The insurance trade media holds significant influence over one of the world’s longest-standing industries — a business with nearly 3 million workers in the United States and $777 billion in property-casualty insurance premium. Dozens of publications and websites provide insurance industry information and insights to their readers.
Rosalie Donlon, J.D., has been watching and reporting on the insurance business for years, most recently through her post as editor-in-chief at ALM Media’s insurance and tax publications (including PropertyCasualty360.com and NU Property & Casualty) and now as part of the Aartrijk team. She has significant experience in the field of legal publishing as well as in the benefits business.
Earned media — a public relations term for editorial coverage of a company or person — is especially valuable because of the “curation” (the selection process) that editors provide as they decide what news and information to cover and publish. Readers often perceive: If an editor covered it, it’s important. That adds credibility to the person or brands being covered.
Rosalie sat down to provide insights on the insurance trade media, and ways insurance brands can work with those reporters and editors.
1. Why is it important for insurance professionals and brands to work with the insurance trade media?
Earned media is highly valuable. It can only be gained by working with editors and reporters in the insurance trade media. They provide a window into the insurance business and make careful choices based on what they view as important for their readers. Their decision process makes a big difference in what the industry sees.
2. How does someone get started in public relations?
Working with the trade media starts with figuring out why readers should care about your company, your people and what you have to say.
You have to answer that question: Why should we care? If you can't answer that, then don’t bother doing PR.
Then, the next step is to tell the editor or reporter why they and their readers should care.
But first, read the publication or website you want to be in. It’s simple. Go on the publication’s website, get their media kit and figure out what you can about who their readers are and what they care about. When you get acquainted with the publication, then reach out to the editor through a phone call or at an industry meeting. They’ll answer any other questions about what they will and won’t cover.
3. Sounds easy.
It’s not.
The hard part is you have to tell me why my readers care. It doesn't work to just tell me that you have a tech product that you think is the greatest thing. You have to define: What does it do? Why should somebody want to use it or buy it? What is the tangible connection of the person or the product to someone’s business or revenue?
4. You recently took part in a panel about public relations for insurtechs at Insurtech NY. What did you cover?
First, we covered the fact that insurtechs typically can connect themselves to someone else’s revenue, someone else’s business. That means they usually have a story to tell that’s going to be relevant to editors.
Second, if the insurtech can do tangible things like telling people how close they are to a wildfire or where their property is vis-à-vis a flood zone and those types of things, editors may care about that.
5. OK, if someone’s got all that, what else do they need?
A headline.
I told the insurtech folks that they have to hone their pitch down. They need a good headline and then a short pitch to tell their story.
There are tools on the internet, especially with the arrival of artificial intelligence, that can give them ideas for creating a headline. [Note: Aartrijk does not use artificial intelligence to write editorial pitches or article copy.] Then they need to test, either with real people or with an internet tool.
And pay attention to spelling, grammar and so on. Most editors notice that stuff, even if others don’t. Go out and get Grammarly or a similar grammar checker and use it.
6. People working in publicity often get the sound of silence in response to an email or news release. How should people read that?
If you haven't heard from me in 24 hours, that means I’m busy. Once we do get to the email, then we try to give a sense of the value of the material that’s been sent.
Reporters and editors read wire services, read the competition, read the news and then we get to press releases. We pay more attention to material that comes from the director of communications of a company we have a relationship with. Why? Because we know them personally and they don’t waste our time.
7. Any no-nos?
Beware of using mail merge. If you send a blast email to all the reporters and editors you can think of saying, “I really love your publication,” and you actually name a competitor, that’s offensive. Don’t do it.
8. Any other insights?
Setting up half-hour phone calls with editors is one of the best ways to figure out what the media is looking for. It was my practice to put the contact information from a news release in my contacts. I could then later pick up the phone and call them when covering a story.
Another thing is to be careful with the word “solution” in news releases and story pitches. If you use the word solution, have you also identified the problem in the news release? If you have to use “solution,” OK, but put it in context.