Expert Positioning: The Secret Sauce for Press Coverage
If you’ve spent any time around reporters, you’ll hear plenty of complaints about pitches. The biggest complaint is that they’re off-topic, but pitches that are overly promotional come in a close second.
There are lots of ways to pitch yourself or your company that aren’t completely promotional, but one of my favorites is to create an expert positioning strategy.
WHAT IS EXPERT POSITIONING?
Expert positioning is just what it sounds like: creating a reputation for yourself as an expert in your field through quotes in relevant articles, speaking engagements, guest posting, op eds, podcast interviews or any combination of these elements.
WHY'S IT SO GREAT?
Let’s go back to the complaint about all PR people’s pitches being overly promotional. Expert positioning gives us an opportunity to be genuinely helpful to a reporter, editor, podcaster or event organizer. It involves the expert talking about something they know well, and that likely relates to their brand, company or product—but it doesn’t involve them being a commercial hawking their brand (something that rarely goes over well, anyways).
This helps to build a relationship with target media, who will then have you as top of mind on particular topics, and will become organically familiar with what you do.
It provides a chance to authentically connect with your audience. Readers and listeners know a commercial when they see one, but they appreciate genuinely helpful information from smart people that know what they’re talking about.
And if you’re not someone who’s naturally comfortable being promotional, these types of opportunities give you a chance to get comfortable interviewing by talking about something that the reporter genuinely needs and you know a lot about.
WAIT, ME… AN EXPERT?
Everyone’s an expert in something.
Figuring out where your expertise lies is usually fairly easy. Most of us have something we know more about than anyone else, especially if we’re entrepreneurs. By nature, we’re curious, we’re immersed, and we’ve maybe built something that very few people have experienced yet.
Of course, there are likely a whole lot of areas of expertise you have that lie outside your work life. For example, I have tons of expertise in PR, social media strategy and marketing strategy… but I’m also extremely efficient, and I’d like to think myself as an expert in time management. I’ve run the parent organization at my daughter’s preschool for two years, so I know a whole lot about organizing events for 3-to-5 year olds.
In some cases, we can combine some of these personal expert areas with our professional ones, but distilling down where your expertise lies is an important first step. Think about:
What areas do you have expertise in? Let it all loose here and make a list. Even if some of them feel irrelevant now, you might think of fun ways to incorporate them later.
What are your business goals, or the goals you’re trying to meet with your expert positioning campaign? In other words, what audience do you want to get in front of, and what messaging do you actually want to relay once you have their attention?
Where do those two things meet? That’s your area(s) of expertise, and now you can brainstorm different ideas for your campaign.
And by the way, if you think that just because you run a for-profit company, you’re not an “expert,” you’re most likely wrong. Think about what your target audience is wondering about or information they need, and see if you have the knowledge to fill that void in some way, whether it is tied directly to your product or business, or it’s tangential.
DEVELOP YOUR PITCH
A great expert strategy will have a couple of elements.
Evergreen ideas that allow you to introduce yourself to relevant members of the media as a possible commentator.
An eye towards trends, news or statistics that you can comment on.
Ideas or already-written guest posts on your topic that you can contribute elsewhere.
Develop your pitch - this is an art, not a science. But traditionally, if you’re sending an emailed pitch to comment on a particular topic or to introduce yourself as a possible source or interviewee, I suggest being short and to the point, and offering up the goods in advance. Write a short paragraph of introduction, bullet out three to five great, unique thoughts you have on the relevant topic so they know you know what you’re talking about, and close it out.
If you’re pitching contributed content, every publication or website wants something different. Google the guidelines for your target—they may want a fully written piece, or a fleshed out pitch, or they may not take one-off contributions. Follow the instructions they are putting out for the best chance of publication.
PITCH ETIQUETTE
Think about pitching yourself as an expert the way you would any other social interaction. You’re offering up something helpful, but you don’t want to be pushy, and you don’t want to be off-base. Research the people who are reporting on topics of interest and keep a running media list. Reach out to them and feel free to follow up once or twice, but then move on (until another opportunity opens up, like a new trend or news piece).
Don’t be offended if you don’t hear back. Reporters are inundated, and often will keep your info on file until they need it down the line. That said, once you build a relationship, the reporter may come back to you for quotes over and over. If it’s been awhile since you’ve chatted, don’t hesitate to touch base again to say hello and see what they’re working on.
Finally, you can connect with many of these journalists and podcasters on LinkedIn or Twitter. Feel free to do so, and to interact with them in a genuine, authentic manner there.
Want to learn more about expert positioning, or need help developing your strategy? Contact me at kristen@sevenhillscommunications.com to get started!