It used to be that you paid a PR team a ton of money to get you featured in the press.
Now, with sites like HARO and SourceBottle, you can pitch the media directly and get published in Forbes, Huffington Post, the New York Times, Business Insider, and even Oprah and it'll only cost you time.
I'm going to show you how.
I've spent years building my media pitching strategy. I've heard “no” many times, but I've also received that all-important “yes” email. And with over 100 press mentions, I know what it takes to become the news.
Here's the kicker, once you're known, journalists start approaching you to write contributor pieces. Free press is a great way to build your authority, scale your customer base, and get more media coverage. So let's get started.
Just tell me where to send it...
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A media pitch is a concise, personalized message to an editor or journalist at a magazine, newspaper, blog, podcast, radio, or television station. It's designed to entice the reporter or editor to contact you and learn more about your small business or brand.
It can be sent via email; or through direct messages on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; or you can call the journalist. You can also respond directly to a media pitch on sites like HARO, JustReachOut, and SourceBottle, to name a few.
No. A media pitch differs from a press release in its format and objective.
Think of your pitch as a snippet. The purpose of a media pitch is to spark interest in a reporter, enough that they want to know more and are prepared to contact you to get the full story.
So your pitch needs to deliver value and be relevant. An example of a great media pitch is to lead with data. Journalists are always on the lookout for compelling data trends.
You can also lead with personal stories and insights you gained. A few years ago a couple got a ton of media coverage by opening multiple credit cards and using them to get enough air miles to travel around the world for free.
Press releases, on the other hand, tell the whole story. They don't necessarily require a follow-up interview and can be published as-is. For example, your press release will include who, what, where, when, why, and how. It's the full message.
If you're wondering why pitch the media, I have five excellent reasons.
Imagine being able to say, I got featured in Forbes Magazine, Marie Claire, The Wall Street Journal, or Oprah. That would be huge.
Press mentions instantly elevate your credibility to a potential lead. Because if Forbes trusts you as an authority, a potential customer is more likely to trust you.
It also shortcuts the time it takes them to decide to buy.
70% of customers read up to 6 reviews before buying the product. They might speak to a salesperson, or sign up for your newsletter. The considering phase can take weeks. But not when you have some of the most influential publications vouching for you. Then it can take minutes.
Plus, you can then the media you've been interviewed by on the homepage of your website just like Susie Moore.
If you struggle with confidence, you're going to trust Susie to help you, because Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and the Today show all do. So media is crucial for elevating your social status.
Every published article typically includes a shirttail (this is your author bio) at the end of the article.
If the journalist just featured a quote from you, they'll include a backlink.
Curious readers can follow that link to your website to learn more about you which can lead to email sign-ups and product purchases. Money in your account.
These publications will also share your article on their social channels, and they might even syndicate the article to other publications.
You're getting in front of a whole new audience and it's cost you absolutely nothing. So you could spend thousands of dollars on paid advertising, or you could take a few hours to write a really great article that brings in consistent traffic every month.
I'll give you an example. I wrote an article a couple of years ago for Forbes on the importance of business systems. It's the #1 article for the keyword business systems. I also hold the #4 position. So I'm getting traffic from two sources.
So press mentions can lead to long-term traffic gains.
This is a term SEO experts love to throw around. A backlink is a hyperlink from one site to another.
However, not all backlinks are created equally. A backlink from a site with a high domain authority (your well-known media publications) is worth far more than a link from a low domain authority (a blogger).
Links from credible media sources boost your authority and domain ranking. This means Google and other search engines are more likely to rank new content you publish faster.
My article on What is direct response marketing has over 330 inbound links (backlinks). That's 330 chances of being found by leads looking to grow with marketing.
I started my media journey back in July of 2018. For the next year, I did at least four podcasts a month, and wrote contributor pieces in Business. com, Thrive Global, Lifehack, Forbes Magazine. I spoke at industry events, shared my book with Facebook Groups, and you know what, I doubled traffic to my website.
When I started my PR journey, I had one full-time team member and two part-time employees. By 2020 my team had grown to five full-time members.
More media coverage gets you in front of new audiences. High-value leads that might never have heard of you. Suddenly, my email list was getting 900 new leads every month.
Today, I typically get 1800 new email subscribers each month. I have a team of 12 employees, over 30 coaching clients, a course, a certification program, and great JV partners.
