Case Study: In Good Company by Rachelle Money, 22 July 2008
SEO is about the off page factors as well as the on page factors - small businesses usually neglect the former. Getting external sites to write about you, especially top news sites, can do wonders for your inbound links and as a result improve your search engine rankings. Here’s how one company got top rate media coverage.
Key points
- Persevere. Getting good press coverage can sometimes seem more like a marathon than a sprint, so don’t lose patience.
- Make sure the publication is relevant to your company.
- Be prepared for inquiries that will result in media coverage. You don’t want to get into a situation where customers want your products off the back of the reading a newspaper or magazine, and they can’t get it.
It’s been one of those days all week for Adelaide Fives, one half of the founding partnership of In Good Company Workplaces in New York. The phone hasn’t stopped ringing since the New York Times featured her company in their business pages, unexpectedly throwing it into the limelight. Having just appeared on Fox News and successfully secured another television feature, Fives is reeling from what has been a roller coaster ride with the media.
Fives comes across as a sparky young woman in her phone interview and she's buzzing with excitement over the recent attention she and business partner, Amy Abrams, have been attracting.
Setting goals
In Good Company opened its doors in September 2007 offering women productive and flexible workspaces to hire. Within six months their ‘community’ of female only entrepreneurs grew to over 120 members. As the year came to a close, Fives and Abrams made a list of goals for 2008; one of them was to feature in the New York Times, and in February they achieved that, despite never having had any experience in PR or marketing.
“We felt that what we were doing was very press worthy and that there were a lot of stories to be told around our business,” says Fives.
“We got in touch with Marci Alboher (journalist for the New York Times) and she was polite and said that if we were of interest to her she would be in touch.
“For five months we stayed on her radar and invited her to events or kept her updated on what we were doing. We were conscious that we didn’t want to come across as too pushy, but it’s a fine line.”
Perserverance
Fives' and Abrams' patience looked as if it would pay off after Alboher called them to say she would be mentioning the company in a trend article on flexible workspaces. After a marathon two-hour interview and a photo shoot at the In Good Company offices, the story was dropped because a similar story had been published in the New York Times that week, which left Fives and Abrams deflated. However, their luck turned when Alboher contacted them the following week to say she wanted to write a feature on In Good Company for the business pages.
“We had gone through this roller coaster of being excited, being let down and then everything being back on again,” says Fives.
Over four days Alboher interviewed a number of the members of In Good Company, as well as investors and industry commentators for the article. The online publication also carried a link to each of the women’s websites.
Fives says they were “ecstatic” with the finished New York Times article. “We felt it reflected our business well and we were flattered by her nice comments and our members comments too, so we felt touched by that.”
Consequences of good media attention
Just as Fives and Abrams sighed with relief that the article had been well received, the phone began ringing with inquiries from women wanting to become members, demanding realtors asking them to join their client list, and calls from people looking for advice on how to launch their own flexible workspace companies.
The huge interest raised some interesting dilemmas for the In Good Company team, explains Fives.
“We have met a tremendous amount of women and had a lot of interest from people who want to do something similar. That’s been a little tricky because we have extension plans and although we are very collaborative sometimes we can’t because we can’t give away our business model.
“We have had to change some of our practices, so now we have a more intense screening process for new members and ask more questions when we take inquires or have people come meet with us.”
Although Fives doesn’t know exactly how much more traffic has come through the site, she confirmed it was “a lot.” She has an interesting perspective on traffic, saying that she is more interested in the number of people who contact her who are appropriate for the business.
Negative exposure
After the New York Times article was published, Fox News invited Fives, Abrams and Ann Lansing (a designer who uses the workspace) to appear on a business bulletin.
Unfortunately the male presenter accused them of running a feminist company which was “right up there with bra burners”. Fives and Abrams, coolly explained the concept of having a community workspace for female entrepreneurs and described why it had grown in popularity. Eventually the gray suit decided to ditch his bad cop routine and ended the interview by saying he thought they had a great idea on their hands.
A live television interview broadcast is daunting even for the professionals. Fives said she kept calm by showing little emotion, and by not letting the interviewer know she was annoyed.
“He asked me why women are different than men. Well, I don’t really feel qualified to answer that, so I thought how can I answer this question without looking stupid, but at the same time not getting into a conversation that’s not interesting.”
Fives and Abrams stuck to their message and came across as extremely professional and articulate. They have since continued to reap the rewards of their coverage in the New York Times with more local media outlets covering their story.
“I haven’t stopped since the article was published so this is a really exciting and positive time for us,” says Fives.
Getting good media coverage – Adelaide's top tips
- Decide what is newsworthy about your business. It’s not enough to say you have a great service.
- If you are a service provider sometimes it’s easier to be quoted as an expert. Think about how you can pitch that.
- Do your research. Identify appropriate and approachable local media first and then identify who within that newspaper would be the right person to speak to.
