Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers: Why You Need A Media Plan
by David Nilsen
Welcome to my 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, we’re going to talk about why media relations are so important no matter the size of your chocolate business, and why you need to have a media strategy. (One note: while a lot of what we’ll talk about could apply to social media, and we will be hitting some specific aspects of social media, this series is focused on working with media members and outlets.)
If you run a craft chocolate company, you run a small business. Even the largest craft companies are still relatively small businesses, and the vast majority of companies under this umbrella are very small. You might be your only employee, or only have one or two. And that means you’re very busy and wear a lot of hats during your work week. You got into craft chocolate because you love cacao, chocolate, and flavor, not because you wanted to be a marketer or a social media manager. That said, you understand marketing is a necessary evil, so you set aside time for it.
The critical thing to understand is that media relations is also marketing. Being contacted by the media, or getting a response from them when you reach out, will take a little bit of your time, but it’s not a favor you’re doing—it’s an essential and potentially very valuable part of your marketing.
What I’ve seen from a lot of craft makers is that they have half of a media plan. They send out press releases or announcements for new products, events, or locations, but they miss a lot of opportunities with a more strategic and proactive media plan. A full media plan enables you to identify and communicate your story and stor(ies) to media and consumers in a way that gets and holds their attention, and is not limited to new products or events.
Making good chocolate is not enough to get and hold people’s attention. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, obviously. Making good chocolate is a necessity. Good chocolate is not optional, but a prerequisite for success. It’s just that making good chocolate is not what’s going to get the attention of potential customers who are finding out about your brand for the first time, and it’s not enough to make established craft chocolate fans consistently choose you over other excellent options.
The most valuable assets you have for getting and holding the attention of consumers are not products, but stories. Quality is, as we just looked at, a necessity, but it’s not quality on its own that will make people customers, but curiosity and connection.
One thing I’ve noticed is that while craft companies obviously know what they want to sell, they don’t always identify the stories that will earn those sales. Sales are the goal, but stories are the paths that will lead current and potential customers to that goal. When our focus in marketing is on products, it narrows our options for potential points of connection. When we take a step back from that focus, Our view broadens and we are better able to see the diverse paths that guide curious consumers to becoming customers.
Craft companies sometimes make the mistake of believing (or fearing) that because they’re small, that will limit both the range of stories they have available to tell, and the media outlets interested in sharing them. I want you to understand that there is no correlation between the size of your business and the significance of your stories.
I tell stories for a living. In order the be successful, those stories need to connect with people, and that connection can be compelling regardless of the size of the business I’m writing about. A story about a company with two employees takes as long to write and read, and takes up the same space on a page or during a broadcast, as a story about a company with 100 employees.
Your craft chocolate company needs a media plan not so you can be ready when media members contact you, but because without one, they most likely won’t.
At the end of almost every episode of Bean to Barstool, I ask my guest what story they’re telling with their business. It’s a reminder that we aren’t just indulging our senses with craft chocolate or beer or other treats, we’re stimulating our minds, our memories, our emotions, and our imaginations. You don’t have just one story to tell, you have many. And they’re worth telling. You just have to get them to the right people, and I hope this series helps you do that.
Media Relations for Craft Chocolate Makers series
Podcast Episodes
Why You Need a Media Plan
How to Identify Your 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 (you’re listening to it!)
How to Identify Your 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