5 tips to get national news coverage for your business.

Michelle Morgan Davies is a freelance journalist, writing for national newspapers such as The Metro, The Mirror, Fabulous and Fab Daily, and, an in-house journalist who supports PR agencies and business by supporting their media relations. Michelle often leads expert sessions in my Momentum Media Club membership. Her sessions are always incredibly useful, so here they are – Michelle’s top tips to follow before sending your story to a journalist!

Or if you’d prefer, listen to the podcast version of this blog here.

Pitch it as though you are doing the journalist a favour

The best way to get a journalist to be interested in your story is to make it seem like you’ve given them a really good story – a story that’s so good and well suited to them and their publication that it’s like you’ve saved them a job. In order to do this though, you need to do your homework on them so you know your story is right for them. Get to know the magazine, which section you will fit into, who writes for each section, what kinds of stories they write. Notice patterns in what they write; do they like compelling human interest storues or do they prefer stories which include more data and statistics? Follow them on social media, have they published a pitch guide or a written a blog or newsletter that invites you to pitch in a certain way? Once you know their style and stories they opt for, you can start your email with something like . ‘I have a story about …. I thought of you… because ……’ or it reminded me of the piece you wrote about last month ….’

Consider your timings

Be aware that different publications are working for different deadlines: glossy magazines often have a long lead time magazines work a season ahead so you’ll need to be emailing in summer to be in time for Christmas. Digital magazines on the other hand are working to the day. This means you can look at who is uploading stories right now – you can then email them knowing that you will land in their inbox while you know they are working – that’s almost half the baffle. If it’s something like an awareness month, you are pitching a story for then I’d say the week before Different journalists will work differently but as a general rule of thumb, I would pitch as far in advance as you can and don’t be afraid to follow up if you don’t hear back.

Include a bio and access to pictures in your email

Again, this relates to making it as easy as possible for the journalist you are pitching to so include an intro in your email where you succinctly state your name, age, home town, job title and something that makes you special so the journalist can then immediately put you in a demographic. This is helpful as different publications have different demographics to hit so by including this key info means the journalist can immediately put you into a demographic. You should also include a dropbox or google drive link to hi res images and headshots.

Include a statistic of momentary figure in your suggested headline

Including a statistic or monetary figure helps to make your story really specific and compelling. Try including a number alongside the success so something like ‘I started with £20 in my pocket and now I have a £5000 turnover business’ is really clear and intriguing. Whatever would interest a reader will interest a journalist – think of them as gatekeepers of interest.

Don’t forget the important of human emotion

If a statistic or monetary figure doesn’t suit your story, then focussing on a human emotion can be a great center point of your pitch. It doesn’t need to be extreme but we are all connected by stories as human beings so try to tap into universal emotions like loneliness, grief, a time you decided to change things. Again be specific and pinpoint a moment – I was crying on the bathroom floor and decided to …..’ is much more specific than a wider statement like ‘ I was struggling with my mental heatlh.’