As any marketing expert will tell you, if you want to get press coverage, you need a combination of skill, tact, and tenacity. In order to earn valuable coverage for your brand, you need to take time to learn what has worked for successful brands before yours. Beyond that, you need to be able to take the successful marketing strategies that these brands used and experiment with them. After all, a cookie-cutter approach rarely works in the world of marketing. On the contrary, you need to be flexible enough to adapt expert advice to your unique brand and perceptive enough to identify what’s working and tweak your approach as you go along.
Playing around with proven strategies is crucial for success. At the same time, there are some traditional elements of marketing that must always be part of your marketing campaign. These include quality content like press releases and media kits, as well as a well-developed media outreach strategy. This can be a lot to juggle with the day-to-day running of a business. Luckily, the team at Pressfarm can help with press release writing and distribution as well as media kit design and targeted outreach.
Tips for successful marketing
In order to be a successful marketer, you should try to learn from the marketing trends around you. It’s just as important to learn from failed marketing campaigns so that you know what not to do with your company. In order to do so, you need to keep an eye on the news in your industry. You should also make it a priority to attend industry events where you can learn from people who have been in your shoes. Hosting a marketing conference or simply attending one can also present you with a wonderful opportunity to learn from experts in your field.
It’s important to be open to learning from everyone around you, whether they’re recognized experts or not. At the end of the day, anyone can teach you a little something about how to do marketing right – and what not to do!
To help you get started, we’ve compiled a guide from 21 marketers who have shared their favorite way to get press coverage.
1) Corina Leslie
PR Manager at ZeroBounce
My favorite way to get press coverage is by pitching good story ideas. It’s the most energy- and time-consuming process, but it yields the most impressive results.
Being able to help a writer with just the right story or commentary – that’s priceless to me. You can’t be successful without serving others, and this purpose is what leads every one of my PR initiatives. Also, I love finding new stories and angles for the things we want to communicate. It’s not always easy, but it keeps us alert and motivated.
We find relevant ideas all the time within our staff. From the CEO to a new hire, every company has at least one person who is a great resource for writers. Their expertise or their personal experiences may be the perfect fit for a particular story. Our job is to recognize that in our team and show it to journalists.
2) Miklós Kovács
Partnership & Marketing Manager at OptiMonk
If you ask what my favorite way to get press coverage is, I would say you need to work on your list first. Decide who you want to reach and after that get information about the journalists. Find out what kind of topics they like, and what stories they need for their daily work. In the early stages, you need to be willing to do the work for them: write 2-3 types of articles and send them. Of course, don’t forget to bring value to the readers and don’t post from your own perspective.
If you need help building a media list, you can sign up for a custom-made media list from Pressfarm. Once you sign up, the Account Executive takes time to evaluate your business needs. The Account Executive then pulls from a media database of over 1 million journalists, bloggers, and journalists to build a list that consists of the most relevant media contacts in your niche. These are the contacts who would be most excited to hear about what you’re doing and the contacts who would be most likely to talk about your brand in the news.
3) Natalya Bucuy
Content Writer & Digital Marketing Manager at HelpSquad
The best way to get press coverage is to come to where writers are looking for input. There are many PR software tools out there. Plugging into these tools is an easy way to reach audiences that are looking for specific information on the topic of expertise. This type of interaction with writers and journalists also helps develop long-term relationships with the media outlets, which, in turn, leads to more press coverage.
4) Holly Worthington
Content Editor at Modern Retail
My favorite way to get press coverage is to create content that is relevant and appealing to the target audience, making it a no-brainer for the press to feature it.
Local press coverage is a great way to build loyalty in your community. These steps can make it easier to earn coverage:
- Find an angle that people will care about. Whatever your story, there will always be a way to make it relevant. Don’t just share dull pieces of information. Explain WHY it’s interesting and HOW it matters to the reader.
- Make it easy for the press. If you’re able to, create a press release that sells itself, making the press WANT to feature it. Begin with a bold statement, explaining the news or update as well as what this means. In this way, you can give people a reason to continue reading. Include interesting information, quotes and pictures to increase your likelihood of being featured.
