Content Marketing & Digital PRVideo Content How to make your content PR friendly [on.click VLOG] May 3rd, 2019 Journalists are always looking for a great story. From The Daily Mirror to Cosmopolitan, from Good Housekeeping to Business Insider, publications are actively seeking content that will engage their audience. They are hungry for stories that are shareable, will spark debate and, most of all, will drive people to their respective publications Brands should see this as an opportunity. By providing journalists with newsworthy, PR-friendly content, businesses can gain promotion from websites that have thousands of visitors every day, establishing themselves as authorities in their industry. Having content published on these sites can give you a platform, furthermore, to reach thousands of new potential customers. The challenge for brands is having a story that journalists want to tell. Journalists generally aren’t looking for company news. It is highly unlikely that they will be interested in what new products you have on your website or what award your team has just won. What they are looking for is newsworthy content that will really grab their readers’ attention – stories that will shock them, surprise them, humour them, or even enrage them. They are looking for ideas that are topical, relevant and support, or better yet refute, issues that are on the public’s mind. Depending on your business, this might force you to think outside the box; the strongest ideas may not necessarily be about your products or services but what purpose they actually serve to a customer. A footwear retailer might not be able to come up with a newsworthy story about shoes alone, but there could be an interesting angle if you focus on what they are used for – exercise or travel. Once you have an idea of what you want your content about, you need to find the “news hook” – the nugget of information that will elevate this from a piece of interesting content into a news story with the potential to go viral. This might be an unexpected statistic, an amazing visual, or a fact that makes the reader re-evaluate what they think they know. When we decided to create a PR campaign about driving safety for our client KwikFit, for example, our “news hook” was the frightening statistic that it takes 10 times longer for a driver to stop in icy conditions. Our campaign about the carbon footprint of everyday activities for Viessmann gained a strong news hook when we decided to compare the CO2 of digital activities against real-world activities. A journalist who writes for The Guardian once told me that she receives around 200 emails every day pitching her ideas for stories. Of these emails, it’s likely that only one or two will eventually make their way onto the website. This makes it incredibly difficult to have content marketing that is PR friendly. However, understanding what makes a successful news story can significantly improve the chances of your content catching the attention of journalists. Journalists are always looking for a great story; businesses just have to know how to give it to them. Our Digital PR service includes clever copy writing and creative design, along with in-depth reporting that analyses the success of the campaign, in particular looking at the quantity and quality of links earned, number of brand mentions, social media performance and any impact on organic visibility. Contact us today to explore the opportunities we can offer you.