How to Win During the Summer Slow Down

With summer here and after a year of no traveling for most, many of us are gearing up to venture back into the world for summer vacations. As reporters and editors begin escaping the Arizona heat and others come join us in the heat, it can be a lot harder to secure a media win for a client.

Here are some tips that we use here at HMA, to ensure we don’t let the heat slow us down:

1. Look for relevant angles

At HMA, many of us keep a holiday and national day calendars detailing significant dates for the whole year that could be potential media angles for our clients. With the summertime providing many additional consumer angles and food-focused holidays, editors and reporters will be writing about summer topics and events, so it can be great to try to connect your client to those ideas when appropriate.

2. Pitch ahead of time

With many people taking vacations, it may be a good idea to begin pitching your story a couple weeks ahead of time to be sure you are able to get your pitch in front of the editor before receiving an out-of-office email. With the Fourth of July coming up this weekend, it would have been best to begin pitching an editor or reporter 2-3 weeks back just in case they will be out of office for the holiday.

3. Submit guest columns and bylines

Many publications may have limited staff as people begin taking time off.  This can be a great time to take the burden off the editor and offer to write a feature or send over a byline for placement. I can guarantee they will appreciate you going the extra step.

4. Re-evaluate your current PR strategy

Take advantage of this slower time to evaluate what has been working well for your clients, how you can get even better and what things you can improve. Using this slower time of year to research and enhance your efforts can set you up for more wins in the future.