The media is hungry for interesting stories that they can share with their readers, listeners, or viewers. As a start-up founder, you will probably have to pitch your business to journalists dozens of times before getting any traction. If you get it right, the payoff could be huge.
A mention in the media could lead to increased traffic to your website, references from other publications and potential partnerships with third parties. It also helps build brand awareness, trust, and loyalty amongst customers as well as investors. The first step is identifying which journalists are likely to cover your story and make sure you have something newsworthy to offer them.
Define what newsworthy means for your business
One of the first things you need to do is define what “newsworthy” means for your company. There are no hard and fast rules here only general guidelines to follow. Think about the following points when defining newsworthiness for your start-up.
Relevance. The topic of your story needs to be relevant and timely. For example, if your company’s main product is a blockchain-based supply chain solution, you wouldn’t want to pitch an article about this to The Times two months after the crypto boom.
Originality. Your business story should be original. Don’t pitch a story about your business model to every publication out there. Instead, pick one or two publications that would be relevant for your business and target them.
Credibility. Your story should be credible. It is important to back it up with evidence, preferably data. Look to provide expert quotes or data from relevant third-party sources that support your business or approach. You need to show that you’re an expert in the field who can be trusted.
Create a media list
Start by creating a media list. This is a list of journalists, bloggers, editors, and other media contacts who should be interested in covering your story. It’s a good idea to start with a list of publications and outlets relevant to your business. Your list should also include online publications, both general and industry-specific plus blogs and individual journalists who publish their work on their own websites. You should also include your local or national TV and radio news stations and even general interest publications like Forbes. There are many strategies for building a media list. Here are some ideas:
Start with your network. Identify people in your network who work in the media and would be interested in your story. Reach out to them and ask if they would cover your story.
Use automated tools. Tools like Outreach.io or Muck Rack can help you find journalists who are interested in covering your industry or your product and are easy to reach out to.
Target your local journalists. Depending on your location, there might be local publications covering start-ups, technology and other industries specific to your location.
Know your talking points
Next, you need to know your talking points. This is the basic outline of what you want to say and will help you when you are pitching journalists. The best way to approach this is to have a one-page elevator pitch that you can refer to when speaking with the media. This is the 30-second summary or pitch that will get journalists interested in your story. There are a couple of ways you can create your elevator pitch. You can start with the five W’s (who, what, where, when, why) and then condense it into a sentence using the two W’s (who, what).
Create a tailored pitch
It’s important to remember that while journalists are interested in your story, they are also very busy people who get pitched hundreds of times every week. You need to stand out, be concise and get to the point. Your pitch should include the following information:
Who you are (name, job title and company name)
The problem your product solves and why it’s important
Features of your product or service
The potential impact of your business on the industry and/or society
How you plan to make money
What type of story you want the publication to run (i.e. cover your product or company, interview you or run a press release)
Provide your contact information
Giveaway something valuable for free
Before you start pitching the media, you can also give away something valuable for free such as content or consulting services. This can help you get your foot in the door with journalists who are not yet familiar with your company. You can also leverage this opportunity to pitch these journalists on writing about your business or product, even if you don’t expect to get a link back to your site. At the same time, pitching journalists with a free product or service in exchange for a link back to your website is called link bait or link baiting. This is when you create content to entice the media to link back to your website. There are two main types of link bait:
Evergreen content: This includes long-form articles such as in-depth guides that you can rewrite and publish multiple times on different websites.
Time-sensitive content: This includes articles that are relevant only during a certain timeframe, such as a product review published on launch day.
Bottom line
Pitching the media can be challenging, but it is also an effective way to get your company’s name out there. While the time and effort required to find and pitch the right media contacts can seem daunting, the payoff is worth it.