Senior Associate of Communications Ari Neugeboren shares best practices in running an integrated communications campaign with thought leadership and earned media.
Coordinating an integrated media relations campaign – with thought leadership and earned media – requires considerable planning and strategy. Being fully prepared to execute this type of campaign from beginning to end is necessary for maximum success.
Seven best practices for accomplishing a successful integrated campaign are below:
Plan, Plan, Plan
Communicators who fully plan phases and think through all elements and timing of the campaign will be most successful. It is crucial to map out these elements and timing to stay best organized during and optimize the results.
Utilize Embargoed Pitching
Ahead of a key milestone, event, or announcement, offering reporters an interview ahead of time, on embargo, can ensure that a client’s perspective is involved in different aspects of the writing process. Therefore, when the milestone arrives, the spokesperson – and their perspective – is more likely to be included in articles.
Coordination and Timing
The best integrated media relations campaigns leverage each element to maximize impact. For example, coordinating the debut of a thought leadership piece, at the same time as earned media mentions, will augment each for greater reach. Then, leveraging both this thought leadership and earned media through paid digital outreach will create greater reach to the audiences the campaign is intending to influence.
Start the Thought Leadership Process Early
When pitching an op-ed, blog, or other thought leadership piece, it is common to get rejections from newsrooms – usually due to sheer volume. Communicators cannot take this personally. When newsrooms accept a piece, however, they typically ask for several rounds of edits, which can take considerable time. It is therefore important to start the thought leadership process early – but make clear to newsrooms that there is a prospective timeframe in mind for when it goes live.
Social Media is a Tool
Whichever social media platform an organization uses, it is an important way to leverage thought leadership and earned media to audiences who are known to care about the issue. Authoring a social media calendar for these, with language, graphics, and content pre-planned, ensure content is prepared for social media promotion once thought leadership and earned media hits come to fruition.
Tell a Story Afterwards – and Reiterate Strategic Goals
Once campaign results flow in, emphasizing the outcomes and strategic goals to an organization is imperative to overall success. Top communicators should ask themselves the following questions when working to articulate this:
How is this issue framed differently with my client featured?
What does this mean about the likely issue outcome?
Why is it important to be heavily involved in this issue’s news cycle?
What audiences would most benefit from seeing this perspective?
Continue Promoting Success Well into The Future
The results of an integrated campaign can be continuously promoted to build brands, move the needle on issues, and grow a thought leader’s credibility. Plan to advertise and publicize your thought leadership and earned media for best results.
If you would like to discuss your organization’s public affairs or digital marketing strategies, please reach out to Ari at aneugeboren@signaldc.com. You can also follow him on LinkedIn.