You have something to say. You want to get your message out. You want to reach a bigger audience to help promote what you do and why you do it. You think reaching out the media to get featured might be a smart idea.
You would be right.
Leveraging the power of the media is an excellent way to get your business and brand(you) featured without blowing a huge amount of money on promotion. Being featured in the media helps you build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factor with clients and customers. Let’s face it, it gives you some pretty good business street cred!
So, you know you want to reach out and pitch the media BUT you just don’t know how to find the right people to talk to. How do you find producers and reporters who would be interested in your story?
There are several ways but in this post I am going to cover just THREE! Let’s keep things simple.
Watch The Credits. Read The Masthead: What you need to do is actually consume and digest the shows, channels, stations and publications you think would be a good fit for you. Think about where your perfect client/customers hang out when it comes to the media landscape. What shows do they watch? What magazines do they read? For example, when it comes to television you should make a list of the shows your perfect customers watch. Now, watch the credits on those shows and make a list of the producers and segments producers who work on those shows. When it comes to magazines, read the masthead. Find out who the editors are, who writes what kind of articles and who would be a good fit with what you do. Once you have a few names then the real research begins.You could go old school and phone the newsroom or station and ask to speak to the producer, but that gets time-consuming and tricky, especially when it comes to deadlines and people’s work schedules. An easier way is to go online.
Tweet. Tweet: Now that you have a few names start looking for them on Twitter. All of the producers and reporters you want to connect with are on Twitter. Journalists use Twitter to find stories, to find sources and to research. Find these media contacts and start following them. Make contact. Ask for their email. In a recent survey of reporters, many said they rely heavily on Twitter to help them do their job BUT still prefer to be pitched via email rather than social media. So make the connection. Of course, you don’t even need names to find contacts on Twitter. You can just start looking for station or show names and then follow the trail to all the perfect media contacts on Twitter.
Google: This is a great tool. You can search by media station or publication plus niche and you will start to find a list of potential producers and reporters to pitch to. Many of these people have their email linked via the company website.
The key to finding the right producers and reporters to pitch to is research. You want to find the people who will be interested in your story and what you have to say. Successfully pitching the media and getting press isn’t about sending out hundreds of the same press releases. That won’t get you anywhere but the email junk bin. What you do need to do is to create connections, build relationships and send out targeted, personal pitches that help journalists do their jobs, tell great stories and connect with their audiences.
So I challenge you today to find the names and email addresses of THREE perfect producers or reporters. Make contact. Introduce yourself and what you do and PITCH them a story. Remember, it is always about helping a reporter or producer do their job and serve the audience. You do that and you will get press and make headlines!
Want more tips and techniques to step up your media and PR game? Join Media + PR Collective For Entrepreneurs
