There’s the natural flow of news that comes out of a business as it evolves and develops, from the announcement of new appointments, new business wins, partnership deals to acquisitions or financial updates. But what happens when this news pipeline dries up? What low cost, affordable PR methods can you use to keep the news flowing and the public relations agenda full when there’s nothing particularly newsworthy happening concerning the business – when there’s nothing new or interesting to say?

Here are some ideas to help you create ‘new’ content and to secure some great press coverage

• Research – when constructed effectively, can uncover exciting new trends, challenges or future perspectives that will be of interest to your customers or impact your industry.  And it need not be highly expensive or massively time intensive. Run a quick ‘poll’ on your customers, staff or public, or team up with a charity or professional body to capture views on an issue that’s close to your industry. Perhaps you already capture market data internally which could lend interesting insight for a trends story? Whatever method you use to research, the important thing is to ensure that it is ‘quality’ data with a credible sample size and you’re offering a fresh and compelling perspective on a relevant and timely issue. Timing is everything! And what’s even better about research is its longevity and ROI – you can use it time and again and not just for PR but across all your touchpoints from sales, marketing, through to your website.
• Hijacking – look out for stories that you can ‘piggyback’ off perhaps by sharing your advice or data. For example, when the unprecedented global Wannacry ransomware attack swept the internet in 2017, we re-issued pre-existing quality research from our client, Timico , on ‘The grim reality of Ransomware.’ WannaCry had put Ransomware back into the spotlight once more, which gave us another opportunity to share the research and secure more major, national wide-spread coverage.
• National Days – there seems to be an official day, week or month for everything from British Yorkshire Pudding Day to National Work-Life Week. Build a public relations and marketing awareness campaign around a relevant ‘Day’ or tie in with a seasonal day like Christmas or Easter. You could always create a National Day of your own if you have a strong launch and ongoing promotions campaign.
• Thought leadership, blogs /vblogs – turn your expertise and insight into foresight and share with your customers through articles, blogs or, to really engage, as a video blog.
• Case studies – ask your customers to share their positive stories of how your expertise resolved their challenges and enhanced their business.  Having an existing customer endorse your product is a very powerful way of connecting with potential new customers.

There are many more ways you can create interesting content but to be newsworthy and interesting to the media and your market ensure it’s new, it’s different and it’s telling your customers something they don’t already know.