Tweet

Back To Basics - Your Press List

Written by: Paula Gardner

Article Overview: Paula Gardner looks at ways to build and increase your media contacts list.

Back To Basics - Your Press List



You are only as good as your press list. You can put together the most fantastic press release, but if the wrong people see it, it’s worthless.

Putting together a press list is something my clients struggle with because..well..it’s boring. But it has to be done, so my suggestion is to get on with it, or delegate it to an assistant, confident teenager or intern. Here are some suggestions that might make it easier.

1. Who is Your Target Market

Is it local? Who are you aiming at – parents? Schools?

2. Build A Library

This could be the local papers, national newspapers, local newsletters and magazines, radio stations, what’s on and listing websites.

Get copies of any that are printed.

If you’re stuck on titles, The Guardian Media Directory, available from the Guardian website, is a good investment at under £20.

3. Set Up Your List

This could be on a simple Excel sheet, or a newsletter service such as Constant Contact. The advantage of the latter is that you can track clicks so that you know which releases get the most attention.

You may have more than one target name for each publication. In the case of a local newspaper you may have the News Editor, a family writer, women’s page editor and Features Ed. On a radio show you may be contacting the Assistant Producer, Forwarding Programming and Researcher.

4. Get To Know Your Publications



Good PR is not just a case of sending out press releases to everyone and hoping that one of them will stick. Looking at publications or listening to radio show shows and coming up with ideas and angles that suit them is vital.

If you have a team you can assign particular publications to particular people.

Boosting Your Press List

Media Requests



They are requests for case studies or quotes from journalists. They sometimes post them in Internet forums or send out to networking groups.

I have a service at where I send gather media requests and email them to clients. One of the users of my service is Susan Heaton Wright of entertainment company NSN-Productions who has been in Essentials, Prima, Leith FM, The Secretary, a number of trade hospitality publications and an over 60s publication in matter of months, simply by responding to requests.

Susan has been doing well, but she admits that it's been a bit of a learning curve. "I started off only approaching smaller titles, but I've learnt that you have to just pick up the courage and go for it."

What About Freelancers?

Freelancers are hard to find.

Some groups of journalists like Travel Journalists, or the Circle of Wine Writers, have their own association and you can buy a list of journalists or members.

If you see something written by a person you think is a freelancer, Google them. Freelance Journalists are business people and most of them have their own website, Facebook page or something similar.

Some publications do print a freelancer’s email address at the bottom of an article. Often it’s a generic paula.gardner@telegraph.co.uk but it’s better than nothing.

I have another Divine Publicity Club member, Kate, who hardly ever responds to requests but has been using the requests to gather a list of freelance journalists that she now communicates with via tips and press releases. She admits that it would have been hard and time-consuming to come by her list any other way.

Related Articles
  Millionaire Internet Marketing Basics! ~SUCCESS SECRETS EXPOSED
  Writing An Attention Getting Press Release
  Hiring a PR Consultant
  5 Benefits of Publishing a Press Release
  Understanding Media and Publicity for your Business

Article Tags: angles, assistant producer, constant contact, excel sheet, guardian website, local papers, media directory, media requests, national newspapers, nbsp, news editor, newsletter service, press release, press releases, radio show, radio stations, researcher, target market, target name, teenager



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing - In order to write a press release, you must determine the subject of your story. It can be about an event that affects your industry, or it can be about a change in your company that will affect your customer base. Press releases are in all actuality ‘cookie cutter’. Once you get the hang of writing them, all you have to do is fill in the blanks. Press releases conform to an established format.
Re: I'm Back - Welcome Back! Hope you are doing great and looking forward to hearing from you.. Jude
Press Release Builder Tool - Hi Shri - I would be happy to. What do you need from me? Please PM me the details. Also, if anybody has suggestions for how to make the Press Release Builder Tool more valuable please let me know!
Re: How do you make the most of your day? - Here are a couple things I do to get lots done. First, I work from a weekly To Do List (although I should call it an Action List) rather than a daily list. Each item on the list must be one specific action required to move one step closer to accomplishing or finishing something. It's similar to what Robert Alan talks about. Each day I prioritize 3 actions that must be completed before the end of the day. I fully commit to those actions. Second, when I really need to focus on something to get the most done possible I work in timed 50 minute increments. That may sound a little loopy but it really works for me plus I feel refreshed working that way. So I literally have a little timer on my desktop that I set to count down from 50 minutes to zero. During that 50 minutes I work without interruption. When the timer goes off I stop whatever I'm doing and take a 10 minute break. You can get an incredible amount of work done working that way without feeling like you're working hard. I don't schedule 8 of those 50 minute time periods because there isn't a need to plus I'm sure you would wear out if you did. If you haven't tried this you might want to give it a try setting just two 50 minute time periods for a couple days and fiercely keeping them without interruptions to see what I mean. I'd love to hear about your experience and any other kind of quirky things that work.
Re: Social Bookmarking Site List - Good List - over time these resources will be weeded out though . . . look for the tools that are more used to organize, well, tools. Addthis has done a great job of that - its like everyone inventing the wheel at once sometimes however.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Golden Rule of Communications

Let's Skip the Offshore Horror Stories

Using Social Media Marketing

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.