- Reach out in a professional and open way and not in a ‘salesy’ way which can come across as too pushy.
- Tell the journalist why you are interesting. You can’t say ‘here’s a list of things about me - find out what’s interesting’, that’s not going to work.
- Stay on the journalists’ radar but again, don’t be pushy.
Click In Good Company Workplaces to read the whole of their press coverage.
About Rachelle Money
Rachelle Money is a freelance journalist based in Scotland, UK. She graduated from the Scottish School of Journalism in 2005 where she was awarded an internship with two national publications - The Sunday Herald newspaper and The Big Issue magazine. Rachelle has been working with Wordtracker since August 2007 and is a regular contributor to the newsletter.
17 comments
Excellent article. Getting into the mainstream media or news site has to be one of the hardest tasks in SEM. I see what you mean when a interviewer turns things around for there own gain and your left holding the bag or the burning bra in this instance. Thanks for the great tips too
Great article! Thanks, Rachelle. It's important to develop a unique marketing angle and a "product differentiator" before inviting media coverage. Can I reprint the last 6 tips for my ezine readers? Thanks.
Ugur. Passing on great advice is a wonderful thing. Linking to the source of that great advice is even better. So, by all means reprint the tips but it would be nice if you gave a link to my article too.
Thanks, Rachelle
Great article and good tips. It also highlights the benefits of hiring a professional PR who will already have established and trusted relationships with key journalists. They'll know what issues are hot and what are not with the target titles and so can shorten the timescale between deciding media coverage would be beneficial and securing the coverage.
A good PR will know a journalist's current interest areas and quickly assess how they match what's newsworthy about your business. They'll also guide you in how to handle a press, radio or TV interview effectively. They'll know the interviewer's style and will have prepared you with ways to brush off negativity in polite ways which make the interviewer quickly switch to the main event - your key message.
They'll also put together a media campaign which sees regular sustained long-term coverage (online and traditional media) rather than a one-off.
PR is often regarded as "fluff" due to the fact that it sometimes doesn't offer immediate next day returns but the cost/benefit ratio is very low compared to advertising costs in the relevant media outlets.
All successful large businesses include PR within their marketing mix. Good Company show the reason why.
Great article. A free write up is worth thousand ads but preparation for the same is everything. In good company has displayed the most important elements- A good story (without which u can forget reader interest), solid proof- members giving interviews, homework about what is to be said and how to react in adversity.
Great acumen. Have learnt lessons
Very inspiring. Thank you for the great read.
Thanks for sharing such an inspiring article. Perseverance and passion pay big time.
as a pr pro i regard this as a fluke and a stroke of luck that they got coverage and that's how most stories are. misleading to say "persevere and you'll get featured in the lazy, liberal msm." pah.
Despite one reviewer's dismissive attitude, I think the article was good, the ideas pracitical, and the approach sound.
As Dave Winters pointed out, having a professional on your side can be a big help. They do know the shortcuts and the writers and the issues -- the challenge, of course, is cost. Many start-up or other small firms may not have the dollars to hire out the PR or may have a budget so small that they are all but ignored by their PR firm.
But note that hiring a PR firm DOESN'T eliminate the actual work involved with getting coverage. As the very first point in the article pointed out, the real key is determining what is interesting about your business. That's often VERY hard work.
Good job, Rachelle.
Getting news coverage is important to business leaders. Keeping in touch with the news media by reading stories and seeing what is the news of the day are ways to attract the media to your business.
Additionally, creating a news hook for your business is central to getting coverage in the media.
it's a good idea. thank you rachelle
Promotion of your business can come from many unexpected places. It doesn't hurt to have a "press kit" available on your website.
Great inspirational story. PR is one of the best ways to sell you company to new customers.
If you don't have anything that is newsworthy, think about what makes your business unique from other competitiors, and approach the press with your uniqueness. It has worked for us as we have been in the New York Times, Newsweek, USA today, etc.
For instance, we own a clothing optional resort in sunny Palm Springs, CA. I took some pictures showing the blue skies of Palm Springs and posted them on our blog. A USA Today reporter thought that was such a unique way to tell people that it is OK to vacation in Palm Springs, he wrote about it in the front section of the paper.
Good luck Rachelle.
A great article that should inspire anybody trying to get publicity for their business. I think the most important lesson here is that if the first approach is not successful, it doesn't mean that the publication is not interested in you. There can be a 100 reasons why your story wasn't used but rather than give up, look for another angle. And if that don't work, look for another one. Getting exposure is about persistence and finding an interesting angle that makes your piece stand out from the rest. Cream will always rise to the top so keep plugging away. Well done Rachelle
Great Article for Beginners like me.
Interesting and helpful case study. Good approach.
Great stuff, so important to plug in. I think many business get stuck working on their business' rather than working on their business'. Thanks for the story!