Approaching Your Audience –
Writing From the Consumer’s Point of View

Writing a press release is a tricky combination of advertising and unbiased reporting. Somehow, you find yourself responsible for getting your company or clients name accepted by the media and in front of the public’s eye.

The position you’re in requires to accomplish two totally opposite tasks: Spin your story so that it projects a positive light on your client, and deliver a completely neutral news report to your media contacts.

All the while, you’re expected to do both of these things at the greatest benefit to the intended audience. When people turn on the news on the radio or television, or pick up a paper, they’re expecting quality, fair journalism and pertinent information about the events that are going to somehow affect them directly.

Now everyone’s aware that certain editorial staff has their own slant on politics and world issues. But we all expect those opinions to stay on the editorial page, not find their way into the actual news that we’re assuming to be true to the best of the publication’s knowledge.

A press release is generally coming from a company or organization that has something to gain from the public knowing about its details. The only thing that will get your item into print is the level of worthiness it has to the target market.

The best way to determine the worth of your news is to look at it from the outsider’s point of view. Try on the shoes of the average citizen in your community, and find what interests them and affects them the most. This is exactly what the publication’s editor is concerned with, so do your research.

First you need to consider who it is that you’re targeting. Are you announcing a new industrial plant that will open up 800 new jobs in the small community? Then your audience will be vast, requiring less research and specification on your part on how to approach them.

Are you holding a blood drive to help the local blood bank raise its dangerously low reserve levels? Then your target will be narrower. It will affect community-conscious individuals who are open to volunteering for this type of assistance.

Everything you write should somehow be connected to your audience. In order to accomplish this goal, you have to show and tell them how each and every detail will affect their lives either now, or in the future.

If you’re writing a press release about a recipient of a local award, it will be great for the recipient, but makes little difference to the rest of the community as far as news is concerned.

Next, decide what key issues you want your audience to know and act upon. Do you want them to be aware of an upcoming development in the area? Or is the company trying to bolster its image with those who are already skeptical of them to begin with? Find one or more vital elements and focus on delivering those with a punch.

If the responsibility has landed upon you to simply gain coverage of the company, but you have no firm direction to work upon, then find out how many different paths your news could take, and then act upon the most influential ones, and those with the widest appeal.

If the client has many community activities throughout the year, and is launching products on a regular basis, choose which pieces of information are paramount, and then write about it, not all of your activities will be guaranteed space in the publication. In fact, keep in mind that editors can’t give you your own client column each week, so pick and choose wisely on the topics you wish to send in.

If the company plans to release upcoming information about a new product or service they are offering, refrain from being too technical in your article. Keep the terminology simple, describing what the product or service will do, and how it will improve the reader’s lives in some way.

Don’t explain the details about how the statistical study’s results led to an overhaul in the way you do business. Save that for your advertisements. Stick with the who, what, when, where and why, divulging the specifics of those questions, so you’ll stay within the boundaries of need-to-know information.

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