If you work in cybersecurity, you might notice it’s tough raising awareness for your brand in the media. With so many providers offering similar solutions, it’s often difficult to create media interest around your latest product offering.
However, getting top tier placements is critical to proving thought leadership as an industry expert. This creates a Catch-22: you need news coverage, but reporters don’t want to cover you.
The good news is that with a little creativity and boldness, getting media attention doesn’t have to be a pipedream. Cybersecurity – for better or worse – impacts our lives on a daily basis. By keeping your ear close to the ground, your brand can take advantage of any trending news story as long as there’s a cybersecurity angle to it – in other words, almost all of them.
Whether it’s about Brexit, Pokemon Go, the election or nearly any other news story you can imagine, you can probably find a cybersecurity angle. This presents an opportunity for your thought leader to comment about a recent news story’s impact on brands or consumers. If the insight is compelling enough, your brand can earn placements in top-tier publications it wouldn’t get otherwise.
Need proof? Our client, NTT Com Security was recently placed in CSO Online, their top target publication. The PR team found a story on Visa’s new mobile payment ring for Olympic athletes during the games in Rio and saw an opportunity.
We noticed that CSO was talking about the Olympics, but had nothing on the Visa payment rings. After talking to our client’s thought leader about the topic, we found he had some valuable insights that would benefit the greater cybersecurity community.
Putting together Chris’s expertise, a trending topic and a compelling news angle, we made the pitch to CSO. The writer we talked to was interested and eventually decided to cover the story.
As we mentioned in our white paper on the importance of inbound marketing, there are a few factors that make a story newsworthy. Take a look at our graphic below.
In this case, we found a story that hit on timeliness, impact and a little bit of the bizarre (when’s the last time you’ve made a contactless payment). With the 2016 Summer games just weeks away, the number of stories regarding cybersecurity risks grew. However, we needed a fresh angle.
The payment rings are an example of impact because it’s a unique idea and addresses inherent concerns consumers face with payment technology. Wearable tech is also an emerging technology that is newsworthy, regardless of its practicality.
Looking for a tier-1 placement for your cybersecurity brand? Here are some quick takeaways:
- Prepare your thought leader to have a strong opinion on current events. Many readers of tier-1 publications want expert opinions on the implications of what they’re reading. The more you paint your expert as a resource on a wide array of topics, the more likely it is for your brand to appear in publications that matter.
- Conduct some research on the writer to find out previous articles they’ve written. Do they tend to talk about cyberattacks or are they looking to talk about the newest technology? It’s important to know if the writer you’re targeting even wants to have a conversation about what you’re pitching.
- Make sure your angle is unique and timely. Today’s news cycle is fast, meaning when news breaks, you need to be ready for it. For instance, the cyberattack on the Democratic National Convention is popular today, but won’t be in the news after this week.
- Don’t make it about you. Reporters are smart enough to know blatant advertising when they see it. There will be times to make the conversation about you, but this isn’t one of them.
- It’s okay to think outside the box. The best story angles are futuristic and abstract in concept. Providing commentary on a story about emerging technology is always a safe bet for getting reporters to talk to your thought leader.
Need help leveraging trending news into your marketing program? Let’s talk. Email us at info@lrgmarketing.com.
