It’s never “easy” to secure media coverage for a brand. And for wellness brands in particular, the uphill battle can often be even steeper.
There are countless competitors in almost every niche. Modern media relations agency must bring their A-game to secure coverage in this overcrowded landscape.
So how can you differentiate a wellness brand enough to make it stand out and get recognition from journalists and media coverage?
PR professionals should prioritize authenticity, strategic positioning, and deep market knowledge.
Key Takeaways: How Wellness Brands Get Featured in Media
- Media coverage can make or break a wellness brand’s credibility and overall outcomes
- Authenticity encourages journalists to want to write a story about a brand – they are more likely to put their time and effort into something that they deem worthwhile
- The wellness industry is highly oversaturated. PR professionals must cut through the noise to secure media coverage.
- Becoming an expert on the industry and the ins and out of a brand sets you up to be able to successfully position the brand and create impactful pitches
Why Media Coverage Matters for Credibility
Of course media coverage matters for any brand in any and all industries. However, the wellness sphere is a uniquely oversaturated market. There is an overwhelming amount of products available for every condition, brands claiming radical results, and misinformation.
Media coverage sets a wellness brand apart and can absolutely mean the difference between sinking or swimming in the digital age. Consumers don’t want to hear from a brand itself about why they need a product. Consumers want a trusted source to explain the problem a product solves. They also want to understand why one brand is the best solution.
Getting coverage can be essential for a wellness brand’s credibility. Name recognition and positive coverage help brands stand out in a crowded market. Many competitors claim to offer the same results. Being able to point to media features as evidence of a brand’s utility is essential to longevity.
Media coverage also raises awareness about the issue a brand is addressing. This visibility benefits both the brand and consumers. For brands Daybreak, spreading awareness for the risks of sleep apnea is a major motivator for securing media coverage. Daybreak’s Medical Director, Martin Hopp PH.D, M.D., was recently featured in Men’s Journal, where he talks about the symptoms of sleep apnea, as well as the risks and possible treatments.
Media coverage builds Daybreak’s name recognition. It also increases awareness of sleep apnea and supports harm reduction efforts.
Wellness brands cannot solve a problem consumers do not understand. Raising awareness is just as important as promoting the product itself. Getting media coverage, even just to bring awareness to the issue, can often drive engagement for a brand and lead to better performance.
Why Authenticity Matters in PR
Authenticity is everything when building brand credibility and fostering trust with consumers. To do so, one must start with building credibility with the media. Journalists don’t want to sign their name to something seemingly false and tarnish their own credibility. They want to put out pieces they can be proud of and only make claims backed up with credible evidence or an expert’s opinion.
When pitching media for wellness brands, the most important thing to remember is to stick to the facts. Don’t make radical claims or statements that aren’t backed by science to present a more favorable angle. Being truthful and presenting the information is the best way to get positive media coverage that accurately represents a wellness brand.
Consumers are informed in the digital age. They don’t want to be misled or feel deceived. They can tell when results are exaggerated or when the truth is being stretched to benefit the brand. Journalists as well – they can Google just like the average consumer and find out if you’re exaggerating or stretching the truth.
Presenting factual statistics is a strong way to secure media coverage because it provides tangible proof of a wellness brand’s effectiveness.
For example, Daybreak used a peer-reviewed study to show Daybreak’s device is an effective treatment for patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Daybreak pulled the statistic, “82% of patients also reported improvement in snoring as an unintended benefit of using the device” to reinforce their claim.
This statistical evidence got them coverage in Sleep Review Mag. This kind of strong, science-backed positive media coverage is precisely the kind of press that truly persuades consumers and builds trust.
Factual evidence always outweighs anecdotal evidence for securing media coverage.
Cut Through the Noise
Health and wellness has become incredibly commodified – something to be bought and sold rather than a state of being. From supplement brands making miraculous claims to influencers promoting insanely convoluted 100 step daily wellness routines, there is no shortage of health and wellness misinformation and noise.
Every brand is trying to sell a consumer on the idea that they are doing themselves a disservice and harming their health (or missing out on the opportunity to maximize their health) by not buying in.
Journalists receive hundreds of pitches every day at a minimum. In the wellness sphere, especially, journalists and media are constantly bombarded with pitches from brands competing for attention. A skilled media relations agency needs to be able to cut through the noise by actually pitching something newsworthy.
Don’t just include the basic information about the brand in your pitch. Journalists want to know that their readers are going to care about the issue. Combining expert commentary, statistics, and a timely angle makes a pitch more compelling to journalists.
Tailoring your pitches to a journalist’s niche is essential in wellness PR. Journalists want to protect credibility and serve their audience.
Wellness can often be an incredibly serious and personal topic. Journalists know that their readers don’t want to read inauthentic coverage that feels shallow and salesy. Strategic positioning like this can set your pitches apart and make or break your chances of securing media coverage.
Be Knowledgeable – Become the Expert
As a PR professional, it’s your job to represent clients to the best of your ability. This includes being extremely knowledgeable about the industry and niche in which they operate.
In no industry is this more applicable than in the wellness sphere – where buzzwords just won’t cut it for either journalists or consumers.
In order to get media coverage, you must be educated on the ins and outs of what your client is offering. If you are not providing the correct information or unable to answer relevant questions/ offer additional information to journalists when requested, you may lose out on relevant opportunities.
Yes, the brands themselves are the expert and the product should speak for itself. It’s helpful to have a deeper knowledge of the ins and outs of each client and their market to give you a leg up in securing coverage. Demonstrating your expertise through a creative and well researched pitch also makes your outreach feel more thoughtout, rather than mass produced and detached.
It’s also important to remember that journalists want to spend their time and energy working on pieces that they deem worthwhile. If you can demonstrate the true value of a product in your pitch, the media is more likely to take notice. And that starts with you understanding the ins and outs of a brand’s product.
The most impactful pitches for media and journalists in the wellness sphere will be those that feel well researched. The more knowledgeable you are, the more informed your choices will be about who and what to pitch.
Main takeaways
Trying to secure a wellness brand features in the media has the potential to be frustrating and seemingly Sisyphean. It can feel like screaming into the void and never getting an echo back in response.
In a competitive market, the work that a media relations agency does for a brand can be the crucial pillar for the success of a brand or campaign.
Authentic, knowledgeable, outside-the-box pitches will maximize impact of pitches. Following these guidelines optimizes the likelihood of getting media features which, in turn, optimizes a brand’s chance of long-term success.
