
Too often, companies provide insufficient and unusable imagery to support media relations activities. While there’s a general awareness that images are important, many companies still do not have the right images available when they’re needed.
As a PR agency, we speak to a lot of journalists daily and one conversation seems to be on repeat; a good image is the difference between a journalist running a story or not. Of course, if a journalist is writing a breaking front page news story, then there will be a story regardless and the publication will source appropriate images. However, front page news is not where most companies sit.
An image tells a story in itself and it captures a reader’s attention. This is why it’s so important to have a decent selection of images for media to use. The journalist wants their story to grab as many readers’ eyes as possible, and so does a brand, especially in the digital world when consumers spend more than a quarter of a day consuming digital content and when the value or success of a piece of content is measured on number of clicks it receives.
Not only does having the right images help a journalist tell a story, it also makes their life a lot easier. Most journalists are time poor, so supplying a journalist with a complete set of quality assets that they can easily access when its required saves them a lot of time. It also gives them a good impression of the company that they’re writing the story about and will hopefully encourage them to write more stories about the company in the future.
When a journalist receives poor images over and over again, or has to repeatedly wait weeks for correspondence, it jeopardises the relationship. If the journalist knows it’s likely there will be a delay, or the story won’t be published at all because of lack of image availability, then they will most likely not contact the company for any future stories.
Here’s five simple ways to make sure the basics are covered before approaching a journalist.
The value of video
Images aren’t the only way to generate coverage. Videos can also tell a story. In the world of digital and social media, around five billion videos are being watched every day on YouTube, so having video available for media or content for your own channels is also important.
Video content can be used on your website or via social media as sponsored or organic posts. Some media also use video content that tells a story, as it helps with audience engagement and can be used when sharing the story across social platforms to drive interest back to their news site.
By making sure journalists can easily access high quality images and video with a good selection of lifestyle and deep-etch shots will save time and stress. In the long run, it will make your company look professional and easy to work with.