Whether you’re a corporate brand or a non-profit organization, press and media attention is vital to your success – especially when your success is driven by public interaction and community support. When your non-profit gains followers and donors through charity events such as benefit auctions, increasing the press coverage and gaining media attention specifically for that event can make or break your ticket sales.
“Gaining press” used to mean direct solicitation of journalists and print media. Now, with the ever growing online world, it’s important for non-profits to solidify themselves by understanding and embracing the power of online PR. Try these tips to better position yourself for your next event and set your non-profit up for success:
The Press Release
The press release has long been viewed as a formal way to let print media know when big changes are happening among organizations and big-business (think Wall Street). With the way information is sent & shared online, press releases aren’t just about the big guys anymore.
A press release is still distributed to major media players but it’s also shared among major search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing within their live news feed. For those watching (and many do) your news release is seen immediately. In many cases, press releases are featured on page 1 of the search engines when someone does a related search. That means instantaneous global reach for your non-profit with a release that’s read by the public (potential donors included) as well as journalists.
A Landing Page
This is a term used for a page on your site or domain where you send targeted traffic for marketing purposes. Marketing doesn’t always have to be about sales though, and when you’re on track to engage the press you should have a designated page to send them for more information.
Whether you’re soliciting the press through direct letters, a phone call, a press release, etc. you must create a landing page containing the main points of your event & organization. This will give the press a “plate full of meat” when it comes to putting a story together. Add a call to action and invite them to contact you directly for additional information if need be but by easily feeding them all the details without forcing them to contact you for more info you increase the chances of being picked up for a feature story.
The added benefit of a landing page – if you’re doing any other marketing for your event to increase community awareness, you can also send those people to the same landing page, or one completely unique to their interest and demographics.
Guest Blogging
For every niche – or market – there’s a blogger out there talking about it. Each of these bloggers comes up against a (sometimes nagging) requirement to produce regular content. You can alleviate some of the strain of developing content by offering up a guest post to a blogger relevant to your non-profit or charity organization. They’ll likely love you for it because it gives them a break from writing, and they can align themselves with a good cause – great for their brand and your exposure.
It’s essentially free marketing to their entire reader base and guest posts tend to come with links to your website, so you’ll see additional traffic funneling in. If you’re savvy on search optimization, guest blogging is also a great way to build a backlink to your charity organization using targeted keywords; also great for increasing exposure online.
Social Media Outreach
The world lives in social media. This is evident by the fact that there are more than 600 million users on Facebook alone. If it were a country, it would be the 3rd largest country in the world. You can increase your press coverage by leveraging social media. This is a great opportunity to not only reach out to your target audience but also to directly solicit journalists by engaging them through Twitter.
Calendar Listings
There are a variety of free and paid calendar services on the web that assist with announcing upcoming events. CharityHappenings.org is a perfect example of how you can leverage a widely-used and respected calendar service to announce an upcoming charity event. Not only are these calendars seen by local community members but also potential donors as well as journalists in search of local or national story opportunities.
Whether you use one or more of these methods, you should always be prepared for the contact. The more you increase your exposure and outreach to the media, the more likely you are to receive contacts from a journalist or reporter. In some cases a refined landing page won’t be enough so you should plan how you will respond to common questions, what you want to say, what to highlight, etc.
A little planning and bolstering of your outreach will do wonders on your exposure and ticket sales. If your aim is to sell out your next charity event, then start leveraging the web for increasing your press exposure today.