The Ultimate Guide to Press Release Distribution
It depends on who you’re asking, but generally, the consensus seems evenly split. Some people believe following up to be a big no-no, while others indicate that it can be fruitful.
If you have a release you’re particularly proud of, it won’t hurt to follow up if you’re struggling to land coverage — provided you’re tactful.
Don’t just spam the journalist’s inbox with the same press release and the same pitch, however. That can get annoying, and ruin your chances of getting your story picked up.
Instead, try slightly tweaking the angle of your pitch. PR expert Carrie Morgan recommends[22] treating a follow-up email as “a fresh pitch transitioning MY news into THEIR NEWS.”
You could also try giving the journalist — however, only 23% of journalists welcome being contacted by phone[23], so if your target is one of the other three quarters, you may find yourself hearing hundreds of answering machines.
Either way, it could be worth following up, particularly if you’re confident your press release is a newsworthy piece that deserves coverage.
References
- ^ up to seven stories per day (www.meltwater.com)
- ^ journalists who’ve already written (blog.hubspot.com)
- ^ Cision (www.cision.co.uk)
- ^ Muckrack (muckrack.com)
- ^ Muckrack (muckrack.com)
- ^ Hunter (hunter.io)
- ^ open to receiving pitches via Twitter (www.adweek.com)
- ^ prefer to receive press releases via email (cuttingedgepr.com)
- ^ 200 pitches a day (class-pr.com)
- ^ Janet Murray (www.janetmurray.co.uk)
- ^ 26% more likely to be opened (www.campaignmonitor.com)
- ^ build a relationship with the journalists (blog.hubspot.com)
- ^ Marketing Land (marketingland.com)
- ^ 85% of publishers (marketingland.com)
- ^ 75% of publishers (www.buzzstream.com)
- ^ Over half of journalists (www.frac.tl)
- ^ Clickbait (blog.hubspot.com)
- ^ 61% of journalists (www.marketingprofs.com)
- ^ 300 emails waiting for them in the morning (www.meltwater.com)
- ^ analysis of over 100,000 press releases by Ragan (www.ragan.com)
- ^ Prowly (prowly.com)
- ^ Carrie Morgan recommends (carriemorgan.com)
- ^ 23% of journalists welcome being contacted by phone (www.vuelio.com)