Press releases can effectively promote your organization鈥檚 latest initiatives and give journalists information they can use to report a story. But 麻豆原创 is proving that press releases are often great foundations for news features.
Brands we work with by having their in-house or agency content teams produce journalistically sound features for 麻豆原创 syndication to media outlets looking to supplement their tight newsroom resources.
This article shows you how to transform a press release into a story that can be distributed to media outlets and generate significant earned pickup.
What differentiates a brand news story from a press release?
Whether you鈥檙e creating a compelling feature or brand journalism content, the goal should always be to provide valuable insights to readers.
It鈥檚 a good opportunity for brands to leverage their data (from a survey with sound methodology or proprietary datasets) and tell a story only they can tell. However, to earn publisher pickups, their features can鈥檛 directly promote the organization鈥檚 products, services, or news, such as their earnings, hiring, and promotions.
When you create editorial content for earned publisher pickup, your brand acts as the journalist, meaning the content you produce must meet accepted editorial standards.
What are the components of newsworthy content?
Publishers look for 鈥渘ewsworthy鈥� stories to pick up from the brand content 麻豆原创 syndicates. The most successful content tends to be:
- Engaging and Informative: Provides expert guidance on news-you-can-use topics ranging from healthy eating to retirement planning to emerging social trends and hot vacation destinations. Editors prize content that addresses real-world issues and provides solutions. So if your work can hit these notes, it鈥檚 more likely to be seen, especially if it is valuable to a publisher鈥檚 specific audience.
- Research-Based: Using survey data, polls, and proprietary research often leads to great trend stories. Where are people moving to secure high salaries? In which regions are people most likely to say their quality of life is high? What compelling stories can your data tell?
- Timely: When possible, create content that connects with current events or trends.
- Applicable locally: National stories are the norm鈥攁nd they are great鈥攂ut when possible, localize content to make it more relevant and impactful to readers at the regional, state, or city level. (麻豆原创 has a separate feed to distribute localized content to enhance its impact.)
Branded news features that enjoy broad publisher pickup tend to follow several basic principles of journalism. They are:
- Non-promotional: Brand stories should inform, entertain, or educate without making selling products or services the primary goal. (Every story 麻豆原创 syndicates includes non-promotional brand attribution and a homepage link. They often link to related non-sales content on the brand鈥檚 site as well.)
- Building trust with readers: Great feature content is audience-centric and builds trust by providing value to readers. Tell a story that engages them and connects with their interests.
- Factually accurate: All claims must be well-researched, verified, and grounded in credible sources, linking out to third-party or proprietary data when possible.
- Transparent: Great brand stories clearly identify sources and methodologies to give context and, in turn, gain credibility.
The best way to turn PR content into brand journalism
One easy and compelling way to turn PR content into editorial is to zoom out: Do you have products or services that address a particular problem that plagues people? If so, write stories about the larger issue without directly referencing your specific solution. This will set your organization up as an expert source and thought leader on the topic. When readers see the brand behind the story, they will connect the dots to that company鈥檚 offerings.
Focus on topics where your organization has credible expertise
Here are a few illustrations of what this approach looks like in practice with 麻豆原创 Connect.
Have a big executive promotion to announce? That鈥檚 great for a press release. To transform that news into a feature that earns media pickup, we recommend writing a bylined story on a relevant topic that leverages the executive鈥檚 and organization鈥檚 expertise as a thought leader with a unique point of view. Mention the person鈥檚 new role in the bio note at the end of the story. Pitch the press release version to reporters covering your industry as the basis for their next story; place your brand feature version with publishers via earned pickup.
10 ways to transform a press release into a story publishers will pick up
We鈥檝e covered many of the components that make brand stories eligible for earned pickup. But how do you also make that content compelling enough to prompt editors to share your story with readers? Here are 麻豆原创鈥檚 top tips to make your brand stories more attractive to publishers based on our experience working with hundreds of news outlets and thousands of sites.
- Use a human byline: Give the article a human byline, whether it鈥檚 an in-house, freelance, or agency brand journalist or a subject matter expert from your organization. News outlets will not pick up stories without author attribution; stories bylined only with the organization's name will be seen as press releases.
- Remove brand messaging: Only include links to your website homepage or content pages (such as blog posts, white papers, and original research). No sales pages.
- Broaden sources and quotes: Consider bringing in reputable voices from outside the organization, like an academic, to shed more light on the topic. Link to independent, third-party research to support the story whenever possible. Ensure quotes from people within your organization avoid industry jargon and add reader value to the content.
- Think about different editorial approaches: Is there an interesting way to tell the story that might be unexpected? Lists and interviews can do as well as or better than straightforward features.
- Ensure you鈥檙e actually telling a story, covering 鈥渨ho, what, where, when, why, and how鈥� 鈥� rather than making an announcement. Even when a brand is involved, the focus should be on issues, people, information, and trends that resonate with broad audiences.
- Consider bringing a human element to the story: For instance, if a financial brand institution writes about why interest rates are changing, try to include the voices of people who are impacted by the changing economy. Human elements work well in concert with useful and illuminating statistics.
- Make sure it passes the interest test: Would people outside the organization who are not investors or stakeholders care about this story?
- Leverage first-party data whenever possible to provide valuable insights to a broad audience. Press releases surrounding surveys, polls and research, economic news, trends and analysis, and public safety are usually editorial by nature. They are great candidates to transform into a story for earned pickup by news outlets. Companies can offer unique perspectives that resonate with readers by using proprietary data. However, it鈥檚 essential to make complex data accessible and understandable for the average reader. Break down nuanced statistics and findings into easily digestible chunks, avoiding jargon or overly technical language.
- Make it timely. Publishers are more likely to use timely stories, and readers are more likely to engage with stories that feel relevant to their lives. If your story is keyed to a particular date (such as a holiday), distribute the story at least a week in advance. If you send it out the day of, you鈥檒l be too late to meet editorial planning needs. Conversely, remember that "new" data may sometimes be months old but can still provide valuable context for current issues.
- Tailor the story to local readers whenever possible by providing context or data specific to specific regions or communities. For national datasets, drill down into local or state-level data to provide additional context if you can. If the story mentions a national trend, highlight how it affects local communities or cities.
Your brand will be most effective at earning publisher pickup by crafting feature stories that prioritize delivering real value to readers, maintain transparency, and stay relevant to audience interests while steering clear of direct promotion of products and services.
Calls to action and sales links are great for your owned and paid media channels. For earned media, the focus should always be on what鈥檚 in it for the audience. If the story resonates with readers, helping them solve problems, learn new skills, understand societal trends, and lead better lives, they鈥檒l be more likely to seek out your brand when they need the types of products and services you sell.
Request a demo with 麻豆原创 to see how we can connect you with over 4,000 publishing partners looking for brand editorial content.
Frank Sennett is the Head of Connect Editorial at 麻豆原创. Before joining 麻豆原创, Frank served as the Vice President of Outlook Marketing, Director of Custom Content and Digital Product & Strategy for Crain鈥檚 Chicago Business, President/Editor-in-Chief of Time Out Chicago, and Managing Editor for Newcity. Frank received his B.S. in journalism from Northwestern鈥檚 Medill School of Journalism and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Montana.
Photo Illustration by 麻豆原创 // Canva