Catch ‘Em All! How to Captivate Your Audience on Relevant Awareness Days? [SlideShare]

As marketers, we could only wish that our audiences would be passionately on the hunt for our content like they would with the new Pokémon Go game. The reality is some of our content often just sits on a sad shelf collecting dust and might not ever get discovered. Another aching struggle is when we run out of fresh ideas for content.

Although we don’t always have a mind full of compelling stories that we can create from scratch, fortunately, we can get some inspiration from the existing buzz, popular observances, or trending topics.

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Piggybacking on notable days in your content plan is a tried-and-true marketing tactic that could help you increase the visibility and expand the reach of your content. Besides the popular awareness observances like Earth Day and World Aids Day, there are other unique and zany observances – from Pi Day to World Emoji Day – that could be used as a springboard for some interesting and engaging content.

Of course, before you put the petal to the metal, you will need some resources. Besides the 2016 PR calendar that lays out all the major holidays, awareness days and events in APAC, PR Newswire also recently published a free eBook to share tips on how to write engaging holiday and event news stories and features some great release examples. See some tips featured in the eBook below:

1. Identify the awareness days that will resonate the most with your audiences
When selecting the appropriate awareness day, choose one that aligns with your brand messaging or has a strong tie to the services and products that your company provides. More importantly, keep your audiences in mind and ask yourself if this particular awareness day has any relevance to your target audiences’ interest. Why should they care? How can you angle the story in a way that resonates with them? Do not just blindly jump on the awareness bandwagon if you do not have a good story to tell.

2. Include those key dates in your editorial calendar
As communications professionals, the chance is high that you will have an editorial calendar to keep a consistent flow of content. Besides planning the content topics you will publish, include a few awareness days and observances that are relevant to your business and audiences in your calendar would help you track additional details and get a bird-eye view on the upcoming trending topics people might talk about. For example, if you are targeting teachers, you need to bookmark World’s Teachers’ Day or the Anti-Bullying Day. If you are a startup selling pet gadgets, you might want to circle International Dog Day. It does not mean that you have to highlight every single relevant awareness day to create a comprehensive set of content around it; sometimes even by doing a simple Facebook post can remind your audiences that you care.

3. Focus on the why
An awareness day in itself is not a news story. Use it as a hook, discuss the trend and explain its relevance to the reporter’s audiences. As audience interest accelerates, marketers can also incorporates the latest market research, polls, and voices of key opinion leaders to trigger new story angles and shape the discussion. Catering to people who are not aware of pancreatic cancer, this multimedia news release on World Pancreatic Cancer Day was a great example of incorporating interesting facts and compelling visuals to attract people’s attention, drive engagement and prompt them to act.

4. Highlight the human elements
Although a launch release on a women’s rights charity campaign may be informative, an engaging story is what touches the audiences’ hearts. Demonstrate the problem and highlight the solutions or benefits you are bringing to the table. Can you include a video interview of one of the beneficiaries and share how your campaign has made an impact in her life? Can you turn the dull data and statistics into a fun and easy-to-understand infographic so your audiences can quickly grasp the essence of your story? No matter which awareness observance you choose to leverage, human connection should be at the forefront of your storytelling efforts. Think about what interests your audiences and develop a relevant story that can revoke the right emotion and inspire them to act.

5. Time is of the essence
It is essential to keep the time frame in mind when you execute your marketing communications. Journalists will not want to receive your story if it’s too late, but they might not feature it if it’s too early either. Do your research on the editorial calendar of your targeted media and check how far in advance they look for stories.

6. Consider sending multiple press releases
Stories do not end in one chapter. Your press release strategy should not be one and done either. Writing multiple press releases around a trending topic or awareness days can help amplify your message and showcase different story angles that may pique your audiences’ interest.

For example, Sands China, known as one of the top green companies in the world, switched off their lights at all Sands China properties for one hour during Earth Hour this year to raise environment awareness on climate change.

On March 10, it sent out a pre-event release to announce its participation in this global initiative and spotlight Sands China’s other ongoing sustainability efforts, keeping its audiences aware of their upcoming initiative. The story did not just stop there. After the day of Earth Hour, it sent out a post-event release that features the lights-off pictures at all Sands China properties. To keep its well-kept green brand image in its audiences’ minds, Sands China also sent out another release to announce its ranking as one of the top greenest companies in June.

For more tips on how to write better holiday- and event- related news stories, download the eBook now to learn more!

Eki Isabel Lau is the Marketing Executive for APAC (excluding China) at PR Newswire.