The Benefits of Being Valued as an Industry Expert by the Media

By: Stephanie Ceccarelli, VP Public Relations

PR is all about positioning a company and its products and/or services in a favorable light through the media, and one approach to doing so is by establishing the company’s expertise with its target audience. Expertise goes a long way in business. As American author and motivational speaker Zig Zagler once said, “If people like you, they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.” One way customers and clients come to trust a brand is by feeling confident that the company is extremely knowledgeable in every aspect of its field.

To establish your company’s authority on a particular topic, you can use PR and the media as vehicles to show and tell — meaning you can either communicate your company’s expertise to the media. Or you can put the expertise to good use for the media by displaying it. Either way, you’re promoting your company and highlighting its acumen, but in different ways.

Telling the media about your expertise could be featuring accomplishments in press releases which are then relayed to the public. However, demonstrating specialized knowledge and putting it front and center is more powerful and effective. Not to mention strategic, as it also helps the media achieve their end goal of informing their audience. Displaying your company’s expertise can be done through team members conducting interviews or writing byline articles in which they are imparting information beneficial to the viewer or reader.

Utilizing company team members as industry experts serves brands well for several reasons. In doing so, it:

Establishes or reinforces brand credibility. Frankly, a brand that knows what it is talking about and is able to communicate this information in a clear and understandable manner will explicably gain credibility and trust from the public.

Elevates a brand’s reputable standing by providing expertise in the form of useful tips and applicable insight and advice without coming off as self-promotion. Since the information provided is worthwhile, the media will be more inclined to include it in their outlet for the benefit of their audience, and the audience will recognize its relevancy and be more likely to consume it.

Enables the brand, with the help of its team members, to become a go-to expert and reliable source for media thereby strengthening brand affinity as well as the brand’s relationships with the press. The easier you can make a reporter’s job, the better. So, if your company regularly offers up team members that are well-versed on a topic and can talk about it clearly and concisely, your company will be viewed as a valued resource and will be the first one the media turns to when they need expert input. This may allow for a steady stream of press that helps maintain brand relevancy.

MassMedia’s media relations outreach efforts are founded upon knowledge of the media’s needs. Our professional staff has a true understanding of how the media works and how we can work with them. We have relationships with many leading community journalists, producers, and editors who call upon us for information as often as we supply them with potential news ideas.

Contact us today to learn more about how your brand can become a valued resource for the media!