Especially at early stages, responsibility for communications often falls to internal teams with expertise in business development or marketing, rather than media relations. This can result in ad hoc campaigns to engage with media around a product launch or milestone – efforts that usually land with a thud.

Most companies’ internal teams can put together the pieces of media relations – for example, drafting a functional press release or phoning a reporter. But developing and executing the right communication strategy makes the difference between going through the motions and generating results that move the needle, whether the goal is supporting sales, generating inquiries, or building a long-term brand.

To get started, here are five key ideas to prioritise as you assemble a media communications strategy that will help you achieve your goals.

Imagine walking into a party: the way your reputation precedes you will determine the tenor of your conversations. Knowing where you stand helps you determine whether you need to be starting conversations or continuing them.

From there, it becomes possible to think about goals. Do you need to raise your organisation’s CEO profile, or build brand awareness around a suite of services? If nobody knows your name, you may want to make a quick splash to make sure you’re remembered before you tell important news.

Look for the team players who have the right combination of subject matter expertise, perspective, and personality – which usually means friendly, humble, and enthusiastic. The best spokespeople are able to bring more than just talking points or memorised statistics to an interview; they can tell a story by explaining industry relevance, or the history or future of a space. They also have the flexibility to go off-topic.

Not everyone will be interested in speaking to the media regularly. We have had many clients with a rock star CEO who blows away conference audiences, but doesn’t see the value in making time for reporters. Or a bright, young, magnetic talent who gets nervous at the idea of saying the “wrong thing” on record. Or even someone who is uncomfortable being interviewed in a non-native language. A level of people management is required to coax these voices into the spotlight.

Similarly, nor will everyone have the right communication skills and temperament to interact with reporters. Sometimes, a really smart employee comes across off-putting because they approach an interview as though it is a waste of time, or like they are doing the journalist a favour. Some people spend so much time in a lab or interacting with customers that they find it difficult to move outside the world of their insular jargon.

To strengthen the value delivered through media interviews, spokespeople need to be “on brand”, speaking in line with the rest of the business. Over the years, I’ve seen many company executives answer media questions in contradiction to their peers.

Thankfully, many of these issues are addressable through media training. For the nervous or disinterested group, it’s useful to understand and then address their specific concerns. The best interviews feel like friendly conversations, rather than academic lectures. Sometimes, just helping someone lower their guard is the best way to build confidence. Helping someone think through the structure of an interview – with an introduction, question and answer period, and conclusions, rather than a script they need to memorise – can lead to more natural and useful conversation flows.

First, if you have not already introduced yourself to media, consider a kick-off de-stealthing announcement. This gives you an opportunity to make a clear starting statement about what you are and introduce leadership and key stakeholders.

Next, assess any upcoming milestones on the horizon. Even if you start slowly, it is important to develop a consistent drumbeat of news, avoiding stop-and-start whenever possible. In this context, our clients often ask us – what makes news worthy of a press release? The first big factor is whether you can communicate the significance of the story externally. An example: your 1,000th sale might be cause for a banner in the break room. Framing it as the first among your competitors to reach a particular benchmark might be a signal worth amplifying.

The other factor is timing. How long is it between your outreaches to media contacts? Conversely, would promoting one piece of news step on efforts to promote a bigger announcement?

If news flow is the backbone, media relations is the connective tissue that fills in the gaps of your communication strategy. In fact, it can also be our blood flow – it can be that impactful. Here is where you can opinion lead, educate, persuade, and inform. If journalists don’t have opportunities to speak to you between announcements, it is easy for them to forget your people and your story.

Prepare by identifying topics that your experts can speak to, with a clear understanding of how entering such conversations will support your message. Media relations allow you to do things you can’t really do with news, such as introducing your C-suite, educating the market, and being an opinion lead. The downside is that you can only do this with one outlet at a time, so you still need to balance this with news that can get attention across multiple publications.

There are two types of media relations: proactive and reactive. The former represents an opportunity to drive conversations in your field, centred on perspectives you are uniquely positioned to offer. These can also build your credibility with reporters as a source for reactive opportunities, which is perhaps even more crucial. If competitors are included in a conversation and you’re not, that has an impact on your share of voice. You could be missing out on accessing a captive audience.

Inspiration can come from a variety of places. Read the publications you hope to be covered in, and their reporting can give you a sense of which topics are hot. Tap into broader industry conversations that are taking place at conferences – especially your own presentations and roundtables. Solicit feedback from sales and marketing teams to understand what is resonating with customers. Sometimes, it just takes repackaging your existing messages in the context of language and themes that audiences are looking for at that moment.

This is an opportunity for thought leadership. Your work addresses (or has overcome) specific industry challenges and sharing even broad solutions can demonstrate your company’s expertise to your field.

Still, there needs to be a balance between creativity and strategy. It might be easier to get involved in hot conversations, but that has to serve your message and speak to your target audience. If your customers are ahead of reporters on a topic, it might take a persistent campaign to educate the media on what the next hot story will be.

Face-to-face interactions are great when possible, for example, at conferences. Helping a reporter out with a source when they need one – even if it isn’t strictly necessary for your strategy – can also build goodwill (but don’t expect a quid pro quo). Reach out when you read a good story of theirs, even if there’s no angle for you to offer commentary.

Your relationships with reporters will not be equal. Publications are the gatekeepers, and reporters have their own deadlines, editors, and audiences to serve. It can be useful to think of them as clients in that you aim to offer them good services, for example, providing interesting stories, offering reliable sources, or being flexible regarding time zone differences. Try not to waste their time – do your homework to ensure that the topics you pitch are right for the reporters. 

Other relationships are important for your communications strategy, too. Leverage connections with investors, partners, and clients who might already have a strong connection with a reporter. Build bridges with others in your field – even competitors, where appropriate – to encourage broader media conversations together that you can take part in.