I fully credit my press mentions for building my authority and helping to scale my business to an 8-figure coaching consultancy. So if you want to grow your brand, invest in media opportunities.
Getting featured in the press can lead to more media opportunities and invitations to present at events like a Ted Talk.
As an unknown CNN won't invite you to share your opinion on a matter, even if you're an expert. But, if you've been featured in multiple well-known and respected publications, that call is certainly possible.
You can also charge to give a talk at an industry event. Imagine making $5,000 for talking to an audience, and your travel expenses were covered by the event. It doesn't have to be a dream.
I've spoken at SuperFastBusiness Live twice, and FORO-Go 3 in Mexico. I've also been featured in over 100 podcasts and media publications.
So it's much easier to be invited as a guest contributor or speaker once you've built a name for yourself in the media.
P. S. can you spot me? I'm giving a talk to over 2000 business owners in Mexico. That could be you.
What I love most about responding to media requests is you don't have to build a relationship with the journalist.
All you need is a pitch with a great hook.
The journalist already has an angle for their article. They're looking for a source to provide a new idea, data, or story to bolster their news piece.
Here are a few sites you can use to respond to media requests:
Free resources:
Paid-for resources:
For cold pitching, it’s your job to come up with a newsworthy idea or angle for a story. It needs to be relevant to the publication’s audience, and you have to sell it to the news team.
It's a lot more time-intensive than media pitching because you need to...
Pro tip: Ask an existing contributor or someone who has a relationship with that news outlet to introduce you. This gives you the best chance of getting your email opened, read, and your story published.
A successful media pitch includes 7 key elements. These are vital if you want to get your story featured.
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Just like in email marketing, subject lines are the heartbeat of your media pitch. Get it wrong and the journalist won't open your email. Journalists are masters at crafting eye-catching headlines, so make your subject line stand out.
Sites like Sharethrough Headline Optimizer help you to fine-tune your subject line.
To become a media source, you need to establish credibility. Explain what makes you qualified to speak on the story you're pitching. For example, what relevant information can you share that would make a journalist give your story a second look?
For example, to establish credibility you could write something like:
Hi (insert name),
I handle PR for Allan Dib, a successful entrepreneur and the bestselling author of The 1-Page Marketing Plan, named by Huffington Post as one of the top ten marketing books for small businesses.
Your previous work is vital to establishing you as an authority, so mention it early in your media pitch.
A lead is the story or idea. It's the juicy bit of information that gets journalists interested. It can be a news peg or a time peg. So a news peg focuses on a trending topic, whereas a time peg focuses on an upcoming event or date.
Was your brand picked up by a celebrity and featured on their Instagram account? Has your company created a viral moment?
What do you want the journalist to do next?
Be clear about the next steps. If you’ve enticed the editor with a few stats from a survey, offer to send the full report. They’ll know to contact you.
Take a stance. Include a contrary opinion. Even if the reporter doesn't feature your story, they may use your quote in a relevant article. Particularly when responding to HARO requests, you want to include a quote the publication can copy and paste into the articles they're writing.
Media pitching requires precision. It's not a time to waffle or show your talent for description. My tip is to be clear and concise but also demonstrate your value proposition. The best pitches create impact quickly. Using data is a great way to do this. Also consider taking a stand, sharing an opposing view, or whatever.
Here’s an example of a brief pitch.
Before signing off, you want to recap who the pitch is for, their title, and company URL, and include a headshot if possible.
And don't forget to thank the journalist for their time.
To stand out, you need to create interest and deliver value. Follow these top tips for pitching success.
When pitching media outlets, you want to follow their pitching guidelines. Most online publications will tell you if you must submit your media pitch to the editorial team or if you can email pitches directly to a journalist.
So in the research phase, you want to search for the following.
You also want to show you've done your research. For example, if you're pitching to be on a podcast, make sure you've listened to a few of the episodes.
HubSpot's Not Another State of Marketing Report found that emails with the reader's first name in the subject line had a higher clickthrough rate than those that didn't.
Remember, editors and journalists may receive hundreds of pitches each day, so personalizing the subject line gives you a leg up.
