To increase your chances of gaining credible press coverage, it’s important to tailor your story to the style, tone and audience of different outlets. Here are the stories that are most appealing to local and trade press.

What to share with local media

Getting covered in the media sources covering your area is a great way to build trust within your local community. These outlets offer a direct line to regional audiences and provide a grassroots credibility that national titles often lack.

Here are five topics that are most likely to secure positive press coverage in your local newspaper websites:

Creating new jobs

Have you employed more than five new members of staff recently, or are you offering apprenticeships or employment schemes to attract the next generation and support the jobs market?

Making investments

Are you investing in any technology, machinery, equipment or infrastructure that will benefit either the local area, your clients or your industry?

Senior staff appointments

Have you taken on a new member of staff in a senior position, such as a CEO, MD, General Manager, Operations Manager or Sales Director?

Business expansion

Have you recently expanded into new business premises, taken on an additional location or expanded your offering to include new services, products, markets or countries?

Community initiatives

Are you doing anything to benefit or improve your local community, such as corporate social responsibility plans, green spaces projects, environmental initiatives, sports schemes, charity support or mentoring?

What to share with industry media

Appearing in the titles that are most influential within your industry puts your business directly before an engaged audience of experts and decision makers. This targeted exposure builds professional credibility and ensures your message reaches those most likely to act.

Here are the three types of content that industry press tend to favour:

Advice pieces

If you’ve been in your industry for a long time, you’re likely to have lots of valuable insight and expertise that could really benefit your potential customers. Sharing some of this insight by providing advice can be very powerful indeed, particularly when it’s geared towards helping people to make better choices or avoid common pitfalls.

Advice pieces are also a wonderful way to position your brand as credible, authoritative, knowledgeable and experienced, which helps to create a bond of trust with potential customers to ensure they feel confident approaching you in future.

Opinion-led articles

Open any influential magazine covering your industry and the chances are you’ll see at least one opinion-led article, where someone senior in your sector shares their opinion on where the industry’s heading, what’s on the horizon or where it needs to change.

Industry magazines and websites are always seeking out well-informed opinions from those in the know who are prepared to voice their views; a well-crafted opinion piece can be instrumental in shaping people’s perceptions around a particular topic, raising the profile of key figures within your organization and enhancing your credibility.

Research or survey results

One of the most powerful – yet under-used – methods of news creation is a well-timed survey. Survey results are a wonderful tool for generating exceptional publicity, as well as giving your target audiences some great insight – and with free tools like Survey Monkey, it’s quite simple to source valuable PR data.

Perhaps you could survey your clients or the general public and seek out any interesting statistics which could signify a new trend? For example, an insurance company could identify that ‘70% of Midlands homeowners don’t have the right insurance’, or a travel agents could spot that ‘80% of Brits are planning staycations next year’.

Get in touch to explore potential angles for your business; I have over 20 years’ experience in creating press content that attracts great results.