Liz Nable 0:00
There's so much business and self development talk out there. So many books, podcasts and courses, conferences and summits. But what I've realised in starting enable my business is that so many leaders and experts talk about the why the inspiration, the challenges and the problem, but not many actually grab you by the hand and say, This is how this is how you do the thing. This is how you fix the problem. This is how you grow your business. This is how you make more sales. That's what I want to do with enable my business. And that's exactly the ethos behind episode seven of the podcast. I'll still bring you loads of journalists, PR people, successful entrepreneurs, courageous leaders, inspirational episodes, but this episode is about the doing, pitching the media and building your business as an industry expert is prime for procrastination in any small business. You're too busy just getting through the day to day dealing with supply chain issues, astronomical inflation, and sick staff. So no one has time for shameless self promotion, or the budget to hire a PR team. So today, my friends, I'm taking you by the hand, and giving you exactly what you need to know to get started. We're going to start small, but we're going to build the foundations, and you're going to be a PR pro in no time. So here's 10 failproof story angles and ideas. You should pitch to the media right now that I know for sure they're going to love. And the best part is, you don't even need to take notes, just head to my website, www dot Liz nable.com forward slash 10 News angles as in one zero news angles, and download the complete list for free. Okay, let's do this. Hello, I'm Liz naval and you're listening to enable my business, the podcast. When I first started in small business almost 10 years ago, I had no idea what I was getting into. You see, my background was in the media. I had spent 15 years as a television news journalist and reporter working at several major networks in Australia. And then as a freelancer in the US and around the world. I spent years dividing my time between working long shifts on a news desk and travelling the world chasing stories. It was unpredictable and exciting. Until it wasn't anymore. I decided I wanted a life where I was in charge of what happened next. And where I was working to build my own empire, not someone else's. I also never wanted to work a midnight new shift again. Now, I don't have to. There was a lot I had to learn about running my own business. But one thing I already had in the bag was how to get media coverage and free PR. I knew what the media wanted. I knew the secret formula for what made us and I knew how to leverage those organisations to build my business, get more exposure and ultimately make more sales. During my decade of building my business, I have managed to get featured in almost every major news outlet in the country. I've been interviewed on television countless times, had personal profiles written up in women's magazines, done point of view pieces for large newspapers, and been listed in top 100 List women in business and in my industry. And I've never spent a single cent on PR. I took that knowledge for granted until it dawned on me one day that I could teach what I knew to other businesses, let them in on the secret and they too could build their businesses, leveraging the media and gaining free PR. They could use my insights in the industry and my behind the scenes experience and take their business from Best Kept Secret to well known brand simply by following my formula. Welcome to enable my business, the podcast.
Hello, and welcome to episode seven Nable My Business, The Podcast. As the title suggests, today's episode is really practical and it's tangible. So you can take away these top 10 tips and really get a good insight for where you can start with growing your business using the media. So there's 10 story angles, you should pitch right now to land media features for your business for free. Now normally if you've been following along with my podcast, you would know that I have a guest to interview so I've interviewed in the first few episodes of this season now PR experts, journalists, some celebrities, people with expertise in their field. But today, I'm solo because I feel like this is my area of expertise. Not only do I have 15 plus years experience as a journalist working as a TV journalist and report Laura, but I also have experienced for the last decade, God that makes me sound old, doesn't it? The last decade successfully pitching stories from the other side. So pitching stories about my business to the media. So I see both sides of the coin. And I really know what the media are looking for, what grabs their attention, and how to stand out from the crowd. And that's half the battle, right. So I have found over the last decade of having my own small business, that a lot of small business owners really just avoid trying to pitch to the media. They avoid PR in its entirety, because they either don't have the budget to employ a PR company, which let's face it, most of us don't, we have little to no money in a PR budget, that's not an option. And the media itself seems like such a beast, it seems like a lot of energy outside of our normal day to day operations of the business. And if you don't have background in it, how would you even know where to start? You know, as small business owners, we spend, we spend so much of our time just in our business