and huge impact.
The importance of being a vocal brand – Brands must have those hard conversations on issues such as social and racial justice. This is important because consumers need to be able to see themselves and belief systems represented within the brand.
Navigating the big pivot – Companies should use the current state of the world as a way to determine how to use their offerings to inject positive change, and share this with the media. This ties into the uptick of positive human interest stories as we’re all looking for joyful and feel good news during such a negative news climate.
Thoughts worth sharing:
“Ultimately it is important to stay on top of these trends so that we can always remain socially aware and relevant to the times. This way, when we’re doing our pitching efforts, it can always tie into what we’re actually seeing happening at the time around us. And then, we can leverage those trends to benefit our clients.” – Tiffany Segree 14:58
“I think that looking through it and positioning it as what is the problem that I’m solving for people? Because the market is so crowded. There’s so many people doing the same things. So you have to think how can my brand rise above the noise? What am I giving people that other people can’t? – Olivia Parven 18:06
“I think that if this past year has taught us anything, it’s that really taking a stand on issues is necessary. And consumers and customers are looking for companies and brands to be vocal on things that they normally wouldn’t like social justice issues. That can be difficult to talk about sometimes, but consumers want to see their belief systems reflected in brands that they’re choosing to trust. So I think that being silent, not only leaves you out of timely conversations, but it’s just going to create distance between you and the consumer.” – Olivia Parven
“Another lesson that I’ve learned will always be to have a solid plan A and B. So there are so many factors that come into play in the PR industry. And as I said earlier, things are ever changing. So it’s really critical to stay two steps ahead when it comes to staying on top of trends and being aware of what’s happening socially and culturally at the time, that way you can always be ready to pivot seamlessly at any time. – Tiffany Segree
“I think oftentimes people just really don’t understand that PR is a long game, right? Like it can take many months before getting a national media hit, but that one media hit can change your entire business.” – Olivia Parven
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