How to Make Your Business Newsworthy

20 October 2011

No matter what you do in business or who you market to, nothing is ever going to give you the same amount of success as word of mouth. Having good publicity will drive a large amount of new and possibly repeat customers to your business. Of course, you need a reason for the publicity. Your business has to be newsworthy to warrant it.

So, what can you do to make your business a newsworthy business? Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to attract publicity to your business to create a buzz about it. However, it all starts with understanding what newsworthy means in the context of business.

This isn't necessarily about having your business featured in Fortune magazine or in the evening news. Its more or less about creating a frenzied atmosphere around your business and drawing people in through hype and exposure.

Sure, having local or, better yet, national news showcase your business is going to be fantastic, but even if it doesn't happen you need to remain busy in promoting your business and trying creative ways to keep it newsworthy.

Here are a few things you can try:

The first approach here is to attempt to have some sort of publication run with a story about your business. For instance: if you're just starting out or you have a new product coming down the pike, you will issue a press release to various publications in hopes of having them run a story.

Be aware, however, that these publications are receiving many requests. Its going to take an original angle to make your particular story newsworthy. So, before writing, be sure to brainstorm and to figure out exactly what sets your business and/or its products apart from the competition.

Give people something fresh and exciting and make any news you release intriguing. Talk about new developments, give some background information that's interesting, speak about your expertise, quality customer service, and unique angles on doing business, etc.

Complete customer surveys and gather their input. Any publication is going to appreciate hearing about the real thoughts and feelings of customers. Flesh the statistics out into an article.

You can also self-publish as many articles about your business as you want, but you must remember to keep them interesting and unique. Write them through a consumers view, so they don't come across as simply some business handing over self-promotion materials.

Being newsworthy through the buzz angle can happen through word of mouth, so its always important to offer things to your customers and to treat them well.

For instance, if you're already running a moderately successful business with a customer base, changing things up, offering products at a discount or even for free, adding a new feature to your site, etc, is also newsworthy and will catch on and spread throughout your market.

The idea, of course, is to give this a push and also publish articles and press releases about the changes.

These newsworthy tips deal primarily with online businesses. You can imagine how many ways there are to get a land-based business in the news.