Lesson 1: Target, Pitch,

and Win Over the Media

Questions to answer:
1. How can I find the right media outlets to promote my
business?
2. What should I say to reporters to convince them to cover
my product?
3. What’s an elevator pitch?
A media partnership is an agreement between a business
and a media outlet to share content for their mutual
benefit. 

An effective promotional vehicle for companies with small

marketing budgets, media partnerships can bring good
publicity for both the business and the media outlet.
One of the main benefits of a media partnership is that
it helps to establish businesses as experts in their
domain. This, in turn, builds trust with the media
outlet’s audience and can persuade them to buy from
your business. 
Where can you look for media
coverage?
A blog that featured your competitor

Yes No
A reporter whose opinions you
disagree with
Yes No
An online magazine that’s outside
your industry but shares your
interests
Yes No
The two paths to getting press are called the
vertical and horizontal approach.
The vertical approach is going after reporters
who cover your industry and have written
about your competitors.
Meanwhile in the horizontal approach, you’d
go after media outlets outside your industry
that share your interests and values.
 Tip: The better you know your reporters, the
easier it will be to pitch, so get familiar with
their writing styles and interests, read their
articles, and follow them on social media.
A reporter shouldn’t need to look for the angle
in your pitch – you need to provide it.
 What’s an elevator pitch?
An elevator pitch is a brief, persuasive speech
that you use to spark interest in what your
business sells. It is a short, intriguing way to get
people interested in your story. It is also called an
elevator speech, or elevator statement.
Tips in making an elevator pitch:
 KEEP IT SHORT AND SWEET
 FOCUS ON THE ESSENTIALS
 BE POSITIVE AND PERSUASIVE
 PRACTICE, PRACTICE,
PRACTICE
 HAVE A BUSINESS CARD READY.
Lesson 2: How Your Personal
Brand Is Good For Business
Questions to answer:
1. How can building a personal brand help my business?

2. How do I start building my personal brand?

3. How do I optimize my website and social media profiles

for personal branding?
A personal brand is rooted in the minds of
people in the market. Personal branding is
the effort to communicate and present your
value to the world.
1. The first step to having a personal brand is just
having an opinion and being willing to share it.
Ask yourself:
 What field can I claim expertise in?
 What’s my specialty in that field and how am I
different than other experts in it?
 How would someone benefit from listening to me
and following my advice?
2. Next, define your target audience and how
you’ll reach them.
3. After that initial research, you should get
your personal website in order and get ready
for search engine optimization (SEO).
4. Along with getting your personal site into
shape, you should spend time prepping all your
social media accounts for success.
5. Lastly, make sure your accounts look and
feel worthy of your brand.
 Now you’re ready to create and promote your content,
making sure every post stays true to your brand’s narrative.

 Post at least once a week, and feel free it up. Along with the
articles you’ve written, share images, repurpose content from
other sources, and post videos related to your area of
expertise (bonus points if it’s a video you created).

 You should also try and connect with other people in your
field online and through social media. Start conversations
with them and repost their content.
Example of a personal brand:
Día Coffee
Lesson 3: Brand Rehab -
Recovering When Mishaps Happen
Questions to answer:
1. What is brand recovery?

2. How should I respond when a brand crisis hits?

3. What measures can I take to avoid a brand crisis from

happening?
Sometimes, despite your best efforts,
things just go wrong.
For a brand, simply fixing the issue isn’t
enough. The key is to respond publicly and
to take action to avoid a potential PR crisis.
You can’t predict when or if a crisis will hit,
but you can take 5 steps to be prepared to deal
with one if it happens.
The first step is to anticipate.
The second step is to plan. In a crisis,
timing is everything, so being prepared will
help you get in front of the problem before it
gets out of hand.
The third step is to take action. When a
crisis hits, don’t delay. Take swift measures
to try and de-escalate the problem.
Fourth, remember to communicate.
Reaching out to your audience and
explaining the situation is crucial to
maintaining a positive public image.
Lastly, reflect. Although the problem might have
been an isolated incident, you should take time to
see if there are any lurking issues that need to be
addressed.
Based on these factors, you might be able to identify
areas that could be harmful to your brand. These could
also include health and safety issues pertaining to your
product, or inadequate training for your customer
service representatives. Taking these measures will not
only allow you to address and fix the current crisis, but
will also reduce the chance of these types of crises
from happening again.
Send out a statement explaining how you solved the
problem, learned from it, and implemented procedures to
ensure it won’t happen again; you can also invite the
media to write reviews about how the crisis was handled.
Lesson 4: Transform Your Business
By Rebranding It
Questions to answer:
1. What is rebranding?

2. How can rebranding help my business?

3. How do I know if I need to rebrand?

Rebranding is the act of changing your brand’s identity to
portray a new image to your audience. Rebranding can
take many forms. It could mean changing your name, logo
and imagery, marketing strategy and messaging, products,
or any of combination of these.
Rebranding is good for the business, but at the same time
it may be risky. If done well, rebranding can help your
business reach new audiences, market your products
more effectively, revamp perception of an old product, or
change your brand perception generally.
There are two types of rebranding: one is Proactive rebranding
and the other is Reactive rebranding.
Proactive rebranding is done when a company recognizes that
there is an opportunity to grow, innovate, tap into new businesses
or customers, and to reconnect with its users.
Reactive rebranding is done in a situation when the existing
brand has been discontinued or changed. Possible reasons for
such a action could be mergers & acquisitions, legal issues,
negative publicity such as fraud, aiming to beat the competition,
or create your own niche.
How to rebrand a company
 Reestablish your brand's audience and market.
 Redefine your company's vision, mission, and
values.
 Rename your company during a rebrand.
 Reconsider your brand's slogan.
 Rebuild your brand identity.
Rebranding doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul. When you
do your research, ask your audience what positive elements they still
associate with your brand and make sure to stick with what’s
working.
To start rebranding, try writing out these four items:
 Vision Statement: Write out motivations and aspirations for
your business
 Mission Statement: Why does your brand exist?
 Brand Character: is there a word or phrase that embodies your
brand?
 Brand Personality: What attitude do you want to convey to the
world?
After you’ve outlined the details of your rebranding, make
sure everyone in your business is on the same page about
the changes (why they’re happening and when) and knows
what their individual role will be in crafting your new
brand.
Once you’ve got new brand assets, you should test them
out before you go public. Like you did in the beginning of
the rebranding process, use surveys, focus groups, and A/B
testing to see how people in your target audience react to
your new look and message.
 Idea of the day:
“Establishing a brand is like
introducing yourself during the
first day of school; you want to
make a good impression to
everyone you meet.”
 THANK YOU!
Other sources used:
https://bizfluent.com/how-2227348-develop-media-partnership.html
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/elevator-pitch.html
https://www.thebalancecareers.com/elevator-speech-examples-and-writing-tips-
2061976
https://personalbrand.com/definition/
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/definition/rebranding
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/rebranding