National media coverage expands a company’s reach exponentially. Landing a story in a national media outlet increases your business’s visibility and subsequent prospects in terms of clients and revenue.
At Omni Public, we have been fortunate enough to work with some amazing companies, government agencies and executives. Our relationships with major national publications have helped our clients such as BeniComp get mentions and pieces in INC, the Tampa Bay Wave profiled in Forbes, Immertec’s CEO profiled in Cheddar and Synapse covered in Grit Daily. We have consulted for our clients and landed various placements and mentions in publications like TechCrunch, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and so on.
If you plan to pitch your company’s story to a publication on your own, without the help of a PR firm, there are some things to keep in mind to make sure you approach the endeavor in good faith, and to show the best side of your company.
1.Don’t send a random pitch. Find a specific journalist and research what they cover.
It’s important to know what beat a journalist covers, so you pitch to the right person. If you have a tech startup, you’re going to want to find the journalist who covers businesses, technology or your specific vertical. But don’t stop there. Read their past articles to discover what they are critical of or care about. What aspects of the business do they cover? What was their latest Tweet? The journalist will want to be interested in what you’re talking about, so take a step back and ask yourself, if you were that journalist, would you want to cover what your company is doing?
2.Be brief.
Get to the point. Journalists are busy, and while you could extoll the virtues of your company all day, a journalist is looking for the meat of the story—the parts that will catch a reader’s eye. If you can’t get your point across in five sentences and 1 attachment (press release), rethink it and rework it.
If you spent a lot of time editing the pitch yourself, have someone from your team take a look at the final product before sending it.
3.Have materials and talking points ready before you interview.
Before you schedule an interview, make sure you know who the face of your company will be, its representative, and that they are well versed on exactly what the story is trying to convey. Keep in mind that just because a journalist interviews you, they still may not print or air your story. Top tier journalists tend to lean toward executives who can forecast an industry and back up their statements. Your pitch and story may become relevant down the line, so it is still valuable to maintain a positive relationship with the journalist.
4.Have your press kit ready.
A good press kit is invaluable. Journalists do not want to have to search far and wide for past media coverage, executive team bios and quality photos. These things should be easily accessible on your company’s website at all times. It is especially important to have horizontal high-resolution images because they look good on thumbnails for sharing on social media. If you need a brief on good foundational items check out our previous column: 3 Things to consider before pitching national media.
5.Don’t be afraid to follow up.
If you have not heard back about your pitch within a week, send an email to gently nudge the writer. Keep it light. Ask if there’s anything else you could send over that would be helpful for the story. If it is a time sensitive piece, convey that clearly, but non aggressively.
The pandemic has changed some pitching best practices. It is no longer taboo to pitch directly to a senior editor, and it’s okay to pitch any day of the work week, but afternoon is probably best. Journalists still need juicy, relevant content and now that more jobs are remote, they spend more time scrolling. If you have any questions about how to pitch to national or local media organizations, feel free to reach out to us at Omni Public at ch@omnipublic.global.
