Three Steps to Building a Strong Media List to Propel Your Coaching Business

Constant changes in the news cycle can make it challenging to get a reporter’s attention and gain publicity for your coaching business. With COVID-19 continuing to dominate global headlines, it is even more important to find avenues to elevate your visibility and highlight your experience and brand to acquire new coaching clients.

Here are three steps you can take to create a targeted journalist contact list that may help you land the perfect media placement to accomplish each of these goals.

Develop Audience Personas

Before you develop your media outreach list, you must understand your target audience of clients and identify the audience personas that represent your areas of expertise and your most engaged client groups.

When building an audience persona, consider: What are your specific areas of expertise? Are there common traits such as age group, industry, career level, or ambition that many of your clients share? Reviewing your client list may help you identify these commonalities and develop a customer profile of your ideal client’s industry, background, career challenges and goals.

If you’re stuck, it also can be helpful to create a survey to send to your current clients or host a virtual focus group with your most engaged clients. In either fashion, you can ask questions that will give you a better sense of your clients’ and potential clients’ motivations, interests and actions they took to find a coach. Such information will help you determine where to focus your outreach efforts.

Select Appropriate Media Outlets

 Once you identify your audience personas, the next step is to select those media outlets your intended audiences pay attention to.  This will help you align potential customers with media that may have an interest in the coaching story you have to share.

Start by researching industries relevant to your clients. For example, if you determine that one of your client clusters is women between the ages of 26-34, working in the education industry in Singapore, a good place to start is to search the latest news and developments in education in Singapore. Regional and even global trends may also be of importance.

Identify news sources that help your clients stay informed about such industry news and best practices and offer to act as a resource for reporters covering that sector. Ask yourself, what’s the value of this media outlet to my clients and potential clients? What reporters are covering industry developments? Think strategically and specifically as possible about the outlets and journalists you choose so you keep your list focused rather than all-inclusive. While it might be tempting to solely include large media outlets that have broader reach, don’t underestimate the power of niche channels such as trade publications, to increase your brand awareness.

Although Google is a helpful research tool, also search pertinent hashtags on social media to find key subject matter experts and industry influencers relevant to your client base and determine what media outlets they have been featured in.  Through your social media research, you could discover additional outlets and reporters to add to your media list. In addition, many journalists are more likely to respond to a social media contact than to a blind email.

Don’t limit your efforts to television, print and similar traditional media. Also consider expanding your media list to include blogs, vlogs and podcasts.

Keep Abreast of Industry Developments

 After you develop an initial list of media contacts, continue to find ways to include your business in conversations relevant to your target audience. Google Alerts is a helpful tool for receiving regular updates on relevant industry keywords, news, and trends. In addition to being aware of industry news, staying in tune with global, national and local news can help you find different angles to showcase your business. The more you can connect your brand’s message with a newsworthy event, the better chance you have of gaining publicity.

Building the Perfect Media List is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Media outreach is a great way to introduce your coaching business to potential clients and develop new relationships with journalists. Creating a strong media list is a crucial first step in this process. Keep in mind that building the best media list for your business is an ongoing process. The media landscape is constantly evolving, and your outreach list must reflect those changes.

As a coach with a diverse group of clients, you can reach various industries in multiple demographics thus taking advantage of a significant opportunity for increased visibility and thought leadership. Developing audience profiles, carefully selecting media targets, and researching industry news are the key ingredients to developing a strong media list that will help take your business to the next level.