Global Communication Plan – Where Do I Start?

The importance of quality content is not confined to the United States alone; audiences all over the world are in search of information that is valuable to their needs and produced by a trustworthy source. While distribution services allow you to send your news to countries around the globe, it’s not as simple as hitting “send” on a single news release. Certain steps should be followed for producing international messaging aimed at gaining coverage outside of the US. Here are a few tips:

• Refine your message in language and positioning. Make sure you’ve identified the language(s) for your target markets and employed either local offices or translation services to localize the language appropriately—you don’t want your message to get lost in missed nuance.


• Send releases regularly – journalists will most likely not regularly write about you if you send releases or messaging to their market on an infrequent basis. Why? It takes some time for them to get to know your brand, interests and potential expert sources, and the more information they see about you, the more likely they are to write about you down the line. Be patient – it can take several months before you’re well known in the media community of a specific geography.


• Make sure your releases are posted to as many of your target market language websites as possible. Journalists use databases for research on stories just as often in other countries as in the U.S. It’s also important for recruiting efforts – when in competition for the best and brightest in talent, the more information on your company available to the potential employee in his or her own language, the more likely s/he will be to choose your company as an employer.


• Always invest in translating your press release if it’s appropriate and necessary. In some countries, very few (if any!) journalists speak anything other than their native languages. Unless the article is destined for one of the handful of English language publications in that country meant for foreigners, they are all writing in their own languages. Sending a press release in English might result in your message being universally ignored by your target audience.


• Localize your website. Make sure any product or service information on your website is translated into the languages of the countries on at least your “A-list” (see Part 1), and preferably your “B-list,” as well as the About Us and Contact Us Journalists interested in writing a story based on your press release will visit your website, and if there is no information there in their own languages, the chances of actually getting that story decrease dramatically. Beyond journalists, if you’ve included a call to action to potential clients in your release, you want to make sure there is a consistent language experience when they click through.

This should get you started on a solid global communications plan. Remember, PR Newswire can assist you as you’re going through this. Let us know if we can help.

Global Communication Plan – Where Do I Start?