As a business coach and mentor, I talk to CEOs a lot, and all the time, whether it be personal, via email or even by phone.

My most successful pitches with the media have come from using the good old telephone, not by sending them an email! Step 3 in landing Free PR is from picking up the phone.

Every writer wakes up every day, goes to their office, sits down at their desk, stares at their computer and thinks, “What the hell am I going to write about today?”.

They’re not looking at their email. They’re sitting trying to get inspired to write about something.

When the phone rings, they’ll answer it.

Now, when editors go to their offices, they sit in front of a heaping stack of press releases.  The releases came in over the newswire, over email, and over fax, and guess what the editor does for the first two hours every day? He or she rejects almost all of those press releases.

Given a choice, would you call the editor who says “no” all day, or the writer who is just waiting for inspiration? You call the writer, of course!

That’s why I’ve always treated PR like a sales role–it involves picking up the phone and selling the writer to your story.

Everyone else in PR is busy pitching to a grouchy editor with a penchant for saying “no,” while you’re going right to the content producer—the writer.

There’s no competition!

So switch your focus to the writers and:
·      Know your angle
·      Know your target
·      Pick up the phone

Here is the 2nd step on how you can get free PR:

Step 2.  Know Your Target

Every media outlet targets different types of readers or viewers.  When you’re pitching your stories to writers, keep their audience in mind and ask yourself these questions:

• Why will their audience care?

• Why will your story help their audience purchase the magazine or tell people about the show they watched? Will it help them sell more advertising?
  

Bloomberg typically covers financial news about publicly traded companies.  If you already know that, and you’re pitching Bloomberg, make sure you’re not a privately held company.

Oprah typically has emotional, heart-rending stories. Don’t try to sell her producers anything but stories that fit this description.

Even in your city, different newspapers may lean further to the left or right in their coverage. Be aware of that before pitching anyone who works at these publications.  Keep this in mind to land free media coverage.

Forbes typically covers bigger businesses like Apple & Starbucks. You might want to re-think trying to sell a reporter on covering your small business. Inc., on the other hand, covers start-ups.  If you have a small business, consider this a green light to pitch stories about why yours is so unique. Their readers just might care.  Free media coverage will be yours for the taking if you follow this step.

There are some important questions to ask yourself in order to determine your angle: What is your story idea, and how will you pitch it to writers?

When you started your business and tried to explain it to your spouse, your banker, or your parents, you probably told them a story about how your great idea came about. Those stories–whatever you were saying to them to convince them about your great idea–consisted of three or four angles that make your business stand out.

·      “I’m going to be successful because I’m a female entrepreneur.”

·      “I’m married and I run this company with my spouse.”

·      “I’m going to become successful because I quit my job to do this.”

·      “I dropped out of school to pursue this business idea.”

Any of those explanations is a potential story.  When you read through newspapers and magazines from now on, be certain to read with two different “lenses”: one that reads for enjoyment, and one that identifies potential angles that reporters use to create interesting stories. By engaging yourself in this way, you’ll start to see potential angles everywhere.

Potential angles could include:

·      Your sales approach or strategy

·      Your advertising and marketing methods

·      The systems you use to run your business

·      Your product’s features

·      How you use IT to run your business

·      Your personal entrepreneur story

·      Lessons from the edge when you almost lost your company

·      Charity projects or efforts to give back to your community

·      Stories about how you created your signature corporate culture

·      Strategic alliances you’ve established

·      Stories about specific employees

I‘ll be posting a worksheet with more specifics soon. Subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on Twitter to get notified when I do.