Active not reactive: maximising PR success

In a world oversaturated with information, carving a niche for your message can be challenging.

According to media monitoring software provider Meltwater, some top tier journalists receive an average of 300 emails every morning, meaning that your carefully crafted pitch has a very high chance of getting lost in the myriad of material journalists will receive. 

So, how can we maximise our chances of not only being noticed by journalists, but creating a long-standing relationship that delivers value to both parties? The secret is being proactive.

Offer a helping hand

This may seem obvious, but the world of PR can move at an incredibly fast pace, so waiting for journalists to notice your press release isn’t the best recipe for success.

To create positive, mutually beneficial relationships with the media, you have to be there when they need it most – when they need material to write their stories. 

There are several specialist platforms that PR professionals regularly use to know what journalists are looking for. The most famous are ResponseSource and SourceBottle, but Twitter – in particular the hashtag #journorequest – is a good option, too.

When you know what a journalist is after, you can gather fresh, unpublished, relevant information in the form of quotes, data and eye-catching, informative imagery, and send it to them. Never forget, a strong visual to accompany the story is a fundamental requirement for any publication.

It’s not as easy as it sounds, though. Once a journalist’s request is out there, hundreds of PR professionals and their clients will be competing for attention in a crowded inbox. Your best chance is to work with an experienced PR practitioner to craft a unique angle for your story. This will ensure that your pitch doesn’t sound stale or unoriginal, but instead offers a new and unexplored perspective on the subject at hand. 

Crucially, you should offer genuine thought-leadership, not a subtly disguised pitch for your products or services. The key is to raise awareness of your role and expertise as an industry leader, not try to close a deal with potential readers.

Pitching original, unique and – most importantly – relevant material to a journalist when they need it is a guaranteed way to start on the right foot and forge good relationships. 

Go the extra mile – when proactivity is key

Sometimes, you can’t just wait for a good opportunity to arise – you need to create one. An often overlooked tactic to do that is using rapid responses. 

Rapid responses, as the name suggests, are quick reactions to breaking news, which can be submitted to national or trade publications in a variety of ways. One of the most common ones is through a letter to the editor, or by emailing quotes as an industry thought-leader that offers timely explanations or commentary on a piece of news.

The best way to spot these opportunities is to simply scan the news on a daily basis, keeping up to date with what is happening in your industry and what the main trends and challenges are.

Using media monitoring tools such as Meltwater, Talkwalker Alerts or Google Alerts can be of great help in scanning the news to find stories that you can react to. Again, the secret here is to only offer genuinely unique insights that take the conversation further or add new and original information.

A good way to gauge whether what you have to say will be well received is to simply familiarise yourself with a journalist’s work. By getting acquainted with their style and the issues they tend to address – whether that’s by reading their articles, following them on social media, or meeting them at an event – you can quickly develop a sense of what they would like to receive, and what they’ll be most likely to include in their stories. 

Receiving the acknowledgement of a trusted publication is a great way to boost your brand’s reputation. By providing timely and relevant information to journalists in your areas of expertise, you can quite literally contribute to ‘creating’ the news. This will help you control how your brand is perceived and, ultimately, develop trust in you and your team’s expertise.

A word on social media

Following key journalists at target publications, particularly on Twitter is a great way to get to know their pressures, priorities and pain points. If they are open to a direct message (they will usually include ‘DM’s open’ in their biog if so), a very brief synopsis of the story, news or comment you’d like to share can be an effective means of circumnavigating a cluttered inbox.
Not all journalists will welcome this approach, so it’s important to do your research and identify the contacts that will be open to this means of communication.

If you need help in crafting PR campaigns that cut through the noise and grab journalists’ attention, get in touch with our award-winning PR team.