Top 10 Journalism Lead Hooks for Marketing and PR Efforts

In case you don't have time to read the post prior to this one, I boiled down some of the journalistic lead hooks into a short list (no particular order). If you think about these emotional drivers that populate the newspaper and news programs every morning, you can get a better understanding of how to connect with people and create compelling stories for press and PR purposes.

1. Fear - Everyone's afraid of something (hunger, thieves, the cold, the heat, war, crime, natural disaster, poor health...)
2. Peer recognition, adulation (celebrities, business leaders, heroes..)
3. Guinness Book of World Records-type stories (largest pickle, fastest pie eater...)
4. Physiological danger (medical/health topics, famine, disease)
5. Security (home, financial, insurance, children's safety..)
6. Human interest stories (heroes, helpers, leaders)
7. How to/tips/purchasing information (think Consumer Reports and technology/media review columns)
8. Psychological fear/threats (as related to security, business, competition, imagined illness...)
9. Event information (concerts, movies, cook-outs, fairs, employment events)
10. Travel/Food/Outdoors/Lifestyle information
    

Take a look at your business and then think about how your products and services fit into any of these areas. You'll be surprised at how many different ways you can frame your product or service as an "issue" or "happening" for press releases, case studies, customer communications and so on.

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