Using the Media to Tell Your Unique Story

Community banks reflect the customers and communities they serve. When powerful messaging amplifies those efforts and communicates their role in the creating communities of prosperity our industry shines. 

Establish and build your reputation with the media to make the most of every opportunity to demonstrate the value of community banking and your role as a difference maker in the community. 

Outreach to reporters and other members of the news media is a proactive strategy that represents time well spent. Media coverage of your community bank’s efforts and products and services will educate customers and local consumers, promote your bank, and position you as a responsible business leader within the community.  

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Establishing Relationships with the Media 

Follow these 10 tips to help establish mutually beneficial relationships with the media: 

1. Identify the appropriate contact. Reporters are frequently assigned “beats” or areas of coverage. News distribution services provide searchable databases with reporter contact info, but you can also track these individuals by subscribing to and following relevant media outlets and their staff (including on social media). 

2. Do your research. It all comes down to the reader finding value in what you have to offer. Reporters appreciate when you take the time to read their work and study the news outlet to understand how your story fits in with their coverage and the news outlet’s broader narrative. 

3. Be a trend spotter. Set up alerts and use social monitoring tools to follow news developments, identify emerging trends, and monitor evolving conversations to help develop timely narratives. 

4. Craft your pitch. Organize your thoughts to determine what you want to convey, what is unique about what you have to say, and how it is germane to readers before sending your pitch. 

5. Respect their time. When you connect, introduce yourself and quickly explain the reason for your outreach. If the reporter is on deadline ask if there’s a more convenient time to reconnect. 

6. Be clear and stay on message. Talk plainly and provide specific examples and anecdotes, when possible. Stick to your key messages. If the reporter doesn’t ask questions that prompt your messages, volunteer them. 

7. Be a constant resource. Use your unique perspective to put the news in context. Be helpful and responsive and follow up with important developments, data, and customer stories. Recommend other noteworthy experts such as staff members or customers, when appropriate. 

8. Follow the news. You expect reporters to follow and know your business, and they expect you to do the same. This is particularly important before any outreach and helps identify any breaking news that may alter their schedule. 

9. Broaden your communications touch points. While email outreach is the primary contact method for most journalists, consider other channels (social networks, phone, networking events) and experiment with the content of your pitches, which can also include remarks, original data, customer testimonials, and visuals. 

10. Seek out opportunities to connect in person. Telephone, email and even Zoom virtual coffees are great, but there's nothing like sitting across from a table with a reporter to learn more about them—their beats, their interests, and the types of stories they want to tell. 

This YouTube video offers additional tips from Alexander Levitt, a former Wall Street Journal columnist with tips for how to approach reporters. 

The proliferation of media platforms and shifting beats and priorities following the pandemic, are just a few ways the news game has changed and by extension, how you interact with the media. Consider these additional tips from Prowly, a PR software solutions provider, on how to reconnect with reporters and build new relationships in the new media landscape.