Good Public Relations Starts with Good Media Lists

By Mike Epifanio

 

As a media professional who’s been on both sides of the “pitch,” for 30 years, I’ve learned a few timeless lessons about good public relations practices that I hope you might find helpful in increasing the effectiveness of your publicity efforts.

Public relations in its simplest form is the act or process of maintaining the public image of a company, organization, or individual. Publicists have a few tools at their disposal, and most are available at very low cost or no cost at all. Effective public relations can deliver the best return on investment of any marketing activity.

If you have the Microsoft Office suite, you have most of what you’ll need: A word processing app like Microsoft Word to draft your press releases, a spreadsheet program to build and maintain your media list, and an email client like Outlook to distribute your press releases to journalists and editors.

Depending on the subject of the press release, integrating the messaging of the release with a social media campaign is another free tool (more on this next month). Unless you’re doing corporate PR or your company is willing to pay for a wire service, the biggest investment you’ll make in PR is time. The more time you can spend on building media lists, and building relationships with those on your lists, the more effective your publicity efforts will be.

 

Build a Media List for Each Press Release

At Performance Marketing, we handle public relations for dozens of clients, each as different as the day is long. These clients operate in different industries and in varying locations throughout the country. Our PR efforts begin with building media lists in spreadsheets for each client and most often for each press release.

Building a media list requires research into the media outlets that you would like publish your client’s or company’s news item. You should identify any trade publications that cover your industry, as well as the daily newspapers and community weeklies and monthlies that cover the geographic area where your company is located. In your spreadsheet, include the name of the media outlet, an email address to submit press releases, and if possible, the name and title of each editor or journalist and their phone number along with other notes (e.g. how to pronounce their name, or what days of the week they publish, or their coverage area).

You should never be “finished” compiling your media list. It is always a “living” document that requires updates before and after every single press release you distribute. Journalists move on to different media organizations and sometimes get reassigned to other coverage areas, so it’s best to keep your list updated continuously.

 

Next month’s blog on PR: The Importance of Building Relationships with Journalists

 

If your company needs professional public relations services, including writing and getting press releases published in the media outlets your potential customers read, call Performance Marketing today at 609-646-0414 or e-mail mepifanio@callpm.com.