Ten Top Tips for Crafting, Converting and Capturing Attention
Newsjacking is a marketing technique that involves piggybacking a breaking news story to align your brand with a topic that’s relevant to your prospects, customers, or partners. When executed with perfection, it can act as an accelerator to get your message to market faster. Not only does it ignite conversation with your target prospects, but it can help you ink some impressive national and broadcast media coverage.
The art of creating cultural relevance.
Everyday activities outside of our control, ignite conversations that capture everyone’s attention. These cultural events prompt brands, influencers, and individuals to have their say. In doing so, they build their own brand equity and profile. In the B2B landscape, there are economic, legislative, and competitive topics that capture the imagination of the purchasers we are trying to influence. It is here, that newsjacking drives the most impact.
By inserting an organisation’s perspective into a conversation that’s trending – brand awareness can be elevated, and prospect conversations ignited. But there are important rules to follow if you want your newsjack to be effective.
We have put together ten useful newsjacking tips, that will enable you to smash those coverage targets, generate online conversations and increase your email marketing open rate.
1. Use Foresight Over Hindsight
Forecasting a trending conversation may seem out of reach, but there are multiple moments in time that we know will prompt conversation. Plan for these moments and draft a pre-written comment with your opinion.
2. Capture the Window of Relevance
When it comes to newsjacking, speed is of the essence. The window of relevance diminishes by the second, with every breaking story. You need to be responding with your perspective, within twenty minutes of breaking news, to capture the wave of stories.
3. Offer A Unique Perspective
Don’t just rehash the news story. Offer a unique perspective on what the breaking story means to your customers or markets. By crafting that differentiated point of view, your content will stand out from other commentators.
4. Craft that Killer Line
Capturing eyeballs or widespread media attention, relies on the writer’s ability to capture the sentiment of your opinion in a snappy and creative way. Challenge yourself to craft a seven-word sentence that articulates your headline response to the story.
5. Align to Your Brand’s Why
Your newsjack needs to be relevant to your brand and go-to-market objectives. Fame creates you nothing unless it has substance. Make sure you are tying your brand or business message to the story in a way that is relevant to your audience and the story.
6. Be the First or the Last
Getting out the gate first, requires you to foresee or be active in the moment. That’s not always possible. If you can’t go early and offer a quick reaction, be the one that offers the insightful context and evaluation of the story at the end.
7. Always Tread Carefully
It’s important to be mindful of the tone of the breaking story and the emotions of the people involved. Also consider the stories you won’t want to be a part of. Avoid making light of a serious situation, commenting on a client’s situation, or appearing insensitive.
8. Deliver Across Channels
Inking your comment in a national media story shouldn’t stop there. You can amplify your message and ignite new conversations, by sharing the content on social media – hooking into the associated hashtags. Also, consider if the content will help you convert in your email marketing and paid prospecting campaigns.
9. Monitor Reaction & Direction
Keep an eye on how your newsjack is performing. If your comment isn’t getting traction, check your media list and who is writing the story today. If that is correct, evaluate the direction of the story, sometimes it takes a different direction, and it is okay to step back.
10. Share Success & Failures
It’s important for stakeholders to understand the success and failures of your newsjacking efforts. Why did you sweep up the most coverage, or why did competitors gain better traction that day.? Understanding the nuances of the story and competitive movements, allows you to prime your responses for the next event.
Newsjacking can be a great way to generate buzz and attention for your organisation. It’s also a tactic, that can propel any B2B organisation out of their niche, and into the national media headlines. However, it’s important to do it carefully and thoughtfully. By following these top tips, you can make sure your newsjacking efforts are successful and help your organisation get noticed.
Be there, be relevant and be unique.
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