B2B technology PR: Piggybacking on the headlines
Time to read: 2 minutes
How to ‘ride’ a current news story to raise your client’s profile…
When you choose to work in B2B technology PR, most of your career is spent pitching to trade press and freelance journalists who specialise in the same area. Unless you work for a megabrand like Microsoft or IBM, you won’t have many opportunities to pitch to the national press.
OK, let’s rephrase that – nothing’s stopping you from pitching to them. However, you’re unlikely to get much response unless your client’s invented a computer processor that isn’t based on silicon or found a solution to climate change.
Linking to the headlines
There’s a useful tool to add to your PR kit bag: link your story to something already making the headlines. Suddenly, your client becomes relevant to mainstream media.
Critical to success are speed and relevance. The link has to be genuine, and you need to act fast. If you spot a link, you can be sure another PR professional has, too. But if you get it right, you open up a whole new conversation for your client.
How we made it work for Elliptic
Elliptic specialises in blockchain security and analytics. The firm is a founding member of the UK Digital Currency Association (UKDCA), which provides input to a government consultation on digital currencies. Earlier this year, we thought the consultation results might be announced as part of the upcoming budget.
This was an ideal opportunity to link Elliptic to a topic with extensive print and online coverage. Journalists analysed every last detail of the Chancellor’s speech—assuming that digital currencies were included.
So, we wrote a short alert to inform key media about the potential announcement and outline why Elliptic could provide expert commentary. We listened carefully to the Chancellor’s Budget speech the following day, but there was no mention of digital currency.
However, an online search led to the supporting papers for the budget, and there it was – the Government’s recommendations on how it proposed to make the UK a world leader in digital currency. We quickly followed up with our key media, providing a link to the announcement and offering comments.
The results exceeded all our expectations
Interviews with the FT and the Guardian and several requests for written comment resulted in 15 coverage items. This included City AM, the Independent and the Wall Street Journal. Our client was delighted, and so were we.
Opportunities like this don’t come around very often. It’s important to be aware of what’s making the headlines, think creatively and look for new and unusual ways to link your client to a story.
It may be straightforward. For example, when a former colleague was working on a campaign against workplace bullying for a leading trade union, and bullying in the Celebrity Big Brother house hit the headlines. A few media calls later, the client was on Sky News explaining what an individual should do if he or she is being bullied.
But even if it’s a more tangential link, remember that journalists have pages to fill daily and may look for a different angle to keep the story alive.
Why shouldn’t you be the one to provide it?
