You could be taking a big risk with your company’s sales and reputation, and not even know it. Many companies don’t realize they are playing a serious and even dangerous game when they publish content on their websites or in other promotional channels. Publishing fresh content can bring in waves of new business when done correctly. Done poorly, it can be as deadly to your brand as sushi left in the sun. Think I’m being melodramatic? I’m not. Let me tell you why.
In the ancient narrative, “The Sword of Damocles”, Damocles thought it would be nice to know the feeling of sitting on the king’s throne. The king grants Damocles his wish. But to give Damocles the full experience, the king suspends a sword over the throne, held in place by just one hair from a horse’s tail.
Might I suggest the sword of Damocles hangs precariously over your website, your social media and any other content you create?
Sorry to deliver such a dire warning, but I know what I’m talking about. You see, my company lives under the sword of Damocles. We sell media coverage and we price it by the story we arrange. It’s a simple but brutal business model. Either we convince reporters and producers to do stories about our clients, or we die. And you know what else is interesting? The media lives under the same brutal business model. They either deliver interesting content that meets the standards set by their audiences, or they die. No audience means no ad revenue.
So what’s this standard that publicists, the media and you need to meet when publishing content? Here it is, as said by John Q. Public:
“Your content better be interesting and worth my time. Period. ‘Cause if it’s not, I’m leaving and never coming back.”
Anyone who has ever arranged media coverage will tell you it’s a punishing job. Reporters and producers aren’t sitting around hoping you will call them. They generally have plenty of ideas for stories, and the only thing they are interested in is hearing an even better story idea than the ones they already have. It’s not easy coming up with the top news story of the day.
You need Media-Grade Content
Our company, Media Relations Agency, is recognized by the PR industry as a leader in our ability to consistently arrange media coverage for clients. How do we do it? We know how to put together client stories that the media considers compelling enough to publish. After almost 30 years of selling media coverage, pricing it by the story and succeeding tens of thousands of times, we’ve even trademarked a term for our content standard. We call it “Media-Grade Content”.
Our Editorial Manager Robin Miller wrote an article about how to write Media-Grade Content that was published in the PR industry’s best-read, widest distributed trade journal. She introduced our Media-Grade Content concept to the public. She outlined the necessary elements including nine important considerations to keep in mind when writing content worthy of being published.
Why are we willing to openly share our secrets with others, even with competing PR firms? Because our mothers taught us to share, and when we do good things for other people, good things come back to us. Okay, that’s not true. We’re willing to share these elements for two reasons: because we know that understanding the basics is not the same thing as mastery; and we want to document in the media that the concept of Media-Grade Content originated with our company.
While we only recently trademarked the term “Media-Grade Content”, we have been in the business of creating Media-Grade Content for our clients for almost 30 years. We continually hold ourselves to this level of quality because we have seen the effect it can have on clients’ sales. Media-Grade Content pulls in audiences and engages their attention in channels where they’re actively seeking information. It teaches audiences about your product when they’re ready to listen.
Much of the content that is produced today (and there’s a lot of it) would never pass our Media-Grade Content test. It’s substandard. And unfortunately, substandard content drives audiences away. The exact opposite of what it is intended to do.