Knock over a liquor store.
No? Fine, here’s another unusual idea that starts to make A LOT of sense once you think about getting back to solving someone’s problem – just the way you do with your products and services.
In this case, that someone is a news reporter, and that problem is a smaller staff, less time, and more time to fill.
This works not only with local news but with local chambers of commerce, trade associations, and community magazines.
Remember how you’ve learned to talk to customers about what matters to customers in language customers understand? What if you used that same technique to be a resource for others responsible for churning out pages and minutes of content?
Got a video camera on your phone? Add a $10 tripod and a $150 microphone, and you’ve got your own mobile news studio.
Let’s say you’re a heating and air conditioning company, and your local weather forecaster predicts triple-digit heat or below-zero windchills for next week.
Ask yourself what questions will people ask you next week once the heat wave hits or cold snap, uh, snaps.
Year after year, you’ve answered them. You know the questions, and you know how to articulate the answers. Set up your camera, get a good recording level on your microphone, and answer those questions.
Take your camera phone and shoot what’s called “b-roll” video of your techs doing some work and getting into and out of their vans. Shoot the outside of your building and your receptionist answering some calls.
Those answers your recorded? Quickly use an online service to get them transcribed.
Offer these packages of video, audio, and script to your local news outlets – who’ve been stretched thin and asked to do more with less for years – and help them tell their stories.
DON’T make them big commercials for your company. Simply BE an authority – a credible presence your news organization can trust, your market can trust, and a resource that solves problems for your local news organizations.
You can do these exact same things for anyone in your market who produces content. Tell them what you know in a language the public uses in a format that outlet requires.