How To Do Your Own PR
Why would I tell you how to do your own PR when I own a PR firm?
Partly, because by seeing what it takes to do your own PR you might change your mind, but if you do decide to do your own PR then you were never going to buy PR services from us anyway. Plus, I’m just happy to help, regardless.
Two Ways To Get PR
There are basically two ways to get PR:
Build relationships with the writers and journalists who can give it to you.
Be in the right place at the right time with what writers and journalists want.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH JOURNALISTS
How does one build relationships with journalists? First, let’s talk about how not to build relationships with the press.
HOW NOT TO PITCH JOURNALISTS
Do not pitch 100+ journalists at once. This is not the lottery. You do not necessarily increase your chances the more pitches you send out. It’s possible for none of your pitches to win. Journalists get thousands (no exaggeration) of pitches every month. Either they ignore them all, or they filter through them quickly. Journalists have honed their ability to recognize a pitch that was sent out to hundreds of other journalists, and they’ll ignore it, because who wants to cover something everyone else is covering? Customizing the first name isn’t enough to get through.
Do not make it about you. When you want someone to do a favor for you, show that person how doing that favor benefits them. Give value before expecting it.
Do not make it about you. Literally, do not pitch a story about yourself. Don’t pitch a story about your business. Some publications no longer even allow profile pieces unless you’re a household name.
Do not tell them you’re special. You’ve got a great company that does great things for people? Let me guess, your company is innovative, revolutionary, and disruptive, right? Yeah, that’s what the other 50 people who pitched the journalist this week said about their companies.
Do not make it long or detailed. The longer your email, the more likely it will be ignored (TL;DR) or marked for follow up. How often do you get back to the emails you mark for follow up? Journalists get 10x the email you do, so they’re even less likely to respond to a long email.
Do not follow up too much. Day 1: “Would you please write an article about me?” Day 2: “Perhaps you didn’t receive my email yesterday, I’d like you to write an email about me, please get back to me soon.” Day 3: “You probably missed the first two emails I sent, but I’d really like you to write an article about me.” This type of pitch will be ignored, or marked as spam.
Do not send pitches like this: “hi, can you help me publish on forbes unde ryour name please?” Yes, that’s a real pitch, and I’ve received 100 others like it. If you can’t construct a simple sentence with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation, you’re not going to get much respect from someone whose livelihood depends on such things.
Do not act as though you’re doing the journalist a favor. Journalists aren’t sitting around wondering what to write about. Most of them have 50 great articles they’re working on. If they want to write your article, they have to postpone a different article.
Do not use pitch templates. Or if you do, don’t use one anyone else has. There are lists of pitch templates out there. 90% of the pitches I receive are using these templates, so they become recognizable very quickly, and just as quickly they get filtered out. Anything that looks the least bit like a template gets deleted immediately.
HOW TO PITCH JOURNALISTS THE RIGHT WAY
There is no pitch that will work 100% of the time, but here’s one I’ve tested out that works better than most—offer to help without asking for anything in return. Here’s what it might look like:
Hi Jill, what stories are you working on? I’m not pitching anything, but I saw your article [article title] in [publication] and I happen to know some people in that space, and if you’re working on more stories about [topic 1] or [topic 2] I might know some people.
Thanks!
Why does this pitch work better?
It’s short and easy to read.
Responding can also be fast.
It’s obvious to the journalist that no one else is receiving this exact email, since it include their name, an article they wrote, and shows some knowledge about topics they’ve written about.
It offers to help and doesn’t ask for any favors.
Of course, there’s a catch—you have to do some homework to create a pitch like this. Most people aren’t willing to do their homework and would rather rely on playing the PR lottery, but if you’d like to create a PR system that works consistently rather than depend on luck, doing your homework is a small price to pay.
There’s a second catch—you just committed yourself to helping, even if you don’t get anything out of it! Imagine the journalist responds, tells you what they’re working on, and you think, “Gee, I know someone who would be a great fit for this article, but what good does that do me?”
This is the wrong way to look at things. Look at the most rewarding relationships in your life—do you think more about yourself in those relationships, or the other person? Chances are, the best relationships are the ones in which you don’t think about yourself, and instead focus on serving the other person. Chances are, if you sat down to analyze things, you’d also say these are the relationships where you actually receive the most.
It’s no different in PR with journalists. The more you serve the journalists you work with, without thinking much about yourself, the more you’ll get rewarded by that relationship. It’s like the relationship bank account metaphor popularized by Stephen R. Covey.
