If you are taking care of your own PR, check out our top 5 tips to build and maintain good relationships with journalists:
1) Be respectful of their time. Most journalists do not want to be cold called by PR’s during their busy day. It is usually best to send the information by email with one follow up email if necessary. Trust that they will reply if the story or information is of interest to them!
2) Create personal relationships. Having said that, the best way to form a relationship is to meet face to face. Nothing beats being able to communicate what you do with a personal meeting so you can communicate your messages effectively. Choose a handful of journalists who will really understand your market and invite them for a coffee at a convenient location to where they work and attend key trade events and make an effort to chat to the journalists in attendance.
3) Make their life as easy as possible. Always provide contact information, make your resources known and give key facts such as statistics and prices. Respond as quickly as possible to any requests for further information or images.
4) Be concise. Learn how to communicate all the important information and cut out anything superfluous. Journalists receive hundreds of emails each day- they don’t have time to read a three-page document to find the point of the email or press release.
5) Do your research! Know who you are pitching and what they are likely to write about. Don’t just blanket email without really knowing the publications you are reaching out to.
