Targeting the Right Writers

When pulling media lists for clients or for your own use, most of us are tied to either Cision or Vocus as the database of media outlets and contacts. These companies spend hours interviewing those in their list and cataloging them into viable categories so that we may easily create lists to then send press releases or media inquiries to in a flash. While this is a good place to start, let’s also talk about the limitations and additional ways to help narrow that list to reach a more appropriate target.

For clients of record, or for those of you handling your own in-house PR, it is always best to subscribe to the publications and blogs that fall into your categories. READ the articles and get to know the writers. You will find that most feature writers will focus on the same bevy of topics over and over and thus show you what stories they are most interested in as a whole. The same goes for television.

Why does this help?

Let’s take TheOrganicBistro.com as an example. This client has multiple story angles including: food, organic, diabetes, celiac disease, gluten-free, woman-owned business, and local business. When pulling their multiple media list in these categories we uncover over 10,000 possible contacts. Now, recently, we had a release for them detailing their addition of products and the increase in the number of stores carrying their product. Where do we send this? Well, logically, we want to reach business publications in hopes of having them showcased as an ongoing success story of a small business in this arena. So, we could simply send to their media list entitled “small business pubs/outlets” right?

True and False.

While that list is a proper target from initial glance, it may not be the case. Those listed in this database are writers that cover all facets of small business – finance, marketing, investor relations, technology, etc. Therefore, we have to spend hours going through each of those listings to determine their exact beats and interests. And, in many cases, that information isn’t available in the database itself, so we have to explore the publication/show ourselves.

While it seems like a lot of work, it is well worth the time to (a) make sure you are giving your client the best target possible, and (b) not making media personnel upset by sending them things that don’t apply.

Targeting the Right Writers

When pulling media lists for clients or for your own use, most of us are tied to either Cision or Vocus as the database of media outlets and contacts. These companies spend hours interviewing those in their list and cataloging them into viable categories so that we may easily create lists to then send press releases or media inquiries to in a flash. While this is a good place to start, let’s also talk about the limitations and additional ways to help narrow that list to reach a more appropriate target.

For clients of record, or for those of you handling your own in-house PR, it is always best to subscribe to the publications and blogs that fall into your categories. READ the articles and get to know the writers. You will find that most feature writers will focus on the same bevy of topics over and over and thus show you what stories they are most interested in as a whole. The same goes for television.

Why does this help?

Let’s take TheOrganicBistro.com as an example. This client has multiple story angles including: food, organic, diabetes, celiac disease, gluten-free, woman-owned business, and local business. When pulling their multiple media list in these categories we uncover over 10,000 possible contacts. Now, recently, we had a release for them detailing their addition of products and the increase in the number of stores carrying their product. Where do we send this? Well, logically, we want to reach business publications in hopes of having them showcased as an ongoing success story of a small business in this arena. So, we could simply send to their media list entitled “small business pubs/outlets” right?

True and False.

While that list is a proper target from initial glance, it may not be the case. Those listed in this database are writers that cover all facets of small business – finance, marketing, investor relations, technology, etc. Therefore, we have to spend hours going through each of those listings to determine their exact beats and interests. And, in many cases, that information isn’t available in the database itself, so we have to explore the publication/show ourselves.

While it seems like a lot of work, it is well worth the time to (a) make sure you are giving your client the best target possible, and (b) not making media personnel upset by sending them things that don’t apply.

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