Gold and retirement news
Press releases for retirement-focused or precious-metals companies can include partnership updates, service changes, research reports, leadership announcements and recognition for your hard work. In a turbulent market cycle, though, your carefully worded piece about a new qualified custodial relationship could get buried next to news about an unexpected central bank decision or a wild day in the markets.
To give your piece a better shot at gaining traction:
- Lead with the news that’s most newsworthy or timely to the reader
- Craft your title to call out that specific news, and its relevance to the reader, not generic superlatives
- Avoid excessive, breathless enthusiasm. “industry leader announces exciting update” will get lost. Specific headlines, about what’s new and who it affects, are easier to notice.
Write for Scrutiny, Not Applause
In an ideal world, your press releases get greeted with applause from all corners. The reality is that savers, reporters and compliance professionals will scrutinize your announcements. You can, and should, write releases that stand up well to close inspection:
- In your release’s first paragraph, outline what’s new, why it matters, what may change as a result, and what readers should keep in mind before leaping to conclusions.
- Save breathless, overinflated claims for your party invitations. Describe industry awards as “proof” of your company’s superiority over competitors? Congratulations – you just created a compliance problem and torpedoed any shred of credibility your release had left. Describe rollover services as the perfect antidote to today’s markets? Now you’ve done both again. Instead, consider this: Who gave your company an industry award? What factors or criteria went into the honor? How will a new partnership support precious metals IRAs, and does that mean every IRA holder would benefit from a rollover?
- Consider what you, and only you, can factually say about future events. Predictions and guarantees are off-limits, as is implying that gold and silver negate all risk.
Add Context Without Turning It Into a Market Forecast
Times of volatility understandably generate more interest in retirement savings and planning. But you shouldn’t lean on the markets to give your news peg some false gravitas. Nor should you use releases as a forum for your opinions about what the market will do next. (Besides, you won’t always be right!)
That doesn’t mean releases can’t provide some context, though, especially when readers may not understand why a development matters to their financial plans. Just steer clear of market predictions and focus on context readers can bank on. A new custodial partnership could prompt discussion of the important role qualified custodians play. A precious metals award may lead into a summary of the challenges involved in adding metals to retirement savings.
Precious metals and retirement planning
Ultimately, ask yourself whether your contextual details would still apply if markets acted very differently next week. If not, scrap the references and think of a new approach.
Choose Outlets That Match the Reader’s Intent
Where you share a release matters just as much as the release itself. Rather than aiming for quantity’s sake, identify outlets where:
- Financial reporters already file their stories
- Industry-specific writers look for expert quotes or timely topics
- Your ideal customers may look for answers
Giving your releases a wide newswire distribution also helps ensure there’s one controlling version of the story, with the details, including context, caveats, disclaimers, and relationships, intact if another site picks it up; Access NEWSWIRE is the page that matches this.
Timing can matter, as well. If the markets take a nosedive Monday afternoon and you have relevant industry news waiting in the wings, publishing your release within 24 hours makes sense. But if your update has little to do with markets, consider holding your fire and let the news cycle simmer down a bit.
Give Editors Something They Can Use
Busy, and savvy, editors are on the hunt for details they can use in their stories. Give them specifics that paint a clear picture:
- For an award or honor: How is this group selected? Does the process include original research, a consumer survey or vetting by industry professionals? Is participation free, or do companies pay a fee for consideration?
- For a new partnership or service: How will the relationship benefit customers? What does your company do, specifically? What should customers do or expect next?
Financial press release materials
In every instance, tread lightly (or not at all) when describing how savers may, or may not, benefit. An award doesn’t mean much without explanation: Was it based on original research or consumer surveys? Customer service or product selection? Industry tenure or charitable efforts? Paid participation? Providing context in your press release can head off false assumptions, or erroneous reporting, down the road.
Keep Watching After Publication
After sharing your press release, spend some time perusing how others shared your news. You can’t control every reprint, of course. But you can note whether the reprint accurately represents your company’s role, partnership, achievements or expertise.
Reviewers can also take note of the headlines other groups use to share the story and note which grab their attention, or not. Did any of the headlines make you curious enough to read further? After skimming some of the articles, do you understand what prompted the original release? Might any have prompted you to make a phone call? Take notes you can apply the next time you sit down to draft a release.
Have a complete release before the week even becomes volatile. Confirm who will be available for quotes, compliance sign-off on final language, that customer-service teams are prepared to field questions and more.
Be clear on when service changes are taking effect. Be clear on what’s been accomplished and what’s still to be done operationally.
If you need to make any tweaks to the release after it’s published, make changes to the original rather than try and track down all re-posts of it. This can help ensure reporters, customers and others can all refer to the same up-to-date account of events.
Before the Next Market Rush
- Lead with the news
- Write for close inspection
- Provide context, not predictions
- Share your releases where readers, and writers, may actually be
- Give writers details worth reprinting
- Monitor reprints for ideas, improvements