Sometimes you believe your own hype. 

We’ve all been there. It can be easy to fall into the trap of believing everything you do is newsworthy. Truth is, there’s a massive difference between what you care about and what journalists care about. Pitch something they don’t care about and you risk journalists taking to social media to ridicule your ‘spammy’ approach to their thousands of followers and blacklist your future announcements. 

To save you time, effort and any potential backlash from journalists, here are five stories we know B2B journalists hate to receive: 

Causewashing  

One of the worst things a company can do is jump on any/every cause in an attempt to secure media opportunities when they have no real skin in the game. Supporting causes is important – but it isn’t done through paying lip service, it’s done through real actions and results. If you don’t have the latter, don’t jump on the former.  

New product ‘ version 2.5.4b’

Internally the new update you just rolled out is incredible – it’s faster, safer, more efficient etc etc. But to journalists? It’s the same as before, just a bit better. The definition of news is something that happened today, which didn’t happen yesterday. A better version of the same product is not news. The only people who may be interested in this are analysts. 

Internal appointments / promotions [especially at a regional level] 

It’s brilliant that you’ve hired a new regional sales manager, or promoted several people to slightly more senior positions, but unless it’s a senior leadership position, preferably hired from a large competitor or a well known company, the media really do not care. Add those moves into a momentum story about business growth – as a standalone, it won’t cut through.

Generic research, not focussed on new trends

Every week, and often on a Monday, new research is dropped by various B2B tech companies around the world. Today, it’s rarer to not have your own research. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it because everyone else is – it means you need to be smarter about how you conduct and report data. 

Saying the same thing as last year with slightly different figures is not a story. Stats backing up a trend we’re seeing in the market, identifying a new trend or even better, calling BS on an apparent trend do make a story. 

Self-promotional stories on how your technology works

You’re proud of your technology and you should be. It’s a competitive world out there and simplifying your technology so customers can quickly understand the benefits is incredibly important – for product led growth on your website,  and in sales and marketing content. Not for the independent media. 

Pitch a self-promotional story to the media and you’ll be introduced to their commercial team to discuss sponsored options, which is only fair. It’s not news, it’s lead generation, and sponsored options with the right media partner can deliver great ROI. But a journalist won’t touch it.

Navigating the front line of media relations is what Positive does. We have the difficult conversations so you don’t have to. And over the many years of having those conversations, we know what the media cares about, from broadcasters to trade bloggers and analysts. 

If you’re battling constant press releases and pitches but seeing few write-ups, you may need a dose of radical honesty. Speak to Positive today. We know how to pitch stories which the media pay attention to.