with our head down, doing a million different things, wearing a million different hats, you know, everything from accounting to sales to marketing, HR, there's, there's so much to do every day. This just seems something that is so far down the priority list. But what I find really interesting, and I think that's what makes my background and the the merging of my skills quite unique is that growing your business, growing your business, I should say, using free media is, is super easy. It's really simple. Once you know what the media are looking for, once you know how to identify a story angle. And once you can start pitching, knowing what a good pitch looks like, it's actually not as hard as you think it's it's a great way to grow your business and get lots of exposure for very little money, if at all, if any money at all. And it's really a no brainer. Lots of people are trying to do this on social media. But having you know a big business, tell everyone how great you are, means so much more than you telling everyone how great you are. So we want we're looking for that credibility in the media. But it is very difficult, I know to even have an idea where to start. So today, I'm going to give you 10 ideas 10 story angles to start with. The good news is if you're driving in the car, or if you're running listen to this while you run or you're doing anything where you are not, you know, sitting at a desk to take notes. I've got you, I've actually uploaded a free resource to my website today. So it's the full list of 10 story angles that you can pitch. And so you don't need to take notes, you're more than welcome to take additional notes if you like. But that's all they're up on my website for you to download whenever you like. So you can hit the link in my bio to grab it on Instagram, or just go to Liz nabal.com forward slash 10 News angles. So that's one zero news angles, and you should be able to get that straightaway to download you can always DM me the word media. And I can shoot that off to you as well if you're having trouble finding it. So I really hope this next kind of 2530 minutes jet starts to get your brain thinking creatively thinking like a journalist, and it can generate hundreds of story ideas for you for you to use, you know and to rollout or drip feed out to the media over the next sort of 12 months or so.
So let's get started. So number one on my list of the top 10 story angles you should pitch right now to land media features for free is a seasonal story angle. So when when we say a seasonal story angle, it means exactly as it suggests. So we're thinking Christmas, Easter, you know the changing seasons, you know, you might pitch a spring summer beauty guide, you might pitch the top 10 gift ideas on a budget to give this Christmas, it might be a back to school, a back to school angle. If you work in a business that's affected by you know, going back to school, it might be school shoes, or kids clothing or uniforms. It might be office supplies, or stationery. Mother's Day is a big one, you know, you've got to remember the media are looking for content. So if you can pitch to that content, it's really a no brainer. You're helping journalists do their job by knowing what's coming up next. And pitching to that to that same idea that that's really easy for journalists to snap up and, and get out there. So just remember, you might need longer lead times or shorter lead times depending on the media outlet you're looking at. So obviously a magazine is a lot longer lead time, months and months. So you can't pitch a spring summer Beauty Guide to a magazine two weeks before it's spring, you you need to be doing that months in advance. So that's a whole nother episode, nother podcast episode, which we'll get to about the timing and how it works. But you really need to kind of be identify a couple of different media organisations that would suit you to be featured in and and know what that lead time is, obviously, an online publication is not so time sensitive, you know, a daily magazine or sorry, a daily newspaper, or radio show or something like that is obviously a bit more immediate. So be really mindful of that. But a seasonal story angle is always a winner. And, you know, you can you can pitch those every year, if you want. And just tweak the angle slightly, that that's the media outlets are always looking for content to feel those seasonal story guides. So the next one, it's called news jacking. And you know, you feel free to Google it. But basically in the industry, it means when you piggyback on a news story currently making the rounds. So it might be health and wellness, or health and wellness trend or sustainability, the environment. It could be inflation, housing prices, you know, it could, and I want you to think about not just your product or your service exclusively. So remember how I said earlier, you wear a lot of different hats in your business. So you can speak to a lot of the different pillars in your business when you're pitching a story. So you might pitch about, you know how inflation has affected your business to you know, a smart company or a business magazine or online kind of publication. So that's the business side of your business. Or then you might talk about, you know, the top 10 best, you know, sustainable gifts that keep on giving to, you know, a magazine or to a different media outlet. So you can think it doesn't just have to be about that product or service exclusively.
