Five Tips for Successful Media Relations Efforts

It’s no surprise that earned media has been turned completely on its head in the past few months. Akin to 2008, journalists are being laid off, and media outlets are shuttering. As this happens, the media relations pool gets smaller and smaller.

When we refreshed the PESO Model© graphic this year, we took a hard look at the earned media category because everything has changed, and media relations have become much more challenging.

We added things like customer reviews, the TikTok news anchor, and going old school and leaving comments on content to build relationships. 

Even with those things, media relations are still incredibly important. You can still earn that credibility, but you have to be really smart and savvy about how you go about it.

Make Your Earned Media Relevant

One of these days, I’m going to invite you into my inbox—and then we’ll take a look at the support inbox for Spin Sucks. It will give you an in-depth look at how PR pros (and some SEO specialists) are pitching. 

And it is U-G-L-Y.

In the past two days, we have received 58 pitches for guests for the Spin Sucks podcast. It always makes me roll my eyes when the pitch starts out with, “I’ve just listened to a few of your most recent episodes and love the guests you’ve had on recently.” 

If that isn’t the laziest—and most dishonest—thing ever! Outside of cameos from the small human living in our house, we have never had a guest on the podcast.

Come on, people. Do your homework. Don’t fake it. Every blogger, podcaster, influencer, and journalist will see right through you…and that’s why your earned media efforts are dismal. 

In addition to the podcast pitches, in the past week, we’ve received pitches for Father's Day, books about weight loss, skincare products, NFT stories, a cannabis conference in Tokyo, and Chicago entrepreneurs. They at least get the Chicago part right with that latter one, but still, it is not something we cover.

This. This is why your earned media results are so dismal. It has nothing to do with how challenging media relations has become and everything to do with your irrelevant pitches.

Tip number one: make your pitches relevant and shorten the list of who you’re pitching. That will increase your results exponentially. Don’t be lazy. Do your research. And target the right people. 

Done and done.

Follow Email Marketing Best Practices

In lots of research from the PR industry vendors, almost everyone finds that journalists respond the most to subject lines between one and five words. That’s it. Don’t write long subject lines or make them longer than five words.

Every email marketer on earth has figured this out—they know that short subject lines are the way to go. Just Google “email subject line best practices,” and you’ll be rewarded with content from HubSpot, Mailchimp, Salesforce, and the Content Marketing Institute. 

I know you’re not technically an email marketer, but when you use email to pitch a journalist, that’s what you do. Use the best practices that cover the internet. They’re not hard to find, and you’ll find far more success when using those tips than trying to shove everything about your pitch into the subject line.

Tip number two: follow the best practices of the best email marketers. Do your homework. Test different subject lines with different journalists. Write short ones. And make a note of what works—and what does not.

Learn How to Optimize Your Pitches

How many links and/or attachments do you include in your pitches? Research shows that most communicators use four or more links, and some still send attachments. Gasp!

Please, please, please do not send attachments. Not only are they likely getting caught in spam filters, lowering your chance of the journalist even seeing your email, but pretty much every organization on earth has an edict that you don’t open attachments from someone you don’t know. This is how people are hacked, and systems are taken down.

Do. Not. Send. Attachments.

And, like subject lines, optimization experts offer many best practices for including as many calls to action (or links, to put it another way) as possible in an email.

How many do you think are recommended?

One. One call-to-action. Not four. One.

When you send multiple links in your pitch, you divide their attention and overwhelm them. Include one link. One.

This brings me to tip number three: follow the best practices of the optimization experts. Without having to Google it, I can tell you the best practice is one link—one call to action. But do your homework, research best practices, and treat your media relations efforts like you’re optimizing for success.

Comments Still Work

When did you last leave a really good comment on a journalist’s or blogger’s content? It’s probably been a hot minute because comments went out of style with the pandemic. But they’re back, and they’re better than ever!

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are some people who are using AI to write their comments. Please do not do that. AI is great for some things but cannot replace how you think about something you just watched, listened to, or read (not yet). I know there is a lot to do every day—and I just recommended you do your research when you pitch someone—but this is one of the easiest ways to get the attention of someone you need to pitch quickly. 

Most journalists still post their content to Twitter, aka X, and some have moved to Reddit and LinkedIn. You don’t have to be connected with them in any of those spots to comment on their content.

Tip number four is commenting on content. As you consider how to incorporate this into your comms plan—building awareness for the organization, thought leadership for the executives, and subject matter expertise for colleagues—remember that reputation is your currency. Every comment you make is an opportunity to enhance your reputation.

Measure Your Earned Media Efforts

Which brings me to…measurement. 

My favorite subject! It’s both challenging and presents huge opportunities for you to shine.

One of the things we focus on for an entire module of the PESO Model Certification© is measurement. We must stop hiding behind media impressions and advertising equivalencies and begin to show how our work contributes to the organization’s success. 

I don’t care what type of organization you work for, either. The “oh, we don’t measure results like a normal business does” excuse is getting old. Because it’s just an excuse. You absolutely can measure results toward the things the organization measures.

We measure first- or last-touch attribution depending on the business and the goals. We haven’t gotten to multi-touch attribution, but you can measure outcomes. If you missed the article on how to do that and use CoverageImpact to show results, please read it.

But for now, use your earned media efforts to show first-touch attribution, which means when a person first came to your website, how did they find you?

In some cases, it might be a Google search. In others, it might be a paid ad. And, in others, it most certainly is because of your media relations efforts. 

All it takes is Google Analytics and a basic understanding of how to read the reports so you can measure effectiveness.

If you don’t know how to do this—or you aren’t clear on what attribution even means—there is a ton of content on Spin Sucks that speaks to it. Just do a search on the site for “attribution” or “measurement” and you’ll find what you’re looking for.

If you want to learn it deeply and implement it quickly, I would be remiss by not encouraging you to get PESO Model© certified. It will teach you everything you need to know—and give you the tools to do it.

This leads me to tip number five: learn what it means to include first-touch attribution in your results reporting and implement it immediately. If you want more sources than Spin Sucks, just Google “PR measurement” and “first-touch attribution.” 

Five Tips for Perfect Earned Media

To recap the five tips for perfect earned media, they are:

1. Make your pitches relevant to the human being you are pitching.

2. Follow the best practices of email marketers.

3. Follow the best practices of conversion rate optimization experts.

4. Re-master the art of commenting

5. Learn how to measure your efforts beyond metrics that aren’t real (cough, media impressions and advertising equivalencies, cough).