Do you want to share?
Do you like this story?
it's something that every company knows they should do, but only see two ways of making it happen -- hire an expensive PR firm or cross their fingers and hope for the best. The latter is, well, not really much of a PR strategy. There is a third option, however.
Step 1 - The Mirror Check
The first step is what I like to call the mirror check, something that
gets glossed over far too often. You need to put yourself in the mind of
a writer. People don't want to read shit stories, and writers don't
want to write them; it's a simple relationship. Before you dig into the
rest of the process, make sure you've got a story that you'd be
interested in reading. Honestly. If you can't look yourself in the
mirror and say that you would love to read what you're pitching, hold
off.
Step 2 - Building Your Publication List
Once you've got a solid story, it's time to start building your list of
publications. I've found it helpful to break it into larger categories,
such as tech blogs, mainstream media, local press, niché publications
and so on. That'll give you a good outline to begin digging into the
specific publications you're looking to reach out to.
It's important to note that PR isn't a numbers game, as many think.
It's a quality and relevance game, not a shotgun spray. To determine
relevance, you really need to engulf yourself in the content of the
publication -- read at least 5 articles. Without reading the content,
you aren't able to truly understand the writing style and typical news
they cover. Once you've done this, add only the publications that would
be interested in your story, and omit those that wouldn't. It'll save
you time when we get to the next step.
Step 3 - Finding the Right Contact
This is so important that it deserves its own step. Again, it's all
about relevance, even more so when you're looking for the right person
to pitch your story to. What's the sweet spot for one writer, may be
completely irrelevant to another. If you pitch the wrong one, well, you
blew your shot. You've got to dig deep on this step. Here's the info
that my list usually contains:
The first three fields are fairly self explanatory, then we get into
the meat of it. The "relevance point" refers to the overlap with the
writer's past work. A good way of finding the right person to pitch your
story to, is to go to the publication and search for relevant content.
For example, if I'm looking pitch an article on company culture, the
best way to find the right person is to search the publication for the
term "Company Culture". Crazy, I know. This will bring up a great list
of past content that you can dig through to find the writer that
normally covers the type of story you're pitching.
A lot of people mess up on the pitch, the eventual email that gets sent
off. They get wordy, dance around the purpose of the email, attach a
press release and ultimately fail miserably. The pitch needs to show relevance, be compelling and maintain brevity.
Step 5- Let It Rip
This is the culmination of all the work you've put in. Obviously, you
can't always time your news in the case of product launches and breaking
news, but I've found that Sunday evening is a great time to put it out
there. Most folks are lazy, and they aren't willing to put in the time
on a Sunday, this leaves a nice window for your pitch and a Monday
release date in most cases. It's not a necessity, but it may give you
the best odds.
Also, this sounds obvious, but make sure you're ready for responses to
your pitch. If the writer is interested, you'll hear back and they'll
want more info. Respect their time and get back to them as soon as you
can.
Some General Don'ts
Before we wrap this up, I want to go over some general don'ts with PR.
By no means is this list comprehensive, but it'll steer you away from
the big screw-ups.
- Avoid the Embargo - Generally speaking, writers don't like embargoes. It's a liability and a pain in the ass that many would like to avoid. Send your news out when it's ready and available for consumption.
- Lose the Press Release - In my mind, the press release is dead. They're bloated, impersonal and a thing of the past. If you just want links on Yahoo! news, sure, go for it. It's not going to give you the coverage that's really valuable, though. At the very least, make sure not to attach a press release to your pitch. Do it for me, please.
- Don't Double Pitch - Don't send the same pitch to multiple people at the same publication. It shows that you're just firing off as many emails as you can, and it's a sure way to get you ignored.
- Skip the General Address - Most publications recommend that you send to a generic email address like news@publication.com, it's the catch-all for poor pitches. People that don't want to see success usually go this route, it's the easy way to spray the shotgun, but it rarely yields results. Use it as your last option, but not the default.
- Put Down the Phone - This may be unconventional for most folks that do PR, but I believe that we live in a digital age, where phones are a secondary thing. Sure, if there's interest, hop on a call by all means. But don't do your pitching via a phone call. It catches folks off guard, and makes the encounter confrontational, with only a few seconds to tell them what they want to hear.
- Don't Suck - Most importantly, don't suck. Be a good person, not someone that's just on the hunt for links. Provide the writer with value, help them do their job and be awesome. It's amazing what good intent can do.
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