The Complete PR Handbook: How to Pitch Press the Right Way

Every month, I get countless emails from readers asking me how they can get better results from their PR efforts.

And every month, I tell them the same thing: rethink the way you approach PR.

Conventional PR focuses too much on the pitching process. I’ve seen countless marketers obsess over subject lines and salutations. While that is still crucial, for truly outstanding PR results, you have to think about your entire content-to-pitch process.

This means looking beyond the pitch and taking SEO and virality into account during content ideation.

I’m going to demystify the PR process below. Instead of focusing on pitching alone, I’m going to show you how to create content that gets you results, and how to approach press the right way.

Follow the strategies below to get stellar results from all your content and press efforts.

How to Approach PR

Traditionally, PR comes into the picture after the content creation process is over. Your content team pitches an idea, the marketing team approves it, and once the content is wrapped up, you call in the PR army to bring it to the press.

Can you see the problem with this approach?

For one, even though the PR team is supposed to be the one pitching the idea, they aren’t involved in the ideation process at all. They are simply handed a finished piece of content and expected to get it placed.

If you know the lean startup methodology, you can see why this approach doesn’t work. You create a “product” (i.e. your content) and then shop it around to “customers” (i.e. press). Whether the customers actually want the product is an afterthought.

The right way to approach PR is to reverse the entire process. Instead of creating content and spreading it around, you factor in what the press actually wants and create something accordingly. And when pitching, you make sure to give value before you ask for something in return.

This “backwards-first” approach is far more effective since it actually involves the stakeholders in content creation. You don’t just launch a finished product into an untested market; you consider what results you want, what the press desires, and create content that will actually deliver.

To make this approach work, you have to consider SEO and virality in the content creation process as well. You will do far better by creating something that will naturally attract links than by spamming others with link requests.

Below, I’ll show you the entire process, from brainstorming content ideas to pitching the press.

Part I – Brainstorming Content Ideas

A successful PR pitching process begins with content ideation.

This process is always strategic in nature. You don’t simply look at what your competitors are doing and create me-too blog posts. Instead, you have to develop new ideas based on what you want from your content (shares, backlinks) and what your target publications need.

I’ll show you a structured process for brainstorming new ideas below:

I. Figure Out Your Goals

The first step in the ideation process is to figure out what you actually want from your content – links, shares, press mentions, or new sign-ups. This will impact what kind of content you create and where you distribute it.

In most cases, your content goals will fit into one of these four categories:

• You want relevant backlinks: In this case, you want backlinks from relevant websites (i.e. an SEO company getting links from marketing blogs, not entertainment websites). Usually, these links trickle-in slowly over time as others discover and link to your content. Resource pages and tools work particularly well for such cases.
• You want shares: In this case, your goal is to get as many shares (and traffic) as you can get. To do this, you might create content with viral potential and distribute them on high-traffic, high-engagement blogs (think HuffPo). Instead of a slow trickle of backlinks, you might pick up a burst of backlinks quickly as other people discover your viral content. Visual, story-focused content works well for getting shares.
• You want press mentions: In some cases, you might want to pick up press mentions from marquee publications and mainstream media (think CNN or NYT). The traffic from these press mentions might not be as good or as engaged as a high quality, targeted blog, but it does wonders for your brand perception. Founder stories, unique insight and data-backed studies do well in such cases.
• You want new users: If you want to get new people to visit your site and sign-up for your service, you’ll want to deliver them something exceptionally valuable, with a promise of delivering more when they sign-up. Your distribution will focus on publications where your target audience currently hangs out. Thought pieces, how-tos, studies, etc. are useful in this situation.

Before you jump to the next section, take some time to clearly define what you want from your content marketing. Don’t just say “traffic”. Instead, write out exactly what you seek to accomplish – get backlinks, shares, press mentions, etc.

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