You can pitch from your business, business brain or your business hat, you can pitch purely about the product or the service, you could pitch about being you know, a woman and how that affects you and your business. So you're thinking of the female angle. I know there's this is largely female audience for this podcast, which is why I'm speaking to women, you might think about it from an opinion piece. So an opinion piece, we'll get to these a little bit later. But you don't it doesn't necessarily have to be about pushing your product in. In fact, when you're pitching to the media, part of a really successful media pitch is making it about the story. Rather than just it's not an advert for your business, it's really important to keep in mind your your your business product or service will be mentioned as part of the story. But the story itself is the headline event. So just keep that in mind. So news jacking you might. For example, I have a bricks and mortar fitness businesses, a lot of you may know I pitched several pieces COVID related surprise surprise over the last two years because obviously we're in a fitness business that got heavily impacted industry. And so to me that made sense to share my I did an opinion piece on news.com.au called, I think it was called 12 hours to shut down or 12 hours to lock down. And I pitched that idea about to a journalist that's a good contact of mine. Because I knew that the behind the scenes process of basically being given 12 hours notice before the first lockdown in March 2020 was a really interesting behind the scenes of how a lot of businesses like ours a bricks and mortar business pivoted I hate that word, but we pivoted to a completely online business in 12 hours. So, you know, I was mindful of not making it a sob story. But more about the practicalities and the challenges that we faced in completely remodelling our business in less than a day to try and keep it afloat. So that was you know, that's that's newsjacking so COVID is obviously a huge was a huge subject at that time and still is but not so much anymore, hopefully. So I pitched an opinion piece. There was also kind of a piece that got picked up in the media about our business because I posted on Instagram, quite innocently actually. Our kids I think this was in the week leading up to the first lockdown. I posted a picture our kids took all their money out of their money box and gave us a car handwritten card. You and presented us with this cash was like $23, or something really cute. And said to us, you know, you can have our money so that we can keep you can keep your business afloat was a really sweet message. So I yeah, they would obviously worry, they could overhear us talking about what we were going to do and there was a pretty scary time, I'm sure you will remember varying degrees of thinking what is going to happen. And that got picked up by the media, someone must have shared it, which got shared and shared and shared. And that became a feel good story. You know, about, you know, the effect that COVID had on the family and finances and kids and that sort of thing. So newsjacking can be a really good way to make your business relevant to the news of the day. And these days, because reporters are so you know, journalists, reporters, writers are so easy to contact, you know, you can tweet them, you can DM them on, you know, on Instagram or message them on Facebook, you can email them, there's so many ways to get in touch with them. So if you feel like there is a relevant news topic of the day that relates to your business, then then absolutely go for it and pitch that story doesn't even have to be a formal pitch, it could be a few lines to introduce yourself and what you're thinking about. And normally those those writers, you know, reporters and journalists, if that's a great idea, they'll get back to you straightaway. So newsjacking is a great way to show your relevance and get some free exposure in the media. And once again, I would say,
You know, if you are say, for example, going, say, for example, you have a flower shop, and you might pitch a story about how inflation is affecting your business, you don't need to just stop at at that one story, there might be a whole bunch of different stories from your business, that are relevant to each of these different points. So you know, a flower shop, you could pitch a story about inflation, then you also have other stories, like, you know, a story about wedding trends, you could pitch a story about, you know, how events are coming back to life, and how that affects your flower business, you know, is there supply issues, you know, the top 10 flowers that lasts the longest, there's so many different aspects of your business where you can pitch a story idea. So I want you to start thinking broadly, about how different parts of your business that you may not have naturally thought about before can be pitched to the media. Number three, is data. So a data driven story is something that that we as consumers love, and that the media love to. So keep in mind, audiences love hard facts and figures, especially if they're unexpected or surprising. So if you have access to data use, or you surveys or anything like that, in your business, you can absolutely use those to craft solid story ideas. You know, there might be a choice survey that comes out that mentions, you know, the top, you know, most environmentally friendly dishwashers to use now, if that affects your business in any way, if you sell white goods, if you you know if you can relate to that in any way. You want anything like data that's coming out of, of organisations like choice, or trends on social media, if you have access to I know in our business, we often get access to the different ways people are behaving post COVID, and