DIY PR: How to get journalists to write about your business

 

What? A PR business providing people with tips and strategies on how to do PR themselves? Yep, that’s how we roll at JellyRock. We want to show you what great PR can do for your business. We truly believe in that PR done well can build empires and want to help you do just that. Here is a how-to guide on how to do PR for entrepreneurs and small businesses.

So, have you given PR a go yet? If so, what happened? Did you try it yourself or pay someone else to do it? If you haven’t touched PR yet then you’ll be pleased to know that once the smoke and mirrors are removed from the process, it’s actually quite simple. Good PR is all about stories and relationships. If you have a great business idea, then there’s a good chance someone will want to hear about it.

How to get press coverage for your business

It’s all about telling stories

Let’s talk stories. What’s your favourite film? Pretty much all films follow a simple story arc: the first part of the film is setting the scene; introducing you to the scenario. Then there’s a great deal of disruption; something happens that shakes the norm and makes the lead character change their behaviour. Everything builds into a climax and then there’s resolution; things continue to a conclusion. But life is different; something’s changed.

As well as most feature films, that’s pretty much the story arc of most real-life stories you read in magazines and newspapers too; someone has overcome adversity in their life or at work. Someone has created a new service or product that is a solution to the problem they experienced.

Have a think about your story; most people have overcome adversity at some point in their lives; be it in personal lives or at work.

How to get national press coverage

And here’s the key; PR stories don’t necessarily have to be about business. You can get great national and regional publicity based on the stories that cross over from your business life into your personal life. For example, as the owner of JellyRock, I’ve featured in the Telegraph with my story on how I moved from London to Bournemouth for a healthier lifestyle and how Dorset is a creative and vibrant place to work. The PR industry title PR Week published my opinion article on how I though ex-Whitehouse comms bod Scarramucci was a bully. The Guardian spoke to me about how I use the to-do list app Trello in my marriage. I’ve featured in Mother & Baby magazine with my story on how I trained for my labour like it was a marathon. I’ve also featured in the HuffPost and in Diving magazine on how being a diving instructor in Thailand taught me how to run a business.

Some of these articles had direct links to my website. Others meant that I created relationships with journalists I hadn’t connected with before. In all cases, for a relatively small amount of my time, it was a positive outcome for me and my business. You just have to share a little.

Once you start thinking about the stories around the periphery, you might find that you are sitting on a goldmine of narratives and ideas. The best thing is that once your story is online, it’s out there forever, building your profile and media collateral and enhancing your website SEO by increasing website traffic.

It’s all about relationships

So let’s talk about relationships. What way could you first approach a journalist in a way that works for you and them? The first step is to get to know the publication you want to approach. Read a few issues first to check that your story is the right fit for the publication. Ask yourself; do they cover stories or businesses like yours? If so, what kind of stories have they written about lately? If they’ve written a very similar one recently, chances are they’re not going to cover it again. So, you can either take your story elsewhere or change the angle of the story so it has a fresh approach.

How to get contact details for journalists and bloggers

Then you can do a bit of online stalking (in a healthy way!) to find out who is the right journalist to contact. Have a read of the publication in print or online. Check out the journalist’s Twitter profile; what are their interests and expertise? If it’s a local paper, then contact the business journalist for an industry story, or the features editor / writer for a lifestyle story. The best way to pitch to a journalist is either on the phone, via email or face-to-face.

If it’s a phone conversation, then check first that they are the right person to speak to. Ask them if now is a good time to chat (they may be on deadline and so will need to get off the phone as quickly as possible), and then if so, let them know the story or your idea first, rather than ramble with a long introduction about you and your business.

How to pitch to a journalist

The same goes for the email “pitch”; put the story in the subject line of your email and then follow up with a 4-5 bullet point list of the key points to your story or feature idea. You literally have to summarise the story first in a few words in an email subject line, and then as short bullet points. A journalist will only have a few seconds to consider if your piece is right for them. Key info about you and your business can come at the end.

The key is not to be afraid of journalists. They are people like the rest of us, but who have an ever-increasing volume of articles to produce. If you make it about THEM and not you, then you’re providing a service. Offer value to a journalist and you’ll build a relationship.

Do I need to write a press release?

You may have spotted that so far, I haven’t even mentioned a press release. The good news is that you don’t need one. At the end of the day, all journalists want is good ideas, stories and great pictures to go with them. You don’t necessarily need to wrap it all up in a press release. A good PR person or agency will recognise this and use the right information where appropriate, rather than charging several hundred pounds for a useless document. Press releases are still relevant for say, local newspapers where staffing has been cut to the bone. Also for B2B and industry magazines where a minimal staff team (sometimes consisting of just one editor) will appreciate the time-saving offer of cutting and pasting text into their magazines.

PR Spam

Let me offer you insight into a usual day of a typical journalist. They have lots of article “slots” to write; it’s an incredibly time-pressured industry and they’ll be chased all the time to produce articles for their deadline; be that daily, weekly or monthly. Due to the use of media databases and lazy PR people, they’ll be deluged by press releases every day. The vast majority of them will be totally inappropriate to the publication or journalist; simply because the sender hasn’t bothered to read the publication (or blog if it’s to a blogger). One journalist I know has 15,000 unread emails in her inbox. Another one deals with her inbox by simply deleting every email containing the words “press release” as she doesn’t want ideas that have been sent to everyone else.

Free PR resources you can use

There are (free) ways to find out what journalists are writing about so you can respond. First of all, industry and B2B magazines often publish their forward features calendar online, so, you can plan ahead and offer insight or an opinion.

Use Twitter to find relevant journalists and respond

Second of all, there’s the hashtag #journorequest on Twitter. Do a search a couple of times a day, respond fast, and you might see there are opportunities for you. Bloggers, consumer and B2B writers all use #journorequest. I’ve used it many times for high-profile pieces for my clients and my own business.

Finally, if you want to take your PR up a level, then try a free trial with Response Source. You choose a category right for your business and then have a two-week period of journalist requests. Be prepared though, many people find the sheer volume of emails coming in each day quite overwhelming. But, with a simple email sorting system and viewing each email as a potential PR opportunity, you’ll be able to track the subjects that journalists are writing about, take down useful contact details and perhaps get published into a title that will drive business.

Just Do It

Hopefully, you’ll have noticed that all these ideas have no cost attached to them apart from time. We are all very busy professionals who spend more time in our business than on our business. What bite-sized tasks do you think you could manage each week? Start small; listen to your local radio station for speaking opportunities, read the Telegraph, Times and Guardian small business and enterprise sections. Subscribe to (and read!) your industry titles. Check #journorequest a couple of times a day.  I’d then recommend making the commitment to one pitch per week. That’s doable, right?

Start right now

So are you up for trying a bit of DIY PR? If you’re hesitant, have a think about why. If it’s putting yourself in the limelight (and a lot of my clients are initially reluctant), then go slow and approach titles that you’re comfortable with. Starting with PR doesn’t mean you’ll immediately be heading for BBC Breakfast’s red sofa, or the BBC Radio 4 Today programme studio (although either would be amazing). But raise your head above the parapet have a try at pitching an idea; the worst that can happen is that you’ll get a “no”. If you get a no, don’t take it personally and try again. And again.

Have a go and then please get in touch to let me know how it went. If you need a little help with strategy or defining your key messages or stories, just get in touch.

 

Tags: how to do PR, PR, public relations