PR professionals spend plenty of time trying to find a media pleasant story. Reporters have an more and more excessive bar and never each story, quote or perception will make the ultimate lower.
However what occurs to the tales left on the reducing room flooring? Or the thought management pitches you despatched out to a few dozen journalists however no person bit? What occurs to tasks your group is happy with, however you’d by no means flag for a reporter: the detailed whitepapers, that superior award nomination you didn’t win or a stellar buyer assessment that popped up in your shopper’s Yelp web page?
It’s straightforward to push these to the facet as not helpful for media, however this land of misfit tales could be a treasure trove of belongings that may be decreased, reframed or repurposed for brand new audiences. One fashion of storytelling isn’t going to work for your entire shopper’s audiences, however you may be stunned at how broadly your present belongings can develop past your unique channel:
Repurpose your content material: Whereas there are many alternatives to republish an present piece of content material on a secondary channel — assume utilizing your exec quote in a press launch and a publish on the company Twitter — repurposing an asset or story to a brand new viewers might require some creativity. Take into consideration your shopper’s final supposed viewers. Are you focusing on tech media to get in entrance of potential buyers or commerce journals since you’re desperately making an attempt to rent engineers?
Earned media is way from the one method to goal these end-audiences, so attempt to play matchmaker between your arsenal of content material and supply data that’s helpful to your key audiences. If in case you have a case research or constructive assessment of your enterprise services or products, share it with potential clients which can be buying round for a most popular vendor. If in case you have a proprietary information level that sheds mild right into a market want, supply it to your buyers or analysts as a proof level. Not each piece of knowledge goes to resonate together with your viewers, so it’s all about digging round for, and amplifying those that can.
Cut back (or develop) your size: Obtained a pitch that didn’t land or an award nomination that didn’t win? How ‘bout a cool stat with no context or visible that solely tells half the story?
PR professionals do our greatest to be succinct, however a two-paragraph pitch gained’t match inside Twitter’s character rely. In case your asset is just too lengthy to be helpful on one other channel, establish the few pithy phrases or a pull-out sentence that can reel in a brand new viewers to be taught extra. Alternatively, in case your unique content material is lacking key context, strive asking your exec for his or her opinion or coloration commentary to pair with a key stat and weave that right into a weblog publish or have or not it’s the idea of your subsequent talking nomination.
Reframe your format: Do you could have back-of-the-envelope notes that you just wove right into a pitch or a fantastically designed report? As soon as a chunk of content material has served its unique objective, think about what new life it could lead on in a completely totally different or sudden format.
Synthesize your 45 web page educational whitepaper right into a 30-second TikTok video. Flip your listing of stats into a good looking infographic. Flip that hilarious zinger your exec gave of their final media interview into the theme to your subsequent all-hands inner assembly. In case you haven’t seen it, try the perfect instance of creativity in format that I’ve ever seen: Expensify’s video to announce its intent to go public. Discuss cross-channel!
A last notice: Invite your mates from advertising. PR professionals are specialists at figuring out pithy and related data for journalists, however typically have a blind spot in relation to owned or paid channels. Think about your advertising group an extra asset in your arsenal that may supply new concepts, views and alternatives.
Katherine Grubaugh is a vice chairman with Technique Communications.
COMMENT