what those stats look like, they're always a really solid foundation for a media pitch. And a lot of those trends have changed since COVID. So a lot of our daily lives have been affected the way people spend has been affected for good or for better or for worse. Really sit back and think about how that shifted in your business and how that might make an interesting story idea. Okay, number four is families, youth, women or marginalised groups, the underdog so everyone loves an underdog story. So if you represent if you are from or if you represent a minority group, that's always a really it's always a really interesting angle giving a voice to a minority group who might not necessarily get get featured in the media very often is always a really interesting and attractive angle for the media. To elevating the voice of you might be customers that you serve, it might be suppliers or manufacturers that you know, that you you that provide you with say for example, you Got a clothing company and you can talk about, you know, a minority group who might be producing sustainable clothing for you. Those sorts of things are always really attractive in the media, any number five. So any kind of opinion pieces where you are going up against the grain or voicing an unpopular opinion. Now, you want to be careful here, because you don't want to be controversial just for the sake of it, it needs to be a topic that aligns with your brand brand values and your mission. You know, I've got a girlfriend Mel Browne, who's Instagram handle is @moremoneyforshoes. She's a really well known financial educator. I know when I follow her in the media and on her social media, she's got some really strong boundaries about what she believes in in terms of women and finance and our education. And sometimes that opinion can be controversial. I know she has, you know, she's very, she's not a supporter of buy now pay later platforms. But that is something that she is an expert in. And she has a really good, solid knowledge and foundation of what she's talking about. So she's not just being controversial for the sake of it, but really picking her battles with what she's going to have an opinion on, and really backing that opinion and be completely, you know, transparent with that opinion. So something to be careful, you'll definitely get great news and media attraction. If you have an opinion that goes against the grain and you write about that, or you pitch successfully about that.
But you want to be really careful that it's a subject you absolutely know your stuff on. And not just be arguing for the sake of arguing because that can do more damage than good. Number six, predicting the future. So giving a very simple casual prediction is a great way to lead into a story pitch to a journalist. So in our businesses, often we are the expert on you know what's coming next, you might have a technology business or a software business, where you are entrenched in that that product or their service all day every day, so you know that business, and you can see the trends before they start. I know in fitness when I started in fitness, we could see the trend coming from the US boutique fitness, it was 2012 When we first opened our first boutique studio in Sydney, it hadn't come really to Australia yet, but you could see that there was about a five year delay in boutique fitness, you know, and it was going to happen in the next few years after we opened our business. So we successfully pitch to several lot across lots of different kinds of media. Everything from you know, gossip magazines, you know, that talk about fitness trends, to business publications, to you know, everyone and anyone wanting to try out our workout, a lot of morning news shows, because we had successfully predicted a fitness trend that was starting to eventuate in the market. So that always makes a really good media or story angle. And if you have access, again, to data that's predicting the future, it might be chairs, or it might be you know, economics, obviously, again, being careful making sure you are an absolute expert on what you're talking about. Your predictions don't always necessarily have to be realised. Lots of predictions by lots of very smart people have been wrong in the past, but it does make interesting food for thought so and that's what you know, the media is often giving us is, you know, opinions on that sort of thing. So don't be afraid to, you know, using any data that you might have or surveys that you might have access to and your expertise in that industry. predicting the future, you know, is always a really interesting media angle media loves that. So number seven heartwarming local stories. Getting back to the local community. You know, everybody loves that. If you've watched Anchorman, you know, you'll know that there's always a feel good, cute little kitten or fluffy panda story at the end of the news and there's a reason for that because everyone likes to feel good. Often these days, you know, the media as as everybody would be aware can be very negative. So heartwarming stories. You might be giving back to the community in your small business. You might be helping a charity you might be mentoring someone. There's there's always room for heartwarming look stories in the media. And it's easier if you are a local business to be pitching to, might be the local paper or a local, you know, coffee table magazine, even online publications. It's, it's kind of easier to get eyeballs on your stories, if you're local. And it makes more sense to because you're looking to increase your reach locally. So those people can know about your business and come and buy your product or service. But local stories translate across every level of the media and everybody loves a story that makes them feel good.
