It was an absolute pleasure to have Danielle Moore, our student intern, on board with the Blogger Babes team from August – December 2015. With her professionalism, promptness, and determination, Danielle demonstrated keen skill and excelled in every task we gave her! You may not have seen our PR girl at work, but before she leaves, she’s written a series of three posts to help you get your PR girl on, too. We’ll miss you, Danielle! –Ponn
How confident are you about your blog’s growing brand?
We know you’re working hard to improve your blog’s visuals, mailing list, content, social media, and profitable brand engagement, so what better way to assert your blogging expertise than with media relations? From guest blogging to being quoted in articles, bloggers can increase their reach and notoriety by engaging with media outlets that their readers care about. After all, the hard work you’ve put in deserves some attention!
As the Blogger Babes network continues to grow and work on our own media relations efforts, we want to share some of the insights we’ve gained with you. Here are five tips to help you get your PR girl on.
5 Steps to Pitching Guest Posts to Media
1. Build a Relevant Media List
What media outlets do you love? Which ones cover topics relevant to your niche?
Identify online and print news outlets, newsletters, magazines, or even other blogs that write about content related to your own.
Next, do some digging to find out who is writing the relevant articles at each outlet. Most writers have a “beat,” or topic area, they stick to when looking for stories to cover. Start a spreadsheet capturing each journalist’s:
- name,
- outlet,
- beat, and
- email address.
Voilà! You have yourself the beginnings of a media list! Now keep adding to it.
2. Start Small When Pitching
Now that you have a list of people to reach out to, start your pitching efforts with small-scale media outlets until you gain a few placements.
Think of it as building your resume of featured articles and quotes. You don’t want to start off reaching out to the Huffington Post or The New York Times. Gaining media attention is no easy task, and the big outlets want to see some prior experience under your belt.
Instead, choose a variety of local and smaller publications whose audience would care about what you have to say.
3. Think Like a Journalist
As you send emails to the contacts on your media list, keep them short and catchy.
Journalists see TONS of pitches and press releases daily. While your email itself should be very brief and targeted to their beat, provide as much additional information as you see fit in attachments. Your blog logo, headshot, and a brief profile should definitely be included.
Ultimately, you want to provide anything they might need and give them the option to use you for guest posts or for simply providing a comment.
4. Build Relationships
At its core, media relations is about relationships. Even if an outlet is unable to give you coverage immediately, be polite and maintain contact with the people to whom you reached out. Media is all about timing, so you never know – they may reach out to you later down the line.
5. Follow Up
It’s no secret that gaining media placement is difficult (even for PR professionals), but it’s not impossible. Following up on your initial email by picking up the phone just may make the difference. A polite call recapping your pitch can go a long way. The point here is to be persistent and respectful. If they are plainly uninterested, move on.
As you embark on your media relations journey, remember – pitching is an art, not a science! Good luck!
How do you pitch your guest posts to other blogs? What do you think of ours? Share some of your tips for pitching success in the comments below!