- Grow engagement. Social media can be a great platform to engage with the press as well as your target market, whether you’re tagging local community groups or nationwide publications. Tag them in relevant content and reach out where possible to grow your network and spread the word.
5) Rakesh Kumar Sharma
Senior SEO Analyst at Scalefusion Android MDM
Get in Touch with the Right Journalists & Editors:
Press coverage for a small business requires targeting the right audience. Send a pitch or information about your business to a journalist who might be interested.
Investigate journalists who are likely to be interested in the business you have or what you offer. Each journalist has a particular focus. When you want to contact reporters about your business, you can use many online resources.
After finding the proper journalist, what steps do you need to take to write a pitch to the media?
These 3 points you need to do to create a pitch that makes a journalist’s eyes light up are:
- Identify an angle that piques their interest.
- Write the best headline that will catch their attention.
- Develop a short, crisp email that immediately provides value.
Publishers want material and stories that are well received. To write the best PR pitch, you have to convince your readers why your story is essential.
6) Sunny Kumar
Founder & Marketing Specialist at TheWPX
Most small enterprises struggle with achieving the right amount of media coverage. However, before developing your next press release, you need to make sure that you have the right contacts required to pass on your message.
Building genuine relationships with media professionals and creating possibilities for regular interactions will enable your business to get noticed by the right people. Press coverage from reputed media houses boosts the credibility of your business and extends your reach to the masses.
Working for the community can also add layers to your PR attempts. Giving back to society and sharing your philanthropic activities with your network of journalists and editors can attract organic press coverage for your business.
In times of instant gratification, achieving a press release for your business might take some time. Nevertheless, making consistent efforts towards the goal will create a lasting impact on your PR strategy.
7) Oksana Chyketa
Product Marketing Manager at Newoldstamp
HARO is one of the best ways to get press and media coverage.
The platform is really easy to use and once you get familiar with it and with the process of scanning your inbox for queries, you can spend an hour or two every day finding queries and responding to them.
Getting press coverage takes hard work. The trick is not to focus too heavily on one way over the other and be sure to create a presence on all fronts. Identifying the most relevant journalists and building relationships with them on a consistent basis works perfectly for us when we need to get media coverage.
8) Kalo Yankulov
Growth Marketer & Co-founder at Encharge
The most popular publishers get between 50 and 500 pitches per week. We found that as a small startup it’s hard to get media attention if we go the traditional way – sharing news about new features or products. We simply weren’t big enough for most of the publishers to care.
Then, we switched our approach. We pitched pieces of unique, insightful content – reports, original research, expert round-ups that are relevant to our industry – marketing automation. Two of the pieces that got great coverage were our report on the marketing automation specialist role and the marketing automation trends round-up. The latter was shared by dozens of outlets in our sphere and cited by some highly reputable websites. Of course, that type of content requires much more time. However, editors are more interested in it since it provides a unique value that’s not available elsewhere.
Do you need help creating the kind of content that will make a journalist’s head turn? At Pressfarm, you can collaborate with a team of PR specialists, expert writers and certified designers who have experience doing just that. By crafting a professional press release, writing some thought-provoking guest posts and designing a beautiful branded media kit for you, the Pressfarm team can help you make an unforgettable impression with your brand.
9) Nidhi Agrawal
Content Editor at LeadSquared
Things that have worked for us to get press coverage are announcements on awards, product releases, CXO interviews, and industry reports.
My favorite is data-driven reports curated for specific industries. This is a great way to get media attention and also establishes you as a thought leader in the industry. Generally, people go after broad, trending topics, which is great, but the competition is equally high. Preparing niche, industry-specific reports is comparatively easier and holds great potential to create an impact among a particular set of audiences. They can be curated, self-researched, or surveyed reports. The important thing is they should cover the information your consumers are interested in.
10) Raluca Toma
PR Specialist at SocialBee
Active outreach long-term campaigns!
