Hacks to Leverage Outreach to Increase PR Mentions

It’s important for your business to be discussed publicly and competition for public attention is fierce. Public Relations can help you get mentioned in the media or attention from those in your niche. There are two ways you can do this: identifying worthy targets and making the perfect pitch.

1. Identify Worthy Targets

Publicity is very important. It’s good to find good journalists and writers who write for a particular niche. PR professionals use tools like BuzzSumo® to identify popular online content.. TrendKite is another tool that provides a database with names, email addresses, and the interests of prospects. This will help in finding those journalists and writers that you’d like to write your story.

2. The Perfect Pitch

A perfect pitch involves deliverability and personalization, primarily through email to the writers and journalist. E-mail messages should be short, professional, and authentic. Don’t forget to show that you’re knowledgeable about your audience. Your primary focus should be the hook, call-to-action, value proposition, and follow-up.

• The Hook

Always write a good subject line. You can start with an example, a quote or a scene of which they can find themselves in. A good pitch is rooted in a news or time peg.

• Call-to-Action

This is what you want your audience to do with the information you provided. It’s best to tell them explicitly, so they know exactly what you want. Give them all the detail they need, so they can do what you said.

• Value Proposition

The value proposition is the reasoning you should use to get writers and journalists to write a story about your business. Writers and journalists go after stories connected to many things. It’s good to explain why it’s important to their readers and how big it can be. Make sure that you make it about the writer or journalist, not you. Giving them value will bring you value.

• Follow-Up

Following up is the often-ignored part of the pitch. Sometimes journalists and writers won’t answer your emails because they aren’t interested, but there may be other reasons as well. Be tenacious about getting the results you want, so the journalist or writer knows you’re serious.

A comprehensive PR plan must work alongside its writer and journalists it has chosen. Make sure your story is heard. You can write and share press releases as well as leverage outreach to get more PR mentions. If you’d like more on public relations, visit us at The Profit Link, a small business support team based in Memphis, TN. We want to link your business to profit today!