Why Should Anyone Be Interested In Your Business?

For any communications activity it’s essential to know what you want to say and who you want to say it to. When  it comes to PR, however, in addition to the ‘who, when, why, where and what’ rule of telling the story in the first paragraph, it’s vital to ask where any of that information fits into the news agenda.

Placing editorial in a newspaper, magazine or online publication requires a different mindset from most marketing disciplines, because yours is not the only perspective involved: you must also consider the journalist and their agenda. The most successful PR campaigns make the news by tapping into topical subjects and leveraging them to maximise interest in what’s new, innovative or exciting about your company.

This fundamental factor in a PR campaign’s success can be frustrating if the information you want to communicate is not relevant to the news agenda.  However, finding a way to make it relevant is the role of a creative PR professional and campaigns that exploit the news agenda set apart PR agencies that genuinely advise you on how best to raise your profile from those that simply churn out press releases to match your brief.

Equally, the news agenda provides opportunities to generate news where there is none or discussion that can showcase your expertise….which is why a good PR provider should always stay abreast of the latest trends and topics in your sector as well as the wider commercial, financial and political landscape.

It’s all about finding an angle; that illusive spin that changes a story from something that you’re interested in telling to something that others are interested in reading.  There are no hard and fast rules for this and a tailored, creative approach to every story is a must.  However,  there are news triggers and PR techniques that you can use as a starting point for aligning your news more closely to the news agenda, increasing your chance  of success. Here are our top tips:

·    Keep ahead of any regular quarterly or annual reports published by Government departments or industry bodies in your sector – they will make the news and you will need to be ready to link editorial to them quickly to ride on their back when they’re released

·    Read the publications you want to get into – editors often have topics that are of particular interest to them and if you can mirror those you’ll increase your chances of success

·    Use political policy announcements to highlight your own agenda, either by championing them or pointing out their shortcomings as the lead in to your own story