When building successful relationships with industry journalists, it’s essential to remember trust. Unlike with the mainstream media, trade press journalists will generally be looking to work with you to get your most relevant and exciting news out there - they are not looking to expose scandals or trip you up.
With that in mind, how best to build these trusting, beneficial partnerships? We suggest three key areas where this can be developed: in creating impactful press releases, in developing thought leadership relationships, and in collaborative, innovative efforts.
Press releases: how to
A quick how-to guide on creating successful press releases for trade journalists:
- Make sure your announcement is pertinent, relevant news.
- To do this, answer the question: why would the readers of an industry publication want to read this news? If a journalist regularly receives announcements from your company that are irrelevant or not big enough news, they are much more likely to miss an announcement when it’s real news.
- In your first two or three sentences, make sure you cover: who, what, where, why, when, how, and what’s the likely impact on the future?
- Send it with reasonable quality images that the publication can print/publish online
- Anchor the news in its wider industry context: in the current market trends, the broader story.
For example: if your press release is about a new form of biodegradable microbeads, open your press release with a line that says:
‘Following this month’s bans in Canada and New Zealand, microbeads are hot on the global beauty industry agenda - [your company] has launched an alternative to meet the rising demand’.
Thought leadership: what and why?
Having a thought leader in your organisation - someone who is an expert in their field and is confident and able to respond directly to press questions and requests for comment - is really valuable.
The thought leader should be in direct contact with journalists, as this speeds up the process of the news cycle for both parties.
To allow a member of your company to represent it to journalists in this way does take trust, but it’s absolutely worth it. It means you are invariably going to get more mentions in articles for your company.
Building effective relationships
Here are our top tips for how to communicate well with press contacts:
- Be mindful of the news cycle, and aware of appropriate times to send and to follow up on news
- Make good use of exclusives and embargoed news
- Tours and invitations to events, facilities, and presentations
- Be reasonably responsive
- Finding the right communication channel and approach
Even after all of this best practice, there is never a guarantee that your news will be covered. There are countless factors standing between your company’s announcement and an article in any given industry publication.
But the tips and strategies we’ve shared will ensure that you give your news and company the best chance of coverage in a publication like Cosmetics Design.