Find inspiration for your next news release in these 7 key places
Reiterating key messages is key for PR success - but creating consistent content for the media can be hard work; if your company doesn’t have explicit events, insights or research to report on, where can you find your next news story?
Though it can be difficult to see at times, there are ways to uncover news stories that will highlight media opportunities for your brand. So, if you feel like your news content is drying up, take a look in these 7 places to find inspiration for your next news release.
How to find inspiration for your next news release
Interview your experts
The first point of call to find your next news release should be the experts within your company. These are the people who know your market in and out - perhaps they regularly interact with clients and understand their current concerns or needs, or maybe they have a deep knowledge of industry trends.
Utilise their expertise to guide your story. Ask them what trends, warnings, or guidance your target customers need to know right now and use this to formulate ideas for your next piece.
Utilise company data where possible
Data is always a great pull for journalists - if you can create a headline with a strong stat then you’ll certainly pique their interest. In fact, 55.7% of stories in the HR media contain data or statistics. Of course, not everyone has the time or budget to create research for PR purposes - but this doesn’t necessarily mean there is no data to inspire you.
Many companies through their apps, software or data collection tools will collate data from their clients or users. If this is the case, your company could have interesting data that’s relevant to your brand and (as long as it’s GDPR compliant) could be used in your next news release.
For example, data on employee engagement, employee sentiment, absence rates etc. can all be collected by HR software - so does your data reveal anything that could be of interest to the media?
Conduct trend analysis in key publications
Building a target publication list is an important part of a PR strategy. Not only does it help you understand where you’re aiming to get your coverage featured, it also means you can track and analyse popular topics that your core publications are more likely to feature right now. (For our HR world, there are many quality publications but here are some good HR publications to check out in 2021).
By identifying the number of recent stories on a given topic and conducting some qualitative analysis to understand where media and public sentiment lies around it, you can spot where your own expertise can be added to the conversation.
This process helps to narrow down key topics of importance for your PR strategy, identify the kind of messaging you should be promoting in your news release and understand what kind of news stories publications are looking for.
Remember too, this process should go beyond looking at the broad themes covered within the media - instead, look for specific ideas. For example, while ‘Working from Home’ is a key theme in HR publications right now, what exactly are journalists focusing on here? Is it employee/employer sentiment? The logistics of hybrid working? Creating a sustainable company culture? The focus on these areas will change over time so it’s vital to identify exactly what you should be writing about right now.
Conduct trend analysis on social media
Go further than conducting trend analysis on news sites - check social media platforms for popular topics too. Here you can directly see public and consumer sentiment by keeping track of relevant keywords and seeing how many mentions or hashtags use them.
Free tools like Hashtagify let you track words or phrases in Twitter hashtags, for example, so you know the best areas to develop news stories on.
Following relevant journalists and industry leaders will also notify you of key opportunities and topics your company should be making the most of in news releases.
Keep track of key websites
There are some key websites that B2B PRs should follow to keep track of the latest updates on topical news (e.g. industry stats or policy changes that affect your market) before these events hit the news shelves themselves.
If you can keep up to date and jump on relevant stories before others, you may be able to newsjack these announcements and find inspiration for your next news release.
Carefully watch out for this information by regularly looking at ONS reports, upcoming government statistics, the most recent government announcements as well as their newly published policy papers.
Keep up to date with key industry players
Signing up to receive the latest reports and insights from key players in your industry can be a handy way to find angles for your own news release.
Why? Well, in many instances, other businesses publish reports that contain data that could be relevant to your messaging. As long as the company doesn’t use this specific data in their news releases, it has the potential to be newsjacked and turned into your own story if you can add further insight to it.
For example, take a look at this news release from Tictrac, who added their own insights and market guidance to data from Aon’s 2021 Global Wellbeing Survey.
When doing this, however, make sure to use other companies’ work respectfully and find out how to appropriately newsjack other people’s data.
Analyse past coverage
Don’t just look outward for inspiration - look inward too. Check out past coverage you’ve achieved and see what’s worked well for you. Look at which of your news stories gained the most coverage and which received the most social shares (tools like CoverageBook can easily collate this information for you).
Once you’ve found your best-performing pieces, have a think if there’s any way you can replicate a similar style of story for the current market - or do a follow-up piece: what’s changed since then and what should audiences know now?
Need further inspiration for your next HR news release? Download the HR Media Report 2021, for market trends and journalist insights.