In our previous article, we explored the crucial role that audience targeting plays in the overall direction of a successful communications campaign. Careful consideration of target stakeholders helps not only keep your sights firmly focused on the ultimate desired outcomes for your business, but also provides a highly effective, strategic foundation for getting there.

While audience targeting is indeed a key link in the communications chain, it only represents a portion of the story. A huge part of successfully communicating with your desired audience also resides in the value of the stories you have to tell.

With a combined pool of specialist, global editorial experience spanning decades, our team of award-winning, former editors have a keen eye for what makes a good story – and how businesses can best position themselves on journalists’ lists of companies they want to engage with.

Accounting for the nuances of different sectors in the automotive, e-mobility and technology industries is of course a key part of planning a strong specialist editorial story; journalists at trade titles, as well as industry correspondents at larger generalist publication such as national news outlets, will be specialists in their field, and will expect your story pitch to align well with their beat.

However, the basis of any convincing story can be boiled down to three key ingredients which, when effectively woven in, will help your storytelling take off among your target media titles, and subsequently your target audience:

1. The ‘what’ – Substance: Whether it’s a product news announcement or a feature opportunity, the first port of call for a journalist is being able to quickly identify the story in your offering.

While a clear and concise pitch will go a long way at this stage, a journalist’s assessment of your story goes much deeper than a surface-level summary; they will need to see substance in the story.

For example, hard, stand-out data points backed by evidence-based, high-quality research can provide eye-catching insights into consumer habits or industry trends – helping to highlight a potential headline for the journalist. At this stage, being able to support your storytelling with strong evidence is the key.

2. The ‘how’ – Detail: Having illustrated its substance, you need to be able to demonstrate exactly how your story, and the news or products at the centre of it, provides insightful content for the journalist’s readership, and therefore your target audience.

Providing them with access to the level of detail that they need will help the journalist understand the minutiae of the story that you’re trying to tell, and therefore help your messaging translate into their article much more effectively. Having a keen appreciation for the media that you’re pitching to, and therefore anticipating the detail that they could ask you for, is crucial to successfully landing your story in this respect.

3. The ‘why’ – Novelty: Articulating to a journalist why your business, offering and story is different to others plays a hugely influential part in convincing a journalist to use your content.

Media outlets have a duty to their readership to share news and information on multiple businesses in a given sector. This is a process that’s driven significantly by eye-catching novelty, and what is truly making a difference and valuable contribution in their industry.

As a result, clearly highlighting your business’ unique selling points, and the value that they bring to your sector, will frequently provide the strongest evidence a journalist needs to accept your pitch, and share your story with the broader industry.

Please contact us at contact hello@influenceemobility.com to see how we can help you curate impactful stories for your business.


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