Achieving mainstream media coverage is an effective way of reaching a broad range of people all at once. There’s not a lot that can compete with a two-page spread in BRW or a slot on a morning show.
But in your excitement of reaching your lofty PR goals, don’t forget about your vertical markets.
When you create a PR plan you will have your target market, for example this may be large businesses. Vertical markets are particular industries within your broad target market you want to pursue, for instance you may want to target the verticals of mining, education and health – which can all come under the overarching target market of large businesses. Depending on what your products and services are, you may also want to break down your verticals further; education can be broken down into tertiary, secondary or private and public etc. Vertical markets are an effective place to target because you are speaking directly to a niche audience with tailored information about your offerings. As an example, you may be a workplace clothing provider, if mining is one of the verticals you want to target, you can tailor your pitch to mining specific publications with detailed information about what you can offer miners. If you sent them a pitch just about your general clothing offering, you won’t catch the attention of the journalist. Finding the Angles
You may have a product or service that has broad reach or interest, but is there some way you can tack it on to an issue happening in one of your target vertical markets? When pitching to target market publications your angle must be specific in order to address their needs.
For example, while there is a mining boom at the moment, some mining companies are struggling to retain staff due to unusual working conditions. If your company worked in the retention strategy space, you could pitch to mining publications about how mining companies can retain staff. A Common Mistake A common mistake is the failure to understand the vertical markets you choose to target. Your pitches need to be specifically targeted and include detailed information about the market you are trying to target. Also when pitching to a vertical, you must speak their language and jargon. For example if you were pitching to an accounting magazine you may write about ESOPs (employee stock ownership plans to the rest of us), in a pitch to a broad business magazine you would write it out fully, not use the acronym. Other Places to Target It’s not just media you should target but also your vertical industry associations, trade shows and other events. Associations have access to potentially thousands of people working in the vertical industry you are hoping to target. They usually have a newsletter, maybe social media and also may host industry events. People trust their associations and you being quoted in one of their articles or endorsed by them in any other way is a huge step towards reaching your target market.
Part of a good PR strategy is also speaking, not just gaining media coverage. Is there someone in your business who is good at speaking in front of a large audience? They should be pitched to industry events as a presenter. You can also become a part of the industries trade shows, putting your name in front of hundreds or potentially thousands of people in the market you are trying to target.
Any type of PR work into your vertical markets should start with a lot of research, remembering the journalists and event co-ordinators you are going to be talking to are working in this space every day. In order to convince these high-profile communicators that they should print your article or put you on the podium they need to know you are knowledgeable about the industry and care about it as well.
