Are you a small business looking for media monitoring services? Google Alerts not cutting it for you anymore? Missing mentions of your business in your sector magazines? Then Schofield Communications is looking for your feedback.
Media Monitoring services are a must for any medium to large business or organisation that regularly appears in the press - usually those with a marketing and communications department. They allow them to track where they're appearing, gauge and compare good vs bad press and provide ROI on PR activities, among other benefits.
There are advantages for sole traders and small businesses also, if they're regularly appearing in the press (1 to 5 articles a month, for example), but the cost can be prohibitive. If you're not achieving a minimum of 25 articles a month, paying thousands of pounds a year for a full-blown media monitoring service can seem excessive.
If you've been reading our recent series of blogs you'll know we, at Schofield Communications, believe that PR is not solely the realm of large businesses and organisations. Even those without a massive comms budget can benefit from shouting about their successes - raising awareness, boosting growth, increasing influence and providing a cost-effective way of reaching more potential customers.
That's why we've been working in conjunction with our media monitoring partner to come up with a solution that would allow small businesses to track their mentions in the press and receive those clippings (and recordings, if they're being mentioned on radio or TV) without breaking the bank. We're able to monitor 5,000+ traditional UK print media sources, 130+ UK TV and radio stations and 6,000+ UK news websites.
We're currently seeking feedback from any small business owners that believe they would benefit from such a service. If this sounds like an exciting prospect to you, please let us know in the comments below. We also have a few questions, if you'd like to give us your thoughts:
How many times a month/year does your business or organisation get mentioned in the press? (Please provide an estimate if you're not sure).
Would you be happy paying a small monthly subscription for a media monitoring service? If so, what price would you be looking for?
Or would you prefer to pay per project? (For example, if you have one or two PR projects a year.)
*We are currently scoping interest in this service and it is not currently available. If we receive sufficient interest, we will let interested parties know if and when it will launch.