Content Marketing Today

5 Essential Reasons to Add a Media Room to Your Website

As they rush to make their deadlines, be sure reporters can find great content on your website.

Just because your customers are consuming less traditional print news and feature content does not mean that don’t still crave information that helps them find solutions to their problems.  Thus, a great news story or feature article that includes information about your company, its people, and its products can drive a ton of new business your way. After all, that’s what public relations is all about.

Although you may not have a budget for a public relations staffer or a PR agency, you can still increase the likelihood that you will get solid press coverage by creating a virtual home for reporters. Make it easy for them to do their job by creating a reporter-friendly online media room.  Think of this strategy as content marketing designed to provide relevant and compelling content–not to your customers–but to reporters.

Here are the five reasons that you need to make a media room a high profile component on your website.

1. Reporters, like customers, will come to your website first to find information about your company.  Because reporters know that every company worth covering will have a website, they will use the Web to uncover information before they ever contact you or your company directly.  Therefore, you need to make it easy for them to learn everything they need to know about your products and services, your expertise, and about you and your management team. If you don’t, they will move on to a competitor’s website where they can find information with little or no effort.
2. As editorial resources shrink, fewer reporters must cover a lot more ground. That means they have very little time to research and write daily, weekly or monthly stories. If your media room and its comprehensive resources become a reliable source of inspiration in their pursuit of stories, you have a good chance at becoming a go–to person or organization whenever they are writing something that might shine a warm light on your company.
3. Reporters are always looking for great story ideas. If you find it difficult to cook up story ideas that relate to your company, imagine how hard it will be for reporters who know very little about your organization.  So, take the time to brainstorm great ideas for articles that would interest those reporters who are in a position to give you real or virtual ink in their publication. Then, provide a list of those story ideas to inspire your visiting reporters. Also, include a list of typical questions they might ask that could lead to a great story.  They have a tough job. This is a wonderful opportunity to make that job a bit easier.
4. Reporters need to know who and how to contact about a particular topic, issue, product, service or person. Don’t make them call into your reception area to ask who they should talk to when they are in hot pursuit of a story. You may not have a dedicated press person, but you certainly have individuals who are knowledgeable about key topic or issue areas.  Provide their direct contact phone numbers and e-mail addresses. Don’t waste reporters’ time by making them guess.
5. Reporters typically also need images, logos, executive photos, and increasingly multimedia content to share online. By offering a central spot with links to download files or to view images and videos, you will significantly improve your chances of getting a great story that features your company. Even if you have white papers or e-books located in other parts of your website, make sure that you have links to them in the media room.  This is all part of your vital role in making it easy for reporters to become experts about topic and issue areas relating to your company.

To get an idea of what even a small company can do with a media room, click here to take a look and you’ll see how we make it easier for reporters to consider writing about content marketing or Content Marketing Strategies. 

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