Media Contact Directory

The Media Contact Directory is for accessing information of targeted journalists to build relationships with them.

DO NOT mass email your press releases or pitches.

Suggested Steps:

1. Search by the city or industry of your targeted clients.

2. Copy/paste the relevant results in a spreadsheet.

3. Search each journalist’s name in Twitter and Facebook, follow them, and add links to their social profiles on your spreadsheet.

4. Comment on a recent post/tweet.

5. Send an introductory email stating that you wanted to let them know you enjoy their work.

6. On a regular basis, Like and/or comment on social media posts, and once a week email them about a specific story you liked with a thoughtful comment.

7. After at least 3 weeks, you can begin to pitch clients. No more than once every other week.

Simple Pitch Formula

Do not try to pitch a story about your client.

Instead, pitch a story that your client can provide expert commentary about, and possibly even add a local angle.

For example, if the big story was inflation hitting a 10-year high, your CPA client could talk about ways to save money on taxes to make up the difference.

Or if there is a messy celebrity divorce, a family law attorney can talk about how to protect yourself if you are thinking about divorce.

The key is to focus on the story, not your client and make it easy for the journalist. Give them links to the national news outlets covering the story, the new hook your client will bring to it, and links to web pages showing that your client is qualified to give an expert opinion.

Follow up no more than 3 times. If you don’t get a reply after 3 attempts with a story, go back to relationship building with that contact for a couple weeks.