When working in PR, a press list is one of the key assets for your company and your story. An accurate press list is half the battle for obtaining great press coverage, creating brand awareness and achieving better results in the long run.
A press list is as simple as a document with details of specific journalists, bloggers, writers, editors and influencers who write about your niche or subject area. This list should include their name, title, name of the publication they write for, email address and phone number.
While it is easy to gather names from different publications for your press list, this may lead nowhere if you don’t research and understand your target audience and the media that matter most to your business.
To ensure the best press list for your story, here are some initial steps you can follow to guarantee impressive results for coverage and beyond.
The first step to creating your optimal press list is to understand your business’ audience. Ask yourself: what publications do my audience read? Do they consume more online publications than social media? Online or radio? What is the precise segment for my story: technology, beauty, food, politics?
Write down all these specifics relating to your brand in a document. If your company is active in more than one segment, maybe create different tabs in the same spreadsheet.
After gaining an understanding of your audience and business, it is time to do some research. Google story titles and keywords that are relevant to your industry, bearing in mind the questions above.
Take a look at the publications that appear and make a note of the journalists, segments and publications which regularly write about your industry, product, and/or service. For instance, if you are looking to publish a story about tech gadgets, you’ll need to identify the journalists who cover that particular section. Look at articles written about your subject area in target publications, and note the journalists who wrote these stories.
Once you have your ideal press list, it is always important to maintain relationships with these contacts beyond your story pitches. When approaching them, make sure your emails are personal – mention the publications they write for, or a previous article they’ve written on the same topic. Get noticed by noticing their work.
If you are starting out, mid-tier blogs and publications are just as important as the top outlets, if not more so. A good strategy is to establish some credibility with smaller and segmented media outlets before scaling up.
This personal press list should become your biggest ally for getting press coverage and the right kind of attention from the media. And remember, even if your brand is already well established, every time a story in a different segment comes up you should try to follow these same steps to understand the niche. Good luck!
This blog post is part of our quick PR guide. Check our blog or follow our social media channels (@sherlockcomms) to learn more and read the latest content written by our team.
