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The Importance of Keeping An Eye On Your Competitors PR

Here are JournoLink's top tips to using your competitors to develop your own PR.

Keeping on top of the game and an eye on your competitors is an important part of running a business, yet it's normally forgotten when it comes to PR. Staying up-to-date with your competitors coverage can give you insights into publications and journalists who may be interested in your business.

You can also find out which stories and news angles you can use to get yourself coverage. Here are three ways you can use your competitors to develop your own PR, without actually copying them.


1) Research:

First, identify which publications and journalists have covered your competitors. Search Google news, social media and their own press page to find interviews, case studies and comments in the media. This will give you an idea of people who have already shown an interest in your industry and who might be interested in your business.

Read the articles to understand which parts of the business were of interest to them, or what expert knowledge the other business was able to offer. Does your business have a similar story? Could you give expert advice on these topics? 

Consider how relevant the article topic is to your own business and create a list of the appropriate journalists to approach.

Whilst researching you will also notice the writing style of the journalists. When you write a press release if you can write it using a similar tone the journalist will have less to amend.

Never underestimate how short their deadlines can be- so the easier you make it for them, the more chance you have of coverage.


2) New Angles:

A journalist will never cover the same story twice, so you need to create a new angle on an old story. You have already established that the journalist is interested in similar businesses and this can be a great reference point when contacting them, but you need to be able to give them something new. 

What’s different about your business story? What unique problem does your business solve?

Think about what separates yourself from your competitors, without directly targeting them. From this point forget your competitors article. You want to create a positive article about yourself rather than being seen as criticising the competition.


3) Fast Response:

When researching your competitors you may come across breaking news stories that they have commented on. For example, in November the Chancellor released his Autumn Statement, and a lot of articles were released with responses from small business owner’s. If your competitors are commenting on events like this you need to be thinking about it as well.

However, with events like the Autumn Statement journalists are often inundated with responses. You need to be quick to respond, and get to the relevant journalists before the competition. Although journalists will pick businesses on the quality of responses, first come first serve is also a factor when deadlines are fast approaching.

If you are not how to make an ‘irrelevant’ media request relevant to your small business, read our blog.

JournoLink works with thousands of small businesses across the UK to help them get coverage in the media. We have our own platform which matches you with the journalists that want to hear from small businesses like yours.

If you would like to hear more of JournoLink’s top PR tips, and tips for small businesses sign up for our newsletter here.


Written By: Camilla Holroyd, Media Relations Executive

Camilla is the all-important portal between JournoLink's businesses and journalists; connecting them on a daily basis through press releases, Twitter engagements and editorial requests.

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