Media relations can be an incredibly effective way to promote your brand, but coordinating media opportunities can be tricky to navigate. Preparing for a three-minute television segment, for example, can involve coordination between news producers, reporters, interviewees, and amidst the constant stream of communication, it’s easy for details to get overlooked or left out. That’s why a booking memo is a key element for successful media relations.
In this post, we’ll cover what a booking memo is, what it should include, and share tips for ensuring your booking memo is effective. Let’s dive in:
What Is a Booking Memo?
A booking memo is a short document that lays out all of the details that are relevant to prepare for a media opportunity. Essentially, a booking memo serves to keep everyone who is involved in a media opportunity organized.
As previously mentioned, the coordination of a media segment can be a hectic process, and it is easy for details to get lost amidst long email chains or threads that everyone may not be looped in on. A booking memo keeps everything in one place so that both the interviewee and the media outlet can have one sheet that they reference for all of the information they need to make sure they are prepared for the segment.
What Should a Booking Memo Include?
Some of the basic elements that should be present in every booking memo include:
- the date and time of the media opportunity (including time of the segment and what time to arrive);
- the location of the opportunity;
- key talking points to cover;
- other supporting materials that would be helpful for the media member who is conducting the interview or writing the story. (For example, b-roll footage, photos, logos, and other visuals.)
Typically, two different versions of a booking memo are created. One version of a booking memo is sent to the interviewee(s), and the other is sent to the member(s) of the media who are hosting the interview/telling the story. The information needed by these parties is often different (for example, the media outlet wouldn’t need to know the address of their studio), and making these distinctions will help to create a smoother process overall.
Tips for Crafting a Great Booking Memo
Now that you have an idea of what a booking memo is, here are some additional tips to help ensure the booking memo you draft is top-notch.
- Be Concise: When listing out talking points, it is important to make sure you are including details — but you don’t need too many details. Keep the talking points specific enough so that you are able to get the point of the segment across, but don’t feel like you need to list out every single thing about the topic. The interviewee should have the opportunity to share those details in the interview.
- Include Examples: If an interviewee is preparing for their first media opportunity, there can be some nerves, especially if they do not know what they are walking into. Providing examples of prior segments or interviews the reporter or outlet has done is a great way to give the interviewee an idea of what the opportunity will look like and can help them feel more prepared and confident.
- Lay Out the Logistics: A very important part of the booking memo is ensuring you give the reporter and/or interviewee all of the information they need to arrive at the right place at the right time. If the interview is in-studio, providing the interviewee with the station address, parking directions, and arrival time is imperative to ensure that there are no hiccups that will cause them run late — or worse, miss the segment entirely! For reporters that are coming on-location, it is also important they know where to go, and are aware of additional considerations for parking or finding the location.
Ultimately, while a booking memo includes doing a little additional work up-front, it can go a long way toward ensuring a media opportunity goes smoothly and tells the story of your brand in the best way possible.
If you have any additional tips for creating a great booking memo, follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, X, or TikTok and let us know!
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