While there are several things that can help you get in media, today I want to focus on websites. Why? Because I’m seeing a lot of really terrible ones as of late. Additionally, many of my current clients and students are going through rebrands so I know other business owners must be going through it too.
Design
I am the last person to tell someone to spends thousands of dollars on website design, especially if they are just starting out. However, that doesn’t mean your website needs to look terrible.
Here are some things your website design absolutely needs in order to attract media attention:
- A brand story
- Easy navigation. If they can’t find what they need, they won’t reach out to you.
- Gets the point across quickly. For example, as soon as you go to my website, you know exactly what I’m about.
- Professional (Note: This doesn’t necessarily mean corporate. It just means you take yourself seriously.)
- Logos of media mentions for social proof
If you’re not at a stage where you can spend a lot of money on website design, there are plenty of free or low-cost website themes you can use that will get the job done.
Media Assets
If you want to get media attention, you need to provide media assets. This looks like images, stats and talking points.
In my case, I provide both a media kit and a spokesperson kit people can use. I also provide a way for them to download high resolution photos.
Here are some of the things that should be in your media kit:
- Short and long bio
- Audience demographics
- Social and website numbers
- Previous media mentions
- Previous speaking engagements
- Photos
This should be a downloadable file the media can grab right from your website. My suggestion is to hire a graphic designer to create one for you. It’s worth the money.
Press Page
If you want to get media attention, you need to let them know you already have eyeballs on you. You can do this by creating a press page where you link to your media mentions. This is also a good place to put logos of media mentions as well as have a downloadable link to your media kit.
This is usually the part where someone asks me, “What if I don’t have any media mentions?” They may also ask, “What if I don’t have a lot of media mentions?”
Speaking as someone who also started with zero media mentions, anything counts. Link to other blogs that have mentioned you. You can also start getting on podcasts and link those in the press page.
Final Thoughts
The thing you need to remember is that media builds and snowballs over time. We’re also in the age of the internet where just about anything is media. All you need to do is start somewhere and you’ll be able to attract media attention.
