Uh, what happened to May? For me, it was a blur of the peak conference season for the businesses I support, meaning this newsletter fell to the wayside for a few weeks.
I had actually meant to send something about pitching during hard times last week, but since there’s already a lot of tips out there … I decided to not add to the noise.
Instead, I decided to push the newsletter by a week to focus on one of the most difficult seasons of the year … the summer slump.
In case you didn’t know … the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day can often be challenging for pros(e) to secure media placements. In fact, tracking the data of my own results (and my teams’), the summer months result in about 36% less media wins … with July being the worst month for results overall.
Why, you ask?
The simple explanation is summer vacations. Newsrooms have less people, and those covering for others on vacation are often stretched too thin to focus on stories that aren’t specifically related to the news cycle.
That’s not to say it’s impossible to get coverage during this time of year…you just have to be a little more creative while also setting the appropriate expectations.
Last year, I wrote an article in PR Daily about how to secure media during the summer slump that you can check out here: https://www.prdaily.com/how-to-avoid-the-media-relations-summer-slump/
TL;DR:
Focus on providing content (i.e. guest articles, research, etc) vs offering interviews
Pay attention to how your stories can compliment the newscycle
Understand the daily/weekly/monthly columns in your industry that may be looking for content.
Next issue, I’ll welcome one of my favorite media strategists for a guest column…stay tuned.