When you have a marketing budget the issue of PR is often something you start thinking about. Dreams of making the headlines in the national dailies drift through your mind – in a positive way, of course. The national dailies are hard to crack – unless you are launching something that is really leading edge or doing something that is VERY high profile.
Fortunately, from a PR perspective, that’s not necessarily where your target market is usually looking for business information. They may skim the business section, but they’re much more likely to read specialist journals or dedicated magazines that cater to their niche or industry. These are often much easier to access as they usually run on a smaller scale.
7 steps to success
1: Make a list of between 5-12 publications that your target audience reads. They may be digital or print – or both.
2: Visit their websites and learn as much as you can about them. See if there is any information about submissions on the site, check for editor’s names and contact details. If there’s an editor specifically for your niche, it’s better to contact them, rather than the editor-in-chief.
3: Read at least a couple of issues of their publication – or a handful of articles, if they’re digital. You need to get a feel for the kind of content they publish and their style, so you can match it. You’ll also see how the author is identified. If articles have a line or two at the end that says Joe Blogs is Managing Director of Acme Widgets. www.acmewidgets.eng that will give you a good indication that they publish articles from external authors and also a guide to what is acceptable to add to your article about you.
4: Create 3 article titles, with a short one paragraph summary, – for each publication. While you can write the same information for different publications, you should never submit the same article to more than one editor, you need to rewrite it so it is a different article.
5: Email the editor you’ve identified for each publication and ask if they accept non-commissioned articles and give them your three headlines with the summaries.
6: If the editor is interested and asks you to submit one or more of your articles, you’ll need to find out the word count expected and the deadline for submission. Then write your article. It’s essential that you write with the reader in mind – deliver useful information that has value for the reader and the editor will be happy to place other articles in future. Anything that sounds like a sales pitch will almost certainly get ‘spiked’ (journalist-speak for put in the bin).
7: Check for spelling, punctuation and grammar (or get someone else to do that for you) and send your article in by the deadline. While there is sometimes a bit of wriggle room, you need to negotiate this. If it’s a hard deadline and you’re late, the editor will have an empty page to fill and you’ll get a reputation for being unreliable.
A few things to think about:
- Don’t get upset if they change your headline – they’re experts and know what will appeal to their audience.
- If you send images along with your article, ensure they are clearly labelled and include captions/descriptions at the end of your text and are good resolution.
- Ensure your article has your contact information in the footer on every page.
- If the magazine typically includes a picture of the writer, include a professional headshot at a minimum on 300 dpi (particularly for print).
- Don’t pester the editor. Follow the instructions, submit what they ask for on time and let them do what they’re good at. They may give you an indication of when the publication will come out or when your article will go live digitally, but ask once and then leave them alone.
Good luck!
