Companies often ask PR folks to publicize important company milestones. Things like anniversaries or big customer wins or successful rounds of funding. The challenge for PR pros is to figure out how to make that news into something a journalist would want to write about. That can be a challenge because virtually every company has similar news. Just because you got a chunk of investment money may not rise to the level of coverage.
Brit Morse is an Associate Editor and writer at Inc. Magazine. She recently crystalised the issue with the below Tweet:
https://twitter.com/britnmorse/status/1585308866098921472?s=20&t=B8r1Rufm3YCunG8BM7uTYw
This is a really important point, and one that any PR pro should take to heart. Our job is to try to figure out how our clients’ news fits into a bigger story or points to a broader trend. If we can do that, there’s a good chance of getting coverage. If we can’t our pitch, and our clients’ news, goes into the virtual trash.
Here’s a good example of that from INK client Emtrain, which provides training, data, and analytics to help improve workplace culture. As the COVID-19 pandemic was taking shape in early 2020, Emtrain had just closed a round of funding. The funding round was nice, but wasn’t huge. It got a few mentions, but we knew it wasn’t likely to rise to the level of serious coverage in an outlet like TechCrunch. Instead of just pitching the company news, we suggested there might be a broader story on how tech startups were navigating funding in the middle of a pandemic when offices were being closed, the money folks were getting nervous, and everything seemed to go on hold. That angle resulted in this story in TechCrunch, which featured Emtrain, the funding round, and some nice quotes from the founder and CEO.
If you can take your company news and use it to further a broader story, there’s a better chance reporters will sit up and take notice. So when your news isn’t necessarily newsworthy, good PR pros will figure out how to make it so.
