How to achieve maximum motorcycle media exposure with press releases
To achieve maximum exposure with press releases in the motorcycle industry, brands and companies need a strategic approach that targets key media outlets with relevant content. Here's a step-by-step guide to getting the greatest amount of traction possible with your media outreach.
Get your content right
Before distribution even begins it’s fundamental to ensure you are only ever sending out well-written and meaningful information about your company and its products or services. This is a topic which we covered in depth in our previous blog post on ‘Crafting the ideal press release for the motorcycle media’.
That article underlines the importance of making sure your press release is newsworthy and relevant to your target media and their core audience.
Having clear objectives with what you want to achieve by publishing or distributing a press release will definitively impact the content and the distribution methodology. Your aims with the press release might be one or more of the following:
- Launching new products/services
- Announcing news (such as changes in leadership or company structure, joint initiatives with other brands)
- Building brand awareness and engagement
- Driving website traffic & improving search engine rankings
- Expanding reach and exposure in new sectors or markets
- Driving sales and conversions
- Crisis Management
- Clarifying a company stance on a specific event or matter
When planning and writing your press release, briefing your comms department or briefing a credible external agency - such as Motorcycle Marketing - having those objectives clear will make all the difference to the relevancy and impact of your final results.
Whether it's a new bike launch, a significant upgrade to an existing product, an event announcement, the presentation of a new brand ambassador campaign or some significant industry analysis based on exclusive data, your press release should capture attention. Packaging that content up well and delivering it to journalists in a professional manner is the name of the game.
Identify your target media
If you will be undertaking press release distribution yourself you’ll need to research which are the most relevant media outlets to be approaching. Then you need to know how to reach them and ensure that they will even read your email, which can be extremely time consuming if you’re new to these workflows.
Beyond the typical media segmentation of online, print and broadcast, you’ll need to consider the most relevant media targets per market. Is it mainstream media you are targeting, or might it be motorcycle focussed titles such as Motorcyclist, Cycle World, Motorcycle News or Bike Magazine where you want to publish your content? You may be getting even more niche focussed than that and specifically wish to target off-road media such as Dirtbikerider.com, VitalMX.com or Racerxonline.com.
Other media segments you may want to target could include general business press, industry sites & newsletters such as blackbookmotorsport.com, local media, newswires and agencies, respected freelance motorcycle journalists who have vast networks of media contacts and followers, or industry bodies and their networks including the Motorcycle Industry Council in the US or the MCIA in the UK.
Maybe your press release and associated content will be best received by bloggers, influencers or content creators, such as Dutch female adventure rider LNR Moto, UK custom builder Jish or U.S. based street-bike focused YouTuber Yammie Noob. With riders and creators like this sending them a press release might just be one small element in a wider collaboration.
Perhaps your approach will be much simpler and you just want to publish a press release on your company’s website and social media, then let your audience pick up your announcement from there.
If it’s unclear to you how to figure out which target media is the most important for your press release and the rider audience you should be communicating with, the expert team here at Motorcycle Marketing can do that for you.
It’s also worth considering the concept of owned, earned and paid media. Owned media could be your company website & social media accounts, earned media would refer to PR-driven exposure you receive from the wider media and paid media can include advertorials, paid placements & advertising to drive views to your press release. All have their place in the marcomms toolbox.
Get some expert advice
Once your press release is ready for publication and you’ve prioritised which media you want to target it’s time to distribute your content. There are many ways of going about this and the Motorcycle Marketing press team has a specifically effective methodology.
Our founder Thalassa van Beek explains, “Our philosophy is simple. Deliver great press releases to the most relevant and influential people in the media, then use our connections to ensure they read what we send them and eventually publish that information.”
“This is a process we’ve gone through many times over the years and have gradually refined to get the maximum amount of exposure for our clients. We have a network of hundreds of international media contacts, but it’s not just about blanket distribution. It’s about setting it all up effectively with the best journalists and other media contacts that we’ve built up at events, races, shows, festivals, track days, launches and ride-outs over the years. That’s what really gets results.”
Using tools such as Mailchimp to efficiently deliver plain text and HTML versions of press releases to targeted media - via a cleansed and up-to-date media database - is a crucial step. For big corporate announcements it can also be considered to use a press release distribution service such as PR Newswire or Business Wire, but this comes at a cost and the targeting will never be laser focussed at specific motorcycle media.
Management of visuals is vital
Further to the good quality design of an HTML-based press release it’s important to create, distribute and store relevant assets for the media, such as graphics, photos and videos, in a considerate manner.
It's essential to make content files easily accessible to journalists and you can include links to downloadable high-resolution images and videos in your press release. Alternatively, host them on a dedicated press page on your website where journalists can easily access and download them. Make sure to label files clearly with descriptive filenames to aid journalists in identifying and using them.
Additionally, consider embedding multimedia elements directly into your press release when distributing digitally through platforms that support this feature. Providing compelling visual content alongside your press release enhances its appeal and increases the likelihood of coverage by media outlets.
Additionally, tactics such as offering your press release to one or two outlets as an exclusive, giving them the scoop on your news or potentially a one-shot interview with your company management or brand ambassador, can often be highly effective.
Similarly, if you make an announcement or launch a product at a live event it’s important to have a good offline and online PR strategy around that. This primarily means enabling journalists present at your event and also those not attending to have all the relevant information from your press release and any accompanying audio-visual content available in their email inboxes and/or accessible to download easily.
The follow-up
After distributing your press release, follow up with journalists and media contacts to ensure they received it and inquire if they need any additional information or may like to schedule an interview with a relevant stakeholder. Personalised follow-up emails, DMs, WhatsApp messages or phone calls significantly increase the chances of getting coverage.
We also recommend tracking the performance of your press release campaign by monitoring media coverage (often a Google News alert does this job effectively), website traffic, social media engagement, and other relevant metrics. Analyze which tactics were most effective in generating exposure and adjust your approach accordingly for future outreach.
By following the guidelines set out above you can achieve outstanding results, producing a measurable uplift on the visibility of your brand and the commercial performance of your company.
If you’re looking for assistance with press release writing and distribution, contact the experienced Motorcycle Marketing team today. We’ve written, translated and published press releases and content for the likes of KTM, Red Bull, Dorna and various MotoGP teams and can help raise your PR game to the next level.
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