It’s always a pleasure to establish a personal connection with relevant journalists and editors whenever I reach out to them. In general, I avoid requesting backlinks without a personal connection, as I strive to get close to the journalists and editors with whom I collaborate. In the end, it is all about developing meaningful connections from both sides. Developing long-term collaborations is not just about exchanging links, but getting to know the person you’ll work with.
Targeting the right people is necessary when you are trying to get press coverage for your business and maintain positive PR campaigns, but the right people are those with whom you can connect on a deeper level.
I believe that the most successful PR strategy is not built on advertising or buzzwords; it’s about building meaningful connections – this is the best-kept secret in these campaigns.
11) Andreea Stefan
SEO Specialist at Planable
Journalists always get dozens of pitches. If you want yours to be picked, you have to craft an enticing email that stands out from the others. I’ve found that writing from experience and choosing a unique angle works well. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. It’s way easier than that. Read the query carefully to understand what the journalist or publication needs. Only pitch ideas where you have first-hand experience. This will differentiate you from everybody else. Try to exemplify where possible and keep your answer short and to the point. This technique can be very rewarding for getting topically-relevant press coverage for your brand.
12) Hori Tran
SEO Specialist at Secomapp
PR articles are always the best choice for marketers to gain audience attention for any organization. However, as you are aware, small businesses do not have the resources to invest in this costly PR tactic. According to the World Bank, small and medium-sized businesses account for over 90% of all businesses. As a result, practically all marketers must learn and discover tips to save costs and even improve the performance of PR postings.
Throughout my career, I have followed journalists and created new stories to share with them via email. Meanwhile, I attempt to add another point of contact by engaging with journalists on social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and responding to the content they post. This added link will keep me in the journalist’s mind while he or she examines my proposal.
13) Tufan Erdogan
Outreach Coordinator & Team Lead at Jotform
My favorite way to get press coverage is by offering them original research. Offering new data through original research has always been intriguing for the press. This is great contributed content that helps fill in the gaps in coverage. If your research hasn’t been covered before, using it is an excellent opportunity to get press coverage especially if you take a unique approach to the subject.
Choosing an attention-grabbing subject for your research is really important for getting press coverage. Well-executed research will interest journalists. So my favorite way to get press coverage is by sharing an original and interesting research study with them. This way, you can not only contribute to the content on media but also attract attention to your business. What’s more, you can do this while establishing a reputation as a thought leader.
14) Anna Mroczkowski
Content Distribution & Outreach Manager at MASV
My favorite way to get press coverage: build relationships and a strong rapport with journalists. The press coverage I have often secured is with the journalists I had interacted with long before I pitched them any news story. Taking the time to build these relationships is worth the lengthy process. Journalists get many emails in their inboxes. If they recognize your name, your email is less likely to end up in the trash. And if you can build super-strong relationships, journalists may even begin to ask you to provide a story, give a quote, or share your expertise.
So, how do you build these relationships?
Step 1) Introduce yourself. Send off an email that has no ask.
Step 2) When you send an email with an ask, make sure it is of high quality and value. It also needs to be very specific to the journalist’s niche.
Step 3) Follow their work. Learn what they like to talk about. Identify what news sparks their interest.
Bonus: No matter where your career goes, you can take these contacts with you.
15) Brad Slavin
DKIM, DMARC & SPF Specialist at DMARCReport.com
Do cold email outreach to journalists contributing content on relevant portals and news sites in the niche. It is important that you set up your DKIM, DMARC, and SPF properly while doing so to ensure high email deliverability.
16) Brooks Manley
SEO & Content Marketing Specialist at Brew Interactive
Our favorite way to earn press coverage is through research studies and surveys.
Here’s what our process usually looks like:
First, we brainstorm an angle related (at least tangentially) to our industry. Then, we consider what kind of data we have (first-party data) or what kind of data we could get our hands on (third-party data). We then write up an article with our “juiciest” findings used in the title. Occasionally, the article will get picked up without us having to do much. But typically we perform outreach to industry publications with our findings.