Number eight, is listen to questions your customers and clients are asking you, are you suddenly hearing lots of people asking the same question, a trend maybe starting that you can tie into. So this kind of again, relates to data and predicting the future. Again, you're an expert in your business. So you will be living and breathing your small business, and you will probably know better than anyone else. If there are trends coming to our shores or starting to present themselves, you know, it might be everything, anything from sourdough bread to, you know, gluten free muffins, or it can definitely translate to every aspect of your business. So really, and again, post COVID Things have changed, people have changed spending habits have changed. So if you're noticing that you're having a lot of customers, starting to ask the same questions or giving you the same feedback, you might be looking at a trend. So be really mindful of that pay attention to that. And don't be afraid to pitch those kinds of story angles to the media. Um, number nine, gift gods. So gift guides are a really clever way to basically advertise for free, but they're disguised as a gift guide. So it's not like taking an advert out in a magazine or newspaper or a big billboard where it's a direct sell, buy this now, a gift guide love gift guides, like you know, in every like women's magazine, you know, it's coming up to the holidays or Christmas. You know, Mother's Day, as we mentioned before, a good gift guide is something that you will pay attention to because it does the hard work for you if you're looking, you know, for gifts for the holiday season or a special occasion. And a gift guide is just a really clever way. And it's very easy content for media organisations to snap up. And they're always looking for something and don't be afraid to take different angles, it might be a luxury gift guide. It might be something that talks about, you know, buying on a budget or, you know, specific kinds of toys, you know, the top 10 toys for toddlers in 2022, or whatever that might be thinking creatively about how your product or service can fit into a gift guide. And you can even pitch the entire gift guide with products entirely from your business. They may or may not, you know edit that but but definitely give yourself as much of a plug as you can, your business or your service as much as you can. And it's always easy content for a media organisation to snap up. The last one number 10 is pitching your own story. So these are opinion pieces based on your your life experience or your business experience. You'll often see these in places like Mamma mia, these are really quiet, they're kind of you'll see that they're more of a loose term of it's an opinion piece, it's not fact so much is your opinion on something. So my opinion piece on COVID is purely from my perspective, there might be opinion pieces you might have had. You've seen heaps of them lately, particularly with, you know, all this debate about politics or vaccines or inflation or environment. So if you have any kind of opinion within your business, once again, you're closest to the subject matter because you're in your business 24/7 pitching your own story can be a really nice way to start in your media journey. Because it's your opinion, you can't be wrong. And it's often you know, it's often in an editorial section of a media organisation. So it's clear to the reader that it's an opinion piece. And it's always a really nice story to hear about someone's journey like to success how you know how I got to where I am today and the peaks and troughs that you might have endured to get your business to a certain point or to you know, create a product that that's doing really well or There's so many different facets of pitching your own story. And it's a really easy way to kind of dip your toe in the water of approaching the media. And you can't go wrong because it's just your opinion. And, you know, I'm a big fan of opinion pieces. And I think they always do really well, because it's all about the story.
So that is it, the top 10 News Angles that you should pitch right now to get your business or brand featured in the media for free. Like I said, there is a free download on my website is www.liznable.com/10newsangles, you can download that now for free. And if you have any questions, guys, talk to me, email me, [email protected] DM my Instagram is @liz_nable and yeah, I'd love to hear how this is going for you. And it's successful coaching always makes me happy. So have a fabulous day, guys, and I look forward to hearing about all your success pitching those stories in the media. Thank you for listening to this episode of enable my business. If you've loved it, please share it on Instagram and Facebook for your friends. I'm all about listening and learning from you my audience. So please pop a review on iTunes and let me know how you're enjoying the show. I'd love to hear from you. So if you have any questions, email me at least at least nabal.com And if you want to know more about what I do, head over to Liz nabal.com I truly hope this podcast is a game changer for you. Whether you're a small business owner, a franchisee you have a side hustle or you're just starting out. This is where you truly begin to build your own empire and the life of your dreams.
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