How to reliably get new clients
Cold emails to get new clients
Follow ups to get replies
Link building emails
Partner with influencers
Graceful apologies
Pitch journalists
Onboard new users
Ask for donations
Ask for referrals
Pitch angle: your personal story (your background and how you got to where you are today)
❶Saw on Twitter you're writing an article about the extremes some entrepreneurs go to to bootstrap their startups.
❷I have good story about this. I actually slept in my car while I was pitching investors.
My gamble (and less frequent showers!) paid off. I secured a $100K lifeline, giving my company enough runway to takeoff.
❸Happy to provide a few insights for your audience like how to decide if a big sacrifice like this is worth it.
❹Let me know if this sounds interesting? Can provide more details to flesh out the story.
❶Follow journalists that cover beats related to your company on social media. When they're working on new stories, many of them ask their followers if they know anyone with relevant stories.
❷Highlight 2-3 interesting and relevant details about your personal story.
❸ Offer to provide a few unique insights for their audience related to your personal story.
❹Ask if they're interested in your story and offer to provide more details to make it easier to write their article.
Pitch angle: you released a major new product feature
❶Really enjoyed your recent article about LinkedIn. Many people definitely overlook their own networks when getting the word out about their companies.
❷Also wanted to share some exciting news: Chaat is releasing a new feature that will let users turn their faces and reactions into stylized animated gifs they can use in any chat app:
[animated screenshot]
❸One angle that may be interesting to explore: would custom reaction gifs help avoid some misunderstandings since it can be hard to convey tone with text and the limited range of standard emojis?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about a recent article they wrote.
❷Briefly mention one new feature your company is releasing soon.
❸Provide the journalist with an interesting angle related to this new feature so they can easily see how they could write this story.
Pss...you can also get in front of a lot of relevant people by partnering with influencers. Here are 11 pitch templates for that.
Pitch angle: your product achieved a major milestone
❶Thanks for helping us stay one step ahead of the fast moving tech landscape!
❷Wanted to share an exciting milestone: Songkick just hit $10 million active users and $100 million in ticket revenue.
❸Possible angle to look at it from:
This shows that music fans are willing to support their favorite artists and these artists can use streaming services to build a fan base and use merchandise and concerts to earn a living.
Let me know if this story would be a good fit for your audience?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about the journalist's work to build rapport.
❷Share an important milestone that your company recently achieved.
❸Provide an angle for the journalist such as what this milestone means for your industry at large so the they can easily see your story's potential.
Pitch angle: you launched an innovative product or service
❶Thank you for your nuanced explanations of recent STEM breakthroughs.
❷I wanted to share another breakthrough you may find interesting:
I recently created a software that helps police narrow down where serial killers live by calculating the distances between the locations of their crimes. It assigns the highest probability percentages to areas where the serial killer most likely lives or hangs out.
❸I can provide details about which serial killers Eye has helped police track down and how it can be used for other types of investigations like finding the hiding places of hostages.
❹Let me know if this would be a good fit for your audience?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about their recent work to build rapport.
❷In simple terms, explain what your product does and one of its most important or interesting use cases.
❸Mention another interesting detail and use case to show the journalist you can provide them a lot of material for their article.
❹Ask them what they think to open the conversation.
How to pitch your product by relating it to a trending social or cultural topic
❶I've been following your articles for a while - found your recent one about eating insects as a substitute for meat protein really interesting. All they need is an image makeover to overcome people's ick factor.
❷Wanted you to share something we recently launched:
Elixir is a food substitute that provides 2600 healthy calories a day. Drinkers stay consistently energetic just having this a few times a day.
Step 1: blend with water or milk.
Step 2: Drink up and feel full.
❷Interesting angles to explore:
Elixir and productivity. You don't have to stop what you're doing to get or prepare food.
Elixir and saving money, It's significantly cheaper than buying groceries.
Elixir and its popularity among life hackers and students.
Let me know if this sounds interesting?
I can provide more details such as how we invented it and its full nutritional profile.
❶Provide a meaningful comment about the journalist's specific articles.
❷Briefly explain what your product does and its most important or interesting benefit.
❷List a few interesting social or cultural topics your product is related to or raises questions about so the journalist can easily see your story's potential.
How to pitch your local press first, then climb up the press totem pole
It is much easier to get featured in a local publication first because the very news of your launch can be relevant for your city. Also, journalists from national outlets often scour the local news for stories so they may come across yours and pick it up.
❶Thank you for your scoops about what's new and interesting in San Francisco!
❷Wanted to share something we recently launched:
Ever been stuck at work and found yourself craving your favorite grilled avocado tacos?
Ever been sprawled across the couch and wish you had some Szechuan fish soup?
But snag, these places don't offer delivery themselves?
❸Yum employs a team of bike couriers who can pick up your order from any restaurant in the city and deliver it directly to your home or office.
[2-3 screenshots of the product or app]
❹Let me know if this sounds interesting?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about the journalist's work.
❷Briefly explain the use case of what product or service you recently launched by providing a few relateable scenarios.
❸Provide an additional key detail about how it works.
❹Ask them for their thoughts to open the conversation.
How BillFixers got featured in Bloomberg Businessweek after pitching their local newspaper
Julian Kurland from BillFixers first pitched their story a local newspaper, the Tennessean. After that story went out, a Bloomberg Businessweek journalist noticed it and asked them for an interview. This article got published in Bloomberg's print edition and website. The result? A 4000% spike in traffic for BillFixers journalist noticed it and asked them for an interview. This got published in Bloomberg's print edition and online site. The result? A 4000% spike in traffic.
To get covered in their local newspaper first, Julian asked a friend who works in PR to introduce him to an Tennessean editor so he was able to jump straight into their pitch in his email. Another important takeaway? That journalist liked their story but it got pushed to the backburner due to some shakeups in their company. Julian reached out again to remind her about BillFixers. Here's the pitch Julian used:
Julian <julian@email.com>to The Tennessean
So far, BillFixers has saved more than 100 customers close to $35,000 in cable bills since incorporating in early July.
Their biggest customer savings came from a startup based in California. The company had a $1,500/month bill with AT&T, and BillFixers reduced their bill to $750/month in just a few hours. Over the course of a year, that's $9,000 in savings.
Another customer was paying just $54.95 for internet from Comcast, but BillFixers was able to help them get 4 months of service for free. In following bills, this customer will only pay $14.99/month for the same level of service.
Customers can securely upload their cable bills to the BillFixers website (www.billfixers.com) and just provide their name and address, for BillFixers will to call the customers cable provider to negotiate a better deal.
In addition to lower rates, customers have also enjoyed increased service to networks like HBO and Showtime.
BillFixers was founded by two Nashvillians, Julian and Ben Kurland. Julian is also enrolled in law school at Notre Dame, and Ben is a graphic design student at Tufts in Chicago.
How to share a valuable resource with a journalist to build a relationship
For