Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers: Common Pitfalls and Easy First Steps
by David Nilsen
Welcome to our Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series! As a food and beverage journalist, I have communicated with thousands of breweries, distilleries, restaurants, chocolate makers, and other businesses, and I’ve seen ones who maximize their relationships with media members and outlets, and ones who are leaving opportunities on the table. Additionally, my wife and business partner, Melinda Guerra, is a freelance PR professional helping brands tell their stories and connect with media. In this series, the two of us will be sharing what we’ve learned over our careers to help craft chocolate companies of any size identify their stories, communicate them to media members and outlets, gain new customers, and keep the ones you have curious.
In part 1 of this series, we talked about why media relations is so important no matter the size of your chocolate business, and why you need to have a strategy for it.
In part 2, we talked about identifying stories and creating a story list.
In part 3, we looked at how to begin building a media list, and how to specifically build a list of industry-specific media.
In part 4, we talked about press releases: What they are, when to send them, to whom to send them, what to include, and—just as importantly—the inverse of all those: when not to send them, what not to include, etc.
In part 5, we talked about fostering ongoing relationship with members of the media, and how to communicate story ideas going forward.
In part 6, we discussed how to handle crisis communications and work with the media at times when you’d rather not.
In part 7, we discussed what to do after you media coverage in order to get the most from it.
In this post, we’re going to talk about common mistakes companies make when working with the media, and discuss simple steps for getting started with your media relations plan.
Here are some common pitfalls that can hold businesses back from successful media relations:
Doing nothing. The worst and most common mistake companies make when it comes to media outreach is to just do nothing. Maybe it’s because you’re not sure what to do (hopefully this series has eliminated that!), or maybe you’re anxious about messing up. Most likely, you’re just busy, and this doesn’t feel like a priority. Sometimes, folks are waiting till some imagined future timeline when _____ (fill in the blank). Maybe you’re waiting for some achievement or milestone. Maybe you want to get past your current rush and then you’ll have more time. You won’t. There's no point in waiting for your schedule to clear up. You’re always going to be busy. If you recognize media relations is important for your business, the best time to start is now. Sometimes our biggest enemy is a blank page, so follow the easy first steps below and get started.
Believing the media is scary. Some folks are nervous about talking to the media. Maybe they’ve seen a company or individual torn apart by a reporter or journalist. However, those situations are the result of investigative journalism, in which a media member is going behind the scenes to expose a wrong. The communication we’re urging you to have with media is positive stuff. These are stories you want them to share, and they need to find interesting things to share with their audience. This is a symbiotic, cooperative relationship. Yes, there are situations where you might have to interact with the media when you don't really want to (we discussed these when we talked about crisis communications) but hopefully that's something that never comes up for you. What we’re talking about here is positive, earned media coverage. The media is not out to get you.
Having AI do this for you. If you believe your story(ies) is worth telling, then you need to take the few extra moments to share it with us in your own words. If you can’t take that time, why should we? Journalism careers are uniquely vulnerable to the rise of generative AI, so it does not endear you to us when you send us AI writing. You don't have to be a good writer or a great communicator to do that. That's our job. We just need to know what those stories are and we need to know that you care.
Not paying attention to submission guidelines or a journalist’s beat. A “beat” is all of the topics or types of stories that a given writer or outlet typically covers. Not paying attention to this when you’re reaching out to media is a great way to lose the interest of or annoy somebody in the media. You also want to make sure you're following the guidelines they provide for how to contact them.
Using hyperbolic or artificial-sounding language. We are all really tired of being advertised to on every platform at all hours of the day. We as journalists don’t want to feel advertised to by a source reaching out with a story idea. Avoid the breathless PR language that afflicts so many press releases when you’re communicating with the media. If I feel like you’re trying to sell me something instead of getting me interested in your story, I’m going to pass. Speak authentically about who you are and what you do.
Not being reachable or responsive. If you've done the work to get the media's attention, you want to make it incredibly easy for them to get back to you so they can interview you, get information, or whatever it is that they're going to need to do to be able to tell the story. Make sure you have contact information plainly available to media members you're reaching out to and then actually interact with that in a timely manner. Make sure you’re answering calls from the media or returning them as soon as possible. Make sure you're checking your email daily and returning correspondence from the media, especially when we're talking about news stories or upcoming events. Those might have a very quick turnaround.
Finally, I want to wrap up this series by giving you some easy first steps to take to begin your media relations work. I know we’ve covered a lot of ground in this series, but let’s break down what you need to do first into some simple action items.
Here’s what you should do first to get started with media relations for your craft chocolate company:
Make a story list. This is a big, no-wrong-answers list of everything potentially unique or interesting about your craft chocolate company. It will include items that aren’t directly related to craft chocolate. Get input and ideas from your employees if you have them, from family and close friends, etc. And remember that because craft chocolate is still largely invisible to much of the culture, you may be the story of craft chocolate for some folks, so include things that are noteworthy about craft chocolate, even if they aren’t unique to you. You can find more ideas for this list here.
Make a media list. This is a list of media members and outlets across different media formats (print, online, audio, video), as well as with different reaches (local, regional, national, international), that you might reach out to. Include all your local news outlets, as well as food and drinks journalists or publications (even if they aren’t chocolate-focused), and then grassroots craft chocolate media, including respectable and responsible influencers.
Find media contact info. Once you have a media list started, you need to start populating contact information for those media members and outlets, as well as any information they’ve provided about how they like to be contacted, what they cover, etc.
Begin the conversation. Send some introductory emails to begin communication with those media members and share some basic information about your business and what makes you interesting. You can learn more about making and filling out your media list and making initial contact with the media here.
That’s it! Figure out the stories you want to tell, find some media members to tell them to, and reach out. Congratulations, you’ve started your media relations plan!
I hope this series has been helpful for you. Please reach out with any questions you have!
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series
Podcast Episodes
Why You Need a Media Plan
Identifying Your Company’s Stories
How to Build and Manage a Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
How to Get Started, and Common Pitfalls
Blog Posts
Why You Need a Media Plan
How to Identify Your Stories
How to Build a Media List
Industry and Unexpected Outlets for Your Media List
How to Write and Send a Press Release
How to Maintain Media Relationships and Communicate New Stories
Crisis Communications
What To Do After You Get Media Coverage
Common Pitfalls, and Easy Steps for Getting Started (you’re reading it!)