Ep. 16: How to Build a PR Marketing Strategy: Earned Media, Podcast Guesting and More

Live Your Legacy with Chelsea Quint

Say it with me: Social media is not the end all be all marketing platform. Social media platforms offer a lot of possible benefits, yes, but you do NOT have to be active on social media or have an account to have a successful business. And in this episode, we're talking about one of the best ways you can market and grow your business without ever touching social media.

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Want to explore working together? Email me at ⁠[e-mail]⁠, or ⁠send me a message on Instagram⁠.

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Enter: earned media. We'll breakdown the difference between earned, paid and owned media, unpack the key benefits of earned media and how to get it, then walk you through the four core steps of building your own earned media marketing strategy.

Want to read those steps? Keep scrolling.

How to Design Your PR Strategy

1. Set the goals for your business. Ideally, your PR and earned media goals are going to line up with your overall business goals. Because yes, wanting to land a big TV segment or an interview on a big podcast are totally valid goals, but if you aren’t clear and intentional about how those tactics are going to grow your brand’s presence, increase awareness of your message and products, or drive people toward what you sell, your efforts may fall flat. So decide what you want in business, then make sure your strategy lines up. This also requires knowing your offers, audience personas, and those other foundational business basics.
2. Design Your Strategy. Simply put, your strategy is the plan you’ll follow to achieve your goals. So with a PR strategy, you start with your goal, then decide what actions you’ll take to move closer to that goal. Example: if you want to grow your audience, you’ll need to decide which platform(s) you want to drive people toward, identify the key messages and storylines you want people to understand, and define what platform(s) you’ll be reaching out to (podcasts, TV, blogs, magazines, speaking events, etc.) - making sure those things are aligned with what your ideal customers want. In short: what will you do (big picture) to achieve your goal, thinking about it in terms of accessing earned media.
3. Define Your Tasks and Tactics. Here we get more specific. Your strategy is the big picture, North Star direction, tasks and tactics are where you start to create your to do list. So if you decide that podcast guesting and securing interviews is a key strategy for growing your audience or promoting a specific product launch, you need to do research on podcasts to pitch and make a list of the contact information and show details to personalize your pitches. You’ll also need to block off time to listen to each show - at least a few episodes - to get a sense of the show and where your brand can fit and be truly valuable and unique. You’ll need to define a few story angles that offer variety but still connect to your key goals, and really refine the message so it’s concise and potent when you’re sending a pitch.
4. Create Your Timeline. I always have clients start by assessing their current capacity. How much do you have going on in other areas of your business outside of the PR marketing space? How about the rest of your life? How about travel, mental and physical health, kids, family, etc.? So first explore your capacity, then identify how much time and energy you have to commit to your PR strategy. Maybe break that down into how much time you can devote to your tasks each week or month, then start to slot those into your weeks. Cool?