WHAT A GREAT RELATIONSHIP WITH A JOURNALIST LOOKS LIKE
You want PR and the journalist wants to publish stories that make a difference. If you can provide the journalist with people, data, and resources that help their stories become more interesting, they will reward you with PR exposure. However, if you make this a transactional relationship, it will only last as long as the transactions are mutually beneficial. If you want to develop a lasting relationship, one that can survive challenges, doubts, and the unintentional and unavoidable mistakes, go beyond the transactional to a connected relationship. Here’s how:
Examine your intent. If all you want is to get what you want, you’re making the relationship transactional. To create a real connection, your intent will have to shift to include something more than merely getting what you want. For example, you might find joy in simply helping someone else.
Be positive. Embrace an abundance mindset, be generous, and avoid negative thoughts that may creep in.
Communicate more than just when you need something. How do you feel about people who only reach out when they need a favor? Yeah, don’t be that person.
Be honest, open, and vulnerable. If I feel like I’m making too many withdrawals from the relationship bank account, I say so. “Hey Jen, I feel like maybe I’m asking too much here, please feel free to say ‘No’ if I am.”
Be patient. Great relationships take time and effort.
Here at Canvas, these are the kinds of relationships we strive to build with journalists. Sure, our business benefits from these relationships, but we also sincerely enjoy these relationships. Sometimes we end up giving without getting anything in return…that is, we don’t receive any business benefit, but no matter what, we still benefit from the joy these relationships bring us.
In my opinion, this is the best way to to get the best PR, but for many individuals and businesses this simply isn’t feasible. No matter how much you may want to build these relationships, you simply don’t have the time to do it the right way. That’s where the next tactic comes in.
BE IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME WITH WHAT JOURNALISTS WANT
The same pitch template I gave you above can work to put you in the right place at the right time with what journalists want, but there’s an even easier way, and that’s to use HARO (Help a Reporter Out).
HARO is a free service that connects reporters with sources. I’ve used it as both a writer looking for sources as well as from the side of someone looking for PR exposure. Here’s how it works in a nutshell:
You sign up to receive three emails a day from HARO.
Each email is divided up into categories (fashion, business, lifestyle, pets, etc.).
You scan the category of interest to you, and if you see a request from a reporter that fits you, you respond.
If the reporter likes your response, they may include you in their story.
I’ve used HARO to get myself as well as my clients into top-tier publications. It works, but it works better if you follow a few rules.
Follow instructions. Whatever the reporter asks for, give it to them–nothing more, nothing less. If they ask for an email address, give them an email address. If they ask for a website URL, give them a website URL.
Don’t include an introduction. Normally, it’s polite to start an email to a reporter by saying “Thank you so much for considering my quote…” but it’s not necessary. It actually gets in the way and will annoy the reporter, who is saying, “Just get to what I asked for!”
Submit only one response unless instructed otherwise. If the reporter asks for a quote, don’t send them three and say “Here are a few quotes for you to choose from!” The reporter wants to be able to easily copy and paste from your email. Giving them choices means more work for them, and they may just skip your submission.
Be concise. If they ask for a quote, name, and URL and they receive a quote, name, URL, and a full page bio, they might just see a lot of text, feel overwhelmed, and move on.
Respond with plain text. No HTML. HTML often comes through as code, and then there’s the work of stripping out HTML code to get URLs and such. Don’t give the writer this extra work.
Don’t make special requests. Chances are, the reporter has received 200 responses and they’re scrambling. Don’t ask them to send you a link to the article once it’s published, just figure out where they publish and follow their writing, or set up a Google Alert to track your name so you know whenever someone publishes a quote with your name attached to it. Another thing to not ask for is “Here’s my URL, but if possible could you link to my Twitter profile?” If you want them to link to your Twitter profile, just include your Twitter profile as the link and leave out your URL. Don’t make the reporter think. If they have to think too much about your email, it probably won’t work out in your favor.
Don’t expect a response, and don’t follow up. Submit, and let it go. If you get published, great! If not, move on to the next opportunity. The writer doesn’t have time to respond to 200 people who made submissions.
ENLIST AN ASSISTANT TO HELP YOU SCOUR HARO
The problem with HARO is you don’t have the time to look at three emails every day and respond quickly. Instead, hire someone to read the emails and respond on your behalf. You can train an assistant, or find a service that monitors HARO for you…except I just looked for one and couldn’t find it. Should Canvas offer that service? Hmm.
SHOULD YOU DO YOUR OWN PR OR OUTSOURCE IT?
You can definitely do your own PR, but after reading this, you may be feeling it’s a bit like changing the oil on your car. Yes, you can do it, but do you really want to?
If you want to do your own PR, let me know what other questions you have and maybe I’ll write a blog post, just for you, to help you figure it out.
If you decide you’re better off outsourcing PR, then of course, Contact us or check out our pricing:
