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“Is PR dead?”
We’ve been hearing this debate on and off for years. It seems that the PR industry has gotten itself a bad rep, what with outdated agency models and run-of-the-mill press releases.
In addition, social media and newsletter platforms have significantly lowered the barrier of getting yourself published (and seen).
But don’t be fooled — for most companies, it isn’t much easier to reach a large audience today than, say, 10 years ago. And getting featured in mainstream media will cut the work in half.
This is especially true for solo founders who don’t have time to create content consistently or build an audience from scratch.
The reality is, as long as businesses still want free publicity, PR will be here.
So we compiled insights from entrepreneurs and PR professionals in the Trends community, and put together this brief strategy guide to help you get the ball rolling.
Follow this step-by-step guide to learn how to acquire “earned” (AKA free) media pick-up for your product or service.
Step 1: Understand Your Audience
When it comes to getting media attention, the audience that matters the most is the gatekeepers: the writers and editors who decide what to publish.
The secret to getting their attention is to understand what journalists want and need, then positioning yourself as the kind of person who can make their job easier.
With tight deadlines, and mountains of information to comb through, they appreciate sources who bring them story ideas or research that aligns with their goals. The trick is to get extremely clear on what those goals are.
“A journalist is ultimately looking to create content that's going to resonate and be valuable to their audience. So if you understand what motivates them — which is creating great, shareable, informative content — talk to them through that lens instead of trying to self-promote,” said Adrian Salamunovic, author of Free PR, and founder of two multi-million dollar businesses.
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How to Approach Journalists
When Jon Younger, author and entrepreneur, used to write about startups at Forbes, he received 1-2 dozen pitches per day from founders around the world.
He offered some thoughts on what makes for a helpful pitch from a journalist’s perspective:
🕵️ Do Your Homework
Research the journalists you’re pitching to, and find out:
- What kind of topics they cover
- What they’re likely to need
- The publication(s) they write for, and their priorities
Without this step, you’re wasting everyone’s time.
A useful play to get journalists’ attention is to offer an “exclusive,” which means you’re giving them solo access to a story. This shows you understand their need to publish something different and better than their competition, and that you’ve prioritized their outlet.
🫶 Be Authentic
“Don’t pitch me,” Younger said. “When people act like marketers, I lose interest.”
Instead, focus on sharing a story. If a story is interesting, it doesn’t need to be sold. “Smart people build a relationship,” he said, “rather than thinking each conversation is a transaction.”
⏳ Respect Their Time
Journalists have no shortage of story options. What they’re short on is time. So be ready to hop on a call with minimal notice.
“Also, don’t mess with me,” Younger said. Some companies ask over and over to be featured in stories, but waffle back and forth on what kinds of stories they’d like to see.
Remember, your goal is to become a trusted resource for the journalist, not the other way around. Always keep that in mind, and you’re likely to build the kinds of productive relationships that will help put your company on the map.
Step 2: Build Your Media List
Once you’ve gotten yourself in the right mindset, begin compiling a list of journalists who are looking for stories like yours. To do this, search for articles that were written about your competitors or your “look-alikes.”
Your look-alike are companies that:
- You admire
- Get a ton of press
- Look a lot like you
- But aren’t your direct competitor
For example, Patagonia’s look-alike might be TOMS. They’re driven by similar values, but are not competing over the same exact product.
“All the journalists that have written about TOMS might be interested in Patagonia, because they're the types of journalists that write about progressive, fast-growing, altruistic companies,” Salamunovic said.
Your media list is where you keep track of these journalists, and compile the information needed to help you connect with them.
3 Ways to Build Your Media List
You don’t need complex tools. You can use a paid CRM (wink wink), but something as simple as a spreadsheet will get the job done.
Feel free to copy our media list template here, or make one of your own. Then use the following steps to collect names and contact info for journalists who may be interested in your story:
1. Search Google News for Stories About Competitors or Look-alikes ($0)
One quick and free way to begin exploring the media landscape for your industry is to search Google News. Search for stories written about your competitors, your look-alikes, or for terms related to any of the story angles you might be hoping to pitch.
Source: Google News
Immediately, you’ll find results from a variety of sources, representing different angles. The next step is to read the articles, searching for key information about the journalists who wrote them.
You’re looking for contact information, and hints about what kinds of things the journalist likes to cover or finds important for their audience. This will come in handy when you craft your custom pitch.
Sometimes, journalists will put their email address directly in their author bio, like this one. The more tech-forward ones might put their social handles instead, from X to Threads to Signal.
Source: The Verge
When a journalist’s info isn’t easy to spot, tools like Hunter.io or VoilaNorbert can be helpful.
Put this information, along with notes and links to relevant articles, into your media list. All of this will help you when it comes time to get in touch!
2. Set A Google Alert ($0)
You can also use Google Alerts to stay updated on journalists who are writing about topics in your industry.
