As we come to the end of the year, it’s time to help our industrial PR clients finalise their strategies for the year ahead. This often involves a myriad of activities, including product launches, event participation, key messaging, and more. Part of this planning also includes advising on advertising budgets and negotiating the best rates with key media outlets to ensure our clients’ brands stand out.
Whether we manage media planning and media buying on behalf of clients or they handle it in-house, aligning advertising with media relations strategies is essential. Combining these two elements of the marketing mix not only strengthens relationships with influential publications but also maximises media presence and ensures your brand reaches its ideal audience more effectively.
- Your messaging will have a greater impact
You wouldn’t want your adverts and earned media coverage to conflict with each other. One of our mantras at SE10 is ‘simplicity plus repetition equals retention’. In other words, you’ve got to repeat your key messages in an accessible way and multiples times, if you want your audience to remember them. When ads – whether traditional magazine inserts, web banners, or other sponsored content – and media coverage highlight the same products and benefits, they reinforce your messaging in different ways. This creates a more cohesive brand narrative that achieves greater impact.
- There’s a greater likelihood your stories will be picked up
We’ve discussed on the SE10 blog before (see How to earn B2B media coverage (and when to pay for it) that the publishing industry is facing financial challenges. Print magazines are on the decline and publications are making tough decisions about teams, subscriptions, and how to monetise their offering. This reality often means brands can’t rely solely on the quality of their pitches and press releases to secure regular, valuable placements. Supporting journalism through strategic advertising helps the publications you value to continue their good work and build a mutually beneficial relationship. As an advertiser, you’ll be more likely to receive regular coverage for your stories, which may even be prioritised in a crowded editorial schedule. A few ads here and there will not be enough, however. Both media planning and media relations require a consistent long-term approach to develop goodwill with key editors and build audience awareness.
- Identifying key publications once is more efficient
A collaborative approach to identifying key publications for both media relations and advertising ensures consistency and avoids inefficiencies. When teams work in siloes – one focusing on media relations and another on advertising – they often duplicate efforts or may target different outlets entirely, leading to a fragmented strategy. By aligning early and identifying target publications together, you can streamline the process and create a cohesive plan that serves both purposes.
The process starts with understanding which outlets are most relevant to your business goals and audience. Often, niche publications with smaller but highly targeted readerships may deliver better results than larger, more general publications. So instead of focusing solely on readership numbers, dive into the audience demographics available in media kits. Look at details such as sector, job title, and location to ensure the publication reaches your target readers. Gathering feedback from your customers can also provide valuable insights – where do they get their news and which publications do they trust?
- You’ll boost brand awareness at crucial moments
It’s not just about featuring your brand in the right publications but also at the right time. Just as you consult editorial calendars to time pitches and press releases, you should also align your advertising with key themes or seasonal priorities that resonate with your target audience. Advertising in special editions can then complement your editorial efforts, amplifying the impact of both.
Many publications also distribute specific issues at trade shows, providing a unique opportunity to reach non-subscribers who may pick up the magazine at the event. Strategically placing ads in these editions not only encourages editorial coverage of your show news but can also drive footfall to your exhibition stand. What’s more, it positions your brand prominently within the industry and extends your reach, even if you’re not exhibiting at the event.
- Insights from the success of each strategy can refine the other
Your KPIs for both advertising and earned media coverage provide valuable insights that can help refine each strategy. For instance, if your ads are receiving low engagement with a particular media outlet, it may indicate that the audience there isn’t responding well. This could be a sign that your media relations strategy needs to be adjusted too, perhaps by targeting different publications or platforms that resonate better with your target audience. Similarly, if your earned media efforts are struggling to gain traction in certain sectors or with specific publications, allocating some of your advertising budget can open doors to relationships that lead to earned coverage in the future.
By assessing the performance of both paid and earned media together, you’ll gain a clearer picture of which channels are truly driving results. This allows you to finetune your tactics, optimise your media spend, and ensure your media relations efforts are focused on the most effective outlets. Ultimately, this approach leads to a more efficient allocation of resources and stronger, more strategic outcomes.
So if you’re still managing advertising and media relations as separate efforts, now is the time to align them. By doing so, you’ll build stronger relationships with key publications, increase your media visibility, and achieve greater impact and efficiency overall.
Ready to strengthen your presence in the media? Contact SE10 today to discuss how we can help you develop a cohesive media strategy that delivers maximum impact.
By Hannah Kitchener
Associate Director
About the Author
Hannah is an associate director based in the UK, who leverages her strategic, campaign management, and written content creation expertise to support clients in the construction, energy, and materials handling sectors across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). With a professional qualification in Journalism from the National Council of Training for Journalism in the UK, Hannah has strong interviewing and writing skills that enable her to craft compelling content for clients across multiple platforms. Her experience and knowledge of the construction, energy, and materials handling sectors, meanwhile, have helped her build a strong network of trade media contacts across the EMEA region, enabling her to secure meaningful media coverage for clients. In addition to her journalism training, Hannah’s academic qualifications have further honed her ability to communicate across cultures and languages. Having studied French and German at BA level, and with an MA in Translation, Hannah has a passion for inter-cultural communication, which is invaluable to SE10 in executing PR campaigns across multiple markets and in several languages.