Do you want to pitch a news story, or is your goal to become a regular contributor? Your media pitch needs to convey your point clearly. So be direct but professional. Here's an example,
I'd like to write for Entrepreneur magazine as a contributor. What is the best way to apply?
or
I am looking to apply to write for Entrepreneur as a contributor. Are you the correct person to chat with?
Journalists who know you and like you are more open to running your story. Think about your inbox. You're more likely to open an email from someone you know, so it's vital to stay in touch with a journalist long after they've accepted your pitch.
Whether this means following their social account and liking or commenting on their posts, or emailing them to say you enjoyed an article they wrote, keep in touch.
Most journalist requests are time-sensitive. For the best chance of success, respond within 15 to 30 minutes of a HARO post going live. If you're cold pitching and the journalist likes your idea, you need to send through a completed article within 48 hours. Take too long, and they'll have forgotten about your story and will have moved on.
Do you have a substantial email database? Maybe you have a podcast that gets a ton of views or a social media page with tens of thousands of engaged followers?
Offering to share the published article or interview with your connections can give your media pitch the edge over someone who maybe doesn’t have a large target audience to promote it. So don’t be afraid to persuade. I would like to include this as a P.S., but you can add it above your contact details.
For example,
P. S. My email list comprises 45,000 owners/entrepreneurs of small businesses whom I’d share your article with. I’m also happy to promote the post on my social networks.
How you lay out your pitch can influence whether the journalist reads it or closes the email before looking at it.
Make the email as easy to read as possible. Approach it like you would a blog article (learn how to write a blog post for beginners here). Format your response to include:
Journalists are incredibly busy, and they receive thousands of pitches each week. You want to follow up on your pitch two or three days after emailing it. But don't make your subject line Re: (Original pitch subject line).
Read the requirements before doing anything. What is the journalist looking for? In the below example, they specifically say don't pitch if you're not a certified career coach or career expert.
You're just wasting your time and the journalists if you don’t meet those requirements.
Also, if they ask for 150 words on the benefits of email marketing, don’t overshoot and send them a mini-essay totaling 400 words. They won’t even read it.
Plus, you'll get a black mark in their book. So any future pitches will just go into their trash folder.
When is the pitch due? If you're using HARO they'll always state when the pitch is needed by.
If that's 11 PM EST on the 16th of March, emailing at 11 PM PST is too late.
I've done this before, where I haven't checked the deadline and spent time crafting a really great response. After hitting send, HARO quickly let me know submissions are closed.
Now it's not all doom and gloom. You can keep that pitch for future press opportunities, although there's no guarantee when a similar request will become available.
Lastly, can you make yourself available for an interview? If you’re not in the right time zone or prepared to get up in the wee hours of the morning, don’t pitch.
Media outlets have an editorial inquiries or editorial guidelines section. Sometimes, this can be a brief sentence in the tertiary menu of the site or an entire page.
Here they’ll list whom to pitch your ideas to.
Do your homework before emailing your pitch or reaching out to a journalist on Twitter. If you send it to the wrong person, it’ll get ignored. Send it to too many, and you’ll get blacklisted.
For example, in Forbes's editorial inquiries section, they lists exactly how to get in touch with their journalists.
Journalists are looking for sources with fresh ideas or a new take on a particular subject. They don’t want generic responses they’ve seen a couple hundred times.
They want to break the news. So don't pitch if you don’t have something compelling to share.
Remember, compelling could be a new take on an old idea. For example, the media gives a lot of attention to entrepreneurs who make their first million in their twenties.
But Laura Belgrade wrote an article about how she only made her first million in her 50s and why it's better. It speaks to millions of readers who are in their mid-40s or late 30s trying to start a viable business.
So using your personal story and giving a new spin on an old idea can be newsworthy.
There is no excuse bottle for spelling and grammar mistakes. With editorial assistant apps like Grammarly or the Hemingway App, you don't need to hire an editor to proofread your writing.
Mistakes make you look unprofessional and lazy. Also, be aware of American spelling vs British English.
As an Aussie, I'm constantly switching between the two. So make sure you spellcheck before hitting send on your pitch.
Make your pitch easy to read. If you send a wall of text, they’re not going to look at it. So use short sentences. Introduce bullet points, italics, numbers, bold, uppercase text, quotes, etc.
Use this framework:
Hi Name,
Short, brief introduction. Mention why you'd be a great expert.