Head on over to google.com/alerts and type in a search phrase. Once created, Google will send you a regular email with all the new articles written about that topic from across the web.
Source: Google Alert
You could set alerts for your competitors, your industry name, key people you want to keep tabs on, or anything else. When a new article is published that mentions that keyword, it will land in your inbox.
This is especially powerful if you operate in a seasonal industry, as it will give you an idea for when publications like to write about your topic. That knowledge pays dividends over the years as you can be ahead of your competitors when doing outreach.
3. Use Paid Tools, Like ‘A News Tip’ ($0 - $400 per month)
If you’ve got a PR budget, consider a tool like A News Tip.
It compiles databases of journalists, the topics they write about, and their contact information.
A free membership can help you turn up sources the same way Google News can, but still requires you to do some internet sleuthing to collect contact information.
A paid membership ($200-$400 per month) gives you access to contact info right on the site.
Source: A News Tip
Tips for Building Your Media List
✋ Resist the temptation to focus only on large, well-known publications
“A lot of founders are like, ‘I need to get on Bloomberg,’ or, ‘I need to get in the New York Times technology [section],’” said Anthony Santiago, the former VP of Marketing at Newswire. “That's very general and obviously everyone wants to be in there. But there are smaller trade journals or more niche-specific vertical publications that would be just as relevant.”
Focusing on niche publications can help eliminate competition. And landing press in a smaller publication can eventually get you a spot in a larger publication, since many of the large media outlets watch the small ones for story ideas.
This is a key concept in Ryan Holiday’s book Trust Me, I’m Lying, which explores how ideas are manipulated and moved through the media world.
You can add micro-influencers to your list, too.
People with X or Instagram accounts focused on your industry are effectively content creators. Find them by searching for hashtags related to your product or service, or by looking at who your existing customers follow on social media.
School and town libraries often offer free access to databases, like ABI Inform, which can help you search thousands of trade journals and industry publications specific to your field.
Free Press Release Template
A free guide and template to help you run your company's PR.
- Company Announcements
- Promotion Checklist
- Guide to PR Best Practices
Download Free
All fields are required.
⚠️ Watch the domain authority of the sites on your list
“I don't want to get featured on a website that has a really bad reputation,” said Melanie Balke, founder of The Email Marketers. “If I get featured on a website that has a really bad reputation, the way Google works, they're going to link us together, right? It's like when you hang out with the weird guy at high school, every other kid thinks you're weird.”
Domain authority uses a scale of 0-100 to rate a website’s ability to rank well on search engines. Balke uses tools like Ahrefs or BuzzSumo to check the domain authority of media outlets, and only targets sites with a score of 20 or higher as a quality check.
“I don't mind if they’re smaller blogs,” she said. “I just really want to make sure they're not absolute trash.”
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Say no to trashy sites. Source: Giphy
🔢 Target at least 50 people
When building your media list, quality matters more than quantity.
Still, your list needs to be long enough for the numbers to work in your favor. It’s unlikely you’ll see a payoff by sending cold emails to just one or two journalists.
Salamunovic said that if executed well, you can see response rates as high as 7%. “You’ve got to hit like 50 journalists to get four or five to get back to you.”
Once you’ve compiled your list, it’s time to begin the real work of kindling helpful relationships with these journalists.
Step 3: Share Your Story
A story pitch has three main parts: beginning, middle, and end.
The beginning is where you grab the journalist’s attention and show them that you know what they need.
“Those first few lines have to be hyper-personalized,” Salamunovic said. “You want to show that you've done your research, and that's where the real effort comes in.”
The middle is where you offer some background info on your company, the problem you solve, and links the journalist can use to check you out. This part can be more generic.
The end is where you give the journalist or publication a specific ask. Don’t make the mistake of just sending them information — ask for something specific, and give them your phone number to make it easy for them to contact you.
Pitch Tips
🧹 Have Your House in Order
If your story catches the attention of a journalist, one of the first things they’ll do is make sure you’re a credible source. The same goes for quality PR firms or distribution platforms.
Include your website, if you have one, or a LinkedIn bio that’s up-to-date. Social media accounts are okay, but not critical.
With the emphasis on visual storytelling these days, it helps if you have high-quality photos on your site for media use. While not absolutely necessary, a one-time investment in these can serve you for years to come.
✨ Look for ways to stand out
“A journalist gets 50-100 pitches per day if they're popular,” Salamunovic said. “So put yourself in their shoes. Imagine that your inbox looks more like an X feed and you're getting a ton of people saying, ‘Look at me, look at me, look at me.’ How do you stand out?”
The key, he said, is to think about how you can zig when everyone else is zagging.
When pitching his custom canvas print company to The Verge, Salamunovic and his team found a photo of the journalist’s actual dog, and created a custom print as a surprise, and to show what their company did.
Source: Adrian Salamunovic
You can also color outside the box and break away from emails — like the time Salamunovic got his other company featured on CSI New York by sending a handwritten note to its producer, Anthony Zuiker.
💬 Follow Up
Journalists are busy folks with pressing deadlines. Even if they like your story, they may forget to respond unless it’s directly tied to the thing they’re working on at that moment. So plan to follow up with the people on your media list.
Balke shared her 3-step process:
1. Send the initial pitch, keep it as short as possible (and a little vague)
2. Send a follow-up email 5 days after the first pitch. Use this as an opportunity to check in, send along interesting data, links to recent articles, or other ideas that show how a story could be a good fit for the journalist’s audience
3. A final follow-up. Even here, you can find ways to stand out. Balke lists options in the body of the email like:- Yes, I’d like to talk.
- Yes, I’m interested, but I’m really busy now, please check in later.
- Don’t bother me, I’m busy watching Tiger King [plus a funny tiger gif]
These options are designed to give the journalist an easy way to respond, while also putting a smile on their face.
Follow up! Source: Sam Parr's cold email workshop
“You want something different, funny, personable, you know? Not a standard sales email that people get, but something that makes them say, ‘Oh, I actually enjoyed this email. I’ll reply,’” she said.
Step 4: Rinse & Repeat
To be truly effective, media outreach should become an ongoing part of your business strategy.
Not only will this keep you ahead of any needs that your company has, but over time, you’ll build relationships with journalists who have covered your company, making it much easier to pitch high-quality stories in the future.
Once you have those relationships, take care of them.
“Sometimes I just send a check-in,” Balke said. “If I see something that could be relevant for them, I'll pass it on. But really, I think it's about being authentic. I'm not just keeping that relationship alive because I'm expecting to have something back in a couple of months.”
It’s a good idea to thank journalists for the work they put into stories about you, connect with them on social media, and keep track of their work, sharing and liking where appropriate.
All of this helps position you as a trusted contact they can rely on for help with future stories.
Eventually, you might want to hire someone to manage your PR. Rather than hiring a PR firm, Salamunovic advises founders to hire someone without a PR background, and teach them to do the job your way.
Adrian Salamunovic’s 3 Steps to Training New PR Hires
1. Make sure the employee understands who your target market is
Review your buyer personas with the new hire — or, better yet, have them go through the exercise of creating personas themselves based on client data.
This gives them insight into the kinds of people you’re trying to reach, and hopefully, the types of publications and journalists your customers pay attention to.
2. Have them build a media list manually
The benefit of building it manually, rather than using a tool like A News Tip, is that as they do so, they’ll be learning about the landscape, developing a deeper understanding of the industry, and getting a feel for the headlines, journalists, and publications that tell stories like yours.
3. Teach them how to pitch
Take one of the pitches you’ve sent yourself in the past, blank out some sections, and have your new hire fill in the blanks so they can refine and practice the skill of copywriting.
Tools & Templates
Alright, we just stuffed a ton of info down your throat. But hopefully they’ll make your life easier as a solo founder trying to get on the map.
Below is a list of resources we’ve mentioned in the guide (and some bonus items) for easy access.
Books & Workshops
- Trust Me, I’m Lying: An inside look at the way stories -- both information and misinformation -- spread through the media.
- Free PR: Salamunovic’s book, teaching founders how to build media connections in order to drive exposure, traffic, and sales.
- Sam Parr’s Cold Email Workshop: Step-by-step instructions from the founder of The Hustle, showing the cold-email strategies he uses to find contact info for and connect with world-class speakers, investors, and business owners around the globe.
Find and Contact Journalists
- VoilaNorbert: A combination CRM + email-finder that allows you to uncover contact info for millions of people, organize that info into lists, and track outreach.
- Hunter.io: Search by domain name to find the names and email addresses of 100m+ people working at companies around the globe.
- SignalHire: A Chrome plugin used by recruiters to find email addresses and phone numbers for your Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn contacts.
- Google News: Search to find recent stories published by news outlets all over the world.
- A News Tip: A searchable index of Tweets, news articles, and journalist contact information.
- Help a Reporter Out (HARO): Connect with journalists who are looking for sources in your area of expertise. Read their questions, pitch your insights, and they will follow up if interested.
Scheduling
- Calendly: “If you're doing media pitching you don't want to lose time and effort in the back and forth trying to find a time to connect,” said Salamunovic. “You want to work around the journalist’s schedule and a quick calendly link will make it really easy for them to pick a time that works for them.”
*This piece was adapted from a Trends premium post originally authored by Ethan Brooks. All relevant data has been updated.
Free Press Release Template
A free guide and template to help you run your company's PR.
- Company Announcements
- Promotion Checklist
- Guide to PR Best Practices
Download Free
All fields are required.