Is How to get in Forbes at the top of your Google history? Have everything you stumbled upon involve handing over thousands of posts or emailing a generic email? Perhaps you’ve even had the classic DM offering to feature you in a Forbes article and you’re tempted (even if you’re pretty sure it is a scam?!)
As a PR who has helped business owners get in lots of publications, I wanted to use today’s blog post about how I got three on my clients into Forbes, so you can take these strategies and learn from them.
It might seem as if it’s easier for me to say, as someone who works in PR full-time, but you don’t have to work with me 121 to get these results: I’ve helped people in my PR implementation membership, The Momentum Media Club, in Forbes too!
So let’s break down, the strategies that have worked for me.
How to get into Forbes:Identify senior contributors
Forbes works differently than lots of publications-they have many contributors or senior contributors, and it’s better to connect with them rather than staff journalists in my opinion.
Why?
Well senior contributors are always looking for content-many are on Twitter and post regular callouts. Senior contributors often have to commit to a certain amount of articles, or look closely at their stats, so like most journalists they’re looking for experts and ideas that will bring in traffic (most senior contributors have other businesses/jobs, so their writing helps their own visibility, so high-traffic articles become a big win!)
Most senior contributors specialise in certain areas, such as Jodie Cook who specialises in Chat GPT and AI or Bianca Barratt who writes about women in business. Finding a specialist means you have a great chance of it fitting with what you do!
You can find senior contributors by reading articles, searching for Forbes+ specific topics, and then connecting with them on platforms such as Twitter is a great place to begin.
How to get into Forbes:Ditch the press release and do your research
Start reading different sections/senior contributors-what do good stories look like for them? A press release about your award win won’t cut it here, you need to understand what the journalist is working on and offer value to them. Responding to their requests (often posted on Twitter, put the notification bell on their account so you get notified) works much better than cold pitching, but take the time to really get a feel for the journalists content too. Read, read, read-not only will they often be really useful, great articles but it will save both of you time to ensure everything you pitch is relevant.
Let’s look at an example.
Here’s a Forbes piece one of my clients received-we noticed the journalist focused a lot on Chat GPT tips so tailored our story to this (whilst still being able to showcase the clients expertise in careers!) If you notice a journalist uses the same formula/style/theme to their pieces, replicate that in your pitch. There’s a reason they’re using it-it works!
Want more tips on this piece? Listen to the podcast episode I made at the time!
How to get into Forbes:Keep quotes short and snappy
I spend a lot of time making sure my quotes answer the question perfectly, because when I was a journalist people used to:
1.Spend the first part of the quote telling me why they were brilliant
2. Give me a whole page that I had to cut down
3. Decide their topic was more interesting instead so not actually answer the question
Let’s take a look at some other Forbes pieces I’ve secured-like this one or this one.
Notice how both quotes are short and snappy, and straight to the point. Most quotes tend to be about a paragraph long so they can flow with the rest of the article and get the balance between journalist and expert just right. Anticipate exactly how the journalist will use your quote by looking at examples-to make sure they’re able to listerally lift your quote and copy and paste-journalists are super busy
How to get into Forbes: Be patient
Be Patient. I’m sharing results here, but there’s pitches to Forbes that have gone unanswered and I’ve been ghosted! One of my clients we sent one quote and got the coverage, another I tried at least 5 other times and we weren’t picked, but I carried on! And other clients haven’t been in Forbes, but they’ve got great coverage elsewhere.
You have to keep putting yourself out there consistently, and remember this shouldn’t take ages! Batch create quotes you can use ahead of time, or rework things from your instagram or Linked In. Pitches shouldn’t take hours, so you can put yourself out there every day!
Finally, if you do get featured in Forbes, remember to shout about it and use it in your marketing-to leverage your PR coverage as much as possible.
Where next?
If you’re looking for an accessible, affordable way to help you pitch, The Momentum Media Club is now open until Tuesday 11th February. Or you can check out my 121 packages here.
Get your 10 minute pitch guide here.
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