3 steps to create the most compelling news angle for your HR tech
Only 2.5%* of articles in HR publications had an angle predominantly focusing on HR tech in January. And yet despite this small number, many brands that offer HR tech products or services still gain coverage in the HR media.
So what’s the best angle to make your tech relevant to HR journalists?
Of course, the perfect hook for each brand or product will differ, but if you’re stuck for ideas, these three things can help to guide your next news release or pitch:
Your understanding of your brand/product’s purpose
The human impact of your tech
Current HR news and events
Understanding your brand/product purpose
As you might expect, your brand or product’s purpose will guide the angle of your news content. But this doesn’t mean the angle should focus solely on the brand or product itself (unless perhaps you’re writing specifically about a product or company launch).
Instead, use your understanding of your company’s purpose to get be clear on the following:
What do you offer your audience and, really importantly, why?
With this in mind, what expertise do you have on this subject that others might not yet know about?
What insights do you have that could add value to current discussions on the topic?
For example, say you have tech that improves employee engagement, this may mean you have substantial knowledge on people analytics/ behavioural science/ current trends or issues that are impacting engagement, productivity or retention levels in workplaces. You can then add to current employee engagement conversations with this extended knowledge or start new conversations based on original insights.
Understanding your product or brand purpose in this instance is not about using this information to create sales messages and turn them into media coverage. Instead, it’s to recognise what information you have that could educate a HR journalist and, essentially, their audiences. It’s all about providing thoughtful expertise that resonates with the reader in order to shape positive perceptions of your brand.
The human impact
This is the key to crafting a great angle for your tech: uncovering and elaborating on the human impact of your technology.
Why is this essential? Because this is what will resonate with audiences - real problems that are relatable on both emotional and practical levels. Articles about unknown and, perhaps, confusing technology are unlikely to connect with an audience (especially if they’re unfamiliar with the topic), so speak to audiences about the things they care about.
In our research of HR media in January, 52% of articles included themes that directly related to the human experience at work (e.g Health and Wellbeing, Leadership and Management, Diversity and Inclusion, Learning and Development etc.)
The amount of coverage highlighting human-related topics within the HR media suggests that human-centric angles are a stronger focus for your content than tech-centred angles covering the functionality of a product. And even outside of this 52%, categories that don’t always directly relate to human experiences - for example, Employer Regulations - often still included topics connecting to more personal/human-focused subjects (e.g. health and safety, the furlough scheme, grievances and discrimination etc).
So ask, what does your tech do for HR people and the employees in their organisation? What problems does it help them overcome? Why is this beneficial for them and their business?
Current HR news and events
Tying in product/brand expertise and human-related angles with trending HR news and events is another potential.
Consider less of what you want to talk about and more about what will satisfy the curiosity of a journalist or their audience. What do you know that they may not?
What are the big events in the current HR market, what topics/ HR buzzwords are journalists looking to cover right now and are there specific questions that HR needs answering? How can your expertise add to or help solve these issues?
Providing information here requires a delicate balance: you want to get your core messages across but you must do it in a way that peaks a journalist’s interest and isn’t sales-y. This is why tying in your own expertise with current topics is a strong option - it enables you to display your brand’s value and up-to-date knowledge without overt sales messages that journalists will not use.
If you need further advice on the best angles for your HR tech, get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.