by Felicity Cowie, author of Exposure
In my earlier blog for Lionesses of Africa, What Exactly is Media Relations, I said there are at least eight mega benefits of media relations for any business to consider: Gain exposure with zero to low financial investment; Build credibility; Build pipeline faster; Get highly valuable shareable content; Find product-market fit; Become a thought leader and ‘category queen’; Get funding and more funding; Gain external validation.
In this series of blogs, I give you more detail and tools to gain each of these benefits. Let’s look now at the seventh one - how to get funding by leveraging media coverage. Research shows that media coverage puts you in a strong position to win investment.
Businesses which generated the highest amount of media coverage typically saw a 35,635% increase in their funding between Series A and Series B. Conversely, companies which generated a low level of media interest only saw modest increases in their funding – 143.6%. (Source: Hard Numbers and CARMA, 2020)
I think a big reason for this is that media coverage is evidence that you have valuable ‘vision-telling’ skills in addition to your business. As uber-venture capitalist Bill Gurley said:
The great storytellers have an unfair competitive advantage. They are going to recruit better, they will be darlings in the press, they are going to raise money more easily and at higher prices, they are going to close amazing business developer partnerships and they are going to have a strong and cohesive corporate culture. Perhaps, more to the point, they are more likely to deliver positive investment return. (Source: Gurley, 2015)
And this all holds true for crowdfunding too, where media coverage serves to build the buzz and community ahead of the fundraise.
You can read more about all of this and gain tools to do it all in my new book Exposure: Insider Secrets to Make Your Business a Go-To Authority for Journalists Get Exposure
Felicity Cowie has worked as a media relations trouble-shooter for some of the world’s leading organisations and is a former BBC News and Panorama journalist. She’s worked on 100,000 story pitches from both sides. She now makes her insights and tactics available to the founders and leaders of today’s early-stage businesses, helping them gain exposure and competitive advantage. She is the author of Exposure: Insider Secrets to Make Your Business a Go-To Authority for Journalists. More information www.themediarelationscoach.com
More articles by Felicity