Restate the journalist questions example - What unique and inviting ways have you remade your office to make it more appealing to employees?
Suggest three or four ideas as a list or bullet points.
Author bio
contact details - email, business URL, point of contact. S
P.S. Give them a reason to choose you. For example, if you have a large social media following, or an engaged email list, mention you'll share the article with your audience if they choose you.
Media pitching doesn't need to be scary or the job of PR professionals. I've used these templates to get featured in over 60 media publications and about the same number of podcasts.
Hi (journalist’s name),
I know you're one of the editors at Entrepreneur, I'm a good friend of (state the mutual connection) who (contributes to your magazine, was featured on your show, etc). He/she mentioned I should reach out.
(Introduce yourself and establish credibility. If you’ve been mentioned in the press or are a regular contributor to a particular publication, list it).
Every day I help small to medium-sized businesses across the U. S. troubleshoot their marketing. These four mistakes kept cropping up, so I wrote a piece on how to fail at small business marketing, and actionable tips to turn it around.
Check it out here: (include clickable link)
If you like what you see, and you’re interested, here are three other ideas that I want to flesh out for your (name of magazine/show).
Happy to chat if you need more info, I’ve got tons of great insight and data to share with the readers of (publication or podcast name).
All the best,
- (Insert name)
P. S. My mailing list comprises roughly X (state who your target audience is) whom I’d share the article with. I’m also happy to promote the post on my social networks. (If you have a podcast, include it here as well. )
Hey (insert name),
(Business name or authority) is a fan of (insert podcast name) and loved the recent episode where you talked about (podcast topic).
(Establish credibility and mention why you’re a good fit guest for the podcast. Tailor this part to the podcast as well.)
Here's why (he/she) would be an excellent fit for your show.
Would you be interested in having (him/her) on as a guest? (Name) has been interviewed on several podcasts, here are just some of them:
Here are two ideas we’d love to focus on during the interview:
Topic #1—
(Review the podcast episode titles and write a topic that fits in but still creates buzz. Make sure it’s relevant to their audience.)
Topic #2—
(...And another one here.)
Curious to hear your thoughts.
Thanks so much,
- (Your name)
P. S. We’d be happy to share your podcast with (mention # of email list subscribers), and we’d include a short audio clip on social media, linking to your account and the full podcast.
Here’s an example of a podcast pitch that resulted in a response.
Subject line: Pitch: (Include the journalist’s request)
Hi (insert name),
(Introduce who you are and establish credibility—basically a short bio that highlights your experience and mentions noteworthy info. Tell the journalist why they should choose your pitch.)
(Include a teaser line that relates to the journalist’s request and possibly takes a stand.)
(REPEAT/REPHRASE THE JOURNALIST’S QUESTION.)
(Add your sound bite quote. Keep it short and punchy. Use emotive language. Add personality to your response. Remember the journalist should be able to copy and paste your quote directly into their article.)
(Include another great quote. One sentence is best.)
...
(Then sign off your email pitch and let them know if you’re available to chat. Mention you’ve got tons of great advice and data to back up their story, and if you have a large social following or customer database, you’ll want to let the journalist know (as this can influence their decision to use your post or not). Say you’d be happy to share the article with this list.
All the best,
(Your name)
(Business name or your designation)
(Web address)
(Include a link to a cloud-based folder that contains web-ready visuals for the journalist.)
Take a look at this example. It highlights the journalist’s questions in bold and includes short, compelling answers.
Getting featured in Forbes isn't easy. I could have waited years and never been approached to write for the publication.
I joined the Forbes Coaches Council, a paid program. It was worth it to be able to say, I'm a Forbes published writer. I've had several publicity pieces published.
But much like HARO, their journalists are always looking for expert opinions. You can pitch one tip and have that published in a story they're running. I've included an example below.
Some of these stories get featured on the home page, so if you're a coach or consultant looking to elevate your brand, I'd definitely consider it.
Writing a media pitch doesn't have to be hard, but it is a numbers game.
Businesses worldwide are trying to get coverage for their brand. Many use PR agencies who've spent years writing media pitches and building relationships with journalists.
Follow the tips listed above, and you'll give your stories a fighting chance.
Remember, media pitches and press releases are not the same, but both should be a part of your PR strategy. If you want to learn how to write a press release, check out the link.
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