The Feature Story
Posted on May 18, 2007
This much-coveted story, where your business is highlighted often with full-color pictures, is the Holy Grail of PR. To get that story, you need to think about your business as part of a bigger trend.
Let’s say you provide a financial counseling service. That in and of itself is not particularly newsworthy. There are a lot of financial counseling services out there (even if yours is the best). But what if you tap into the bigger story of how today’s average American is unprepared for retirement and is overwhelmed with debt. This is something that resonates with a lot of readers (and reporters).
You could then talk about some success stories from your business. Families that have dug themselves out of debt and are now on their way to financial security and yes, may even get to retire one day. The ability to profile some local families on the road to financial health is a great vehicle through which to profile your financial counseling business and the resulting story would drive a ton of new customers to your door.
This is all much easier if you have developed relationships with the local reporters and editors in your news community. The best way to do that is to consistently provide them with real story and news ideas - not a bunch of spam. Read the local news and think about who would be most likely to do a story on your business. Good PR people help reporters find news and then help them do the messy legwork. Set up interviews, provide background information, share photographs or dig up research as needed. Most reporters are overworked and underpaid and are grateful when a real news story presents itself complete with all the heavy lifting so that they can get to do what they do best. Write.
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