Generating relevant content on an ongoing basis is not a matter of course. The other challenge is to place the content in a targeted manner in relevant media. To do this, you must first identify the media relevant to your business. The buyer persona analysis can provide information about the reading behavior of your target customers and the media they pay most attention to.
Determine the online and offline media that are most important for your business. This can be trade magazines that your target groups read, it can also be Internet-based marketplaces that your target group uses, and social media platforms such as Xing or LinkedIn that they visit.
Contact the editors of these selected media and ask about circulation or user numbers. Also ask about regional coverage: some magazines are published throughout Germany, some are limited to specific regions. You should also know the publication cycles: Is the magazine published monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly or annually? Some magazines have assigned key topics to their issues over the course of the current calendar year. If you know these key topics, you can target your content for publication.
Offering content is not an obligation for editorial teams to publish. To increase the likelihood of a PR presence in the relevant media, good personal relationships with editors are recommended.
Finally, the publication dates of your topics must also fit your business schedule. If you are launching a new product, a suitable article should appear at the time of the launch. For this, you need good media planning.
Make a note in an annual calendar of the prominent dates for product launches, trade fair presentations, seasonal offers, investments, completion of customer reference projects and personnel changes. Try to match these dates with the publication dates and content planning of the relevant media. Then target your content to the editors. This will help you optimize the impact of your PR activities.
Some publishers expect a paid advertisement in return for the publication of an editorial PR article. However, do not actively offer to do so, as this would devalue the PR content you offer in the eyes of the editors. In many publishing houses, the editorial team is even organized completely independently from the ad acceptance department. In any case, the placement of PR content and the purchase of advertising space go hand in hand. As part of your media planning, set your budget and spread it over the year as well as the relevant media.