Recently, we compiled all our Facebook ad data across all of our client accounts, organized the findings, and pulled out some interesting statistics. It didn’t blow up, but we did earn coverage from 4 solid, local publications.
17) Milosz Krasinski
International SEO Consultant, Blogger & Owner at Chilli Fruit Web Consulting
There are a lot of ways to get press coverage these days, from buying ads to sending out press releases. But my favorite way is using HARO, or Help a Reporter Out. HARO is a free service that connects reporters with sources who can provide expert quotes and perspectives on a variety of topics.
I’ve been using HARO for several years now, and it’s been an invaluable tool for getting my work in front of a wider audience. Not only has it helped me build my brand, but it’s also landed me some really great opportunities, including speaking engagements and media appearances. If you’re looking for a way to get more exposure for your work, I highly recommend giving HARO a try.
18) Paul Posea
SEO & Outreach Specialist at Superside
Getting your story in front of journalists is most commonly done through press release distribution, but this is the easy part. What makes the difference between an average story lost in the depths of the internet and a story that has the potential to become viral is the angle you use to approach the media.
The best strategy I found when doing journalist work is to leverage current events happening in the world or highly shareable stories.
These should be timely and preferably have a connection between your company and that event.
An example would be: For a restaurant to give a lifetime Golden Ticket with free meals to a popular celebrity.
By finding unique angles and connections between you and what’s trendy, you can stand out much more easily from the crowd.
As a Pressfarm client, you can benefit from a targeted pitching strategy that will put your brand in the spotlight. By leveraging years of experience working with journalists, the PR specialists at Pressfarm will find the most intriguing story angles to put your brand front and center.
19) Santiago Safdie
Marketing Business Analyst at InvGate
In a few words, here’s what’s worked well to help us get press coverage over the years:
– Referral Traffic
– Paid reviews
– Sponsorship on relevant sites
– Developing valuable content and having a valuable product to offer
– Writing about an important success story that changed the value of the company
20) Ashok Sharma
Head of Digital Marketing & Operations at Signity Solutions
It’s hard to get your business in the news. Most of the top-tier publishers receive between 50 and 500 pitches each day, most of which remain in their inboxes.
On the contrary, you can create a win-win situation if you use the right tactics and give extra thought to your PR outreach plan.
I like to use both proactive and reactive tactics to get media attention. A proactive tactic is to create content that can be found. It should be creative, attractive, interesting, and create buzz for your business. Content that is original usually attracts attention. In order for your content to capture attention, it should be visually appealing, include infographics, and make an impact.
No matter which method you use, planning your PR activities is very important. Create original and newsworthy content based on what you want to say to the world.
21) Steve Hawky
SEO Manager at Get Results Link Building
There is no need to point out how important press coverage is, especially if it’s done properly.
My favorite way is creating meaningful connections with reporters and sharing knowledge and experience with them regarding topics in my business niche. Sharing your opinion on the topic you are an expert on will always carry more value than choosing the trending topic of the day. The readers are looking for value from a person who is an experienced professional in their line of business.
You should be as active as possible in contacting reporters and sharing relevant information – the more their query matches your skill set, the higher the chances are that they will want to connect with you.
Your turn:
What’s worked well for your company? What kind of marketing campaigns has made a difference in your brand story? And what can you learn from the marketers who helped us create this guide for you?
Creating a successful marketing campaign to help you get press coverage is not a one-time thing. In order to turn your brand into the kind of brand that journalists love to write about, you need to be consistent with your marketing efforts. As many of the marketers above have pointed out, it’s important to take time to develop relationships with media professionals before you ever reach out to them to pitch a story. Beyond that, it’s important to spend time learning what kind of news matters to the journalists as well as their audiences. Turning your brand into a respected industry expert also takes time.
Above all, to succeed with your marketing, you need to think outside the box and aim to do what other brands are not bold enough to do – or what they’ve simply decided takes too much time to do. Investing time and effort into your marketing campaigns will be well worth the effort once you’ve turned your brand into one that always makes a journalist’s eyes light up.