Having a solid PR Strategy and pitching the story of your campaign to relevant media sources is a great way to get exposure and build the public narrative around your project. It can be daunting to reach out to media, journalists or bloggers and ask them to cover little old you when the daily news machine is churning out #viral stories faster than you can swipe to the next TikTok.
But if you put in the hard work and use these steps we’ve outlined below, you can maximize the potential media reach that your campaign can achieve!
Collect your contacts
Compiling a quality media contact list is the most important step in any PR campaign. Make sure to do your research and target the most relevant journalists and editors. There is nothing worse than contacting a political reporter about your new fashion label. Try and be specific and get the name and personal email of the reporter you are trying to get to cover your story.
Start identifying relevant people to contact by looking for journalists who have written articles about a campaign similar to yours, or stories similar to the one you want to pitch to them. Hopefully you already have some idea of the credible voices that you’d like to tell your story, but if not take the time to read some previous articles to get a feel for the tone of the author.
This takes a lot of time and effort, but the quality of your media list will get you far better results in the long run. This is also not just a once-off activity; as you start to build out your list and make connections, you can store these in a safe place to engage with for future campaigns relevant to their publication.
Timing
The media reports on newsworthy topics with proven interest, so before approaching a journalist ensure you have secured over 30% of pledges already (toward your minimum target) to prove there is a genuine public interest in your campaign. This means using other promotional strategies to gain some momentum before you send off your press release. It can also be useful to follow current #trends and try to capitalise on timely events or stories to make your campaign more relevant.
You can also prepare several pitches to send out to different publications at key milestones throughout your campaign. For example, send one after you reach the 30% mark in the first few weeks, when you’re over 80% and are counting down the final days and then even to announce a stretch target!
Writing a press release
Journalists don’t have all day to read your press releases. In fact, many of them receive hundreds of press releases each week with only a small amount of articles that actually make it to publication. The last thing they need is another 1000 word press release — they’ll just delete it and get on with their day.
If you really want to impress them, write a great pitch email — keep it simple, to the point and tell them exactly what you think. Include eye-catching visuals and sell the main points of your story in a way that will appeal to them and their audience. Make sure your email subject line is eye-catching and sums your project up in a few words.
Keep your press release to a maximum of 500 words and include a link to your crowdfunding campaign, high-quality images, videos and a link to your media kit with logos and everything else they may need.
Phone pitch
We mentioned above that many journalists and editors receive hundreds and thousands of press releases and potential stories each week. This means most go unseen. The best way to grab a journalists attention is to get on the phone and talk to them.
How do you know when to call them? If you haven’t received a reply to your email in 48 hours, it’s time to pick up the phone.
Nobody likes a long pitch. Make sure to keep it under 5 minutes by simply outlining the who, what, where, when, why and how of the story you’re pitching. Be prepared to answer any follow-up questions they may have and show your passion for this project.
Ensure that you practice before picking up the phone and try to anticipate what questions the journalist might have and plan what your answers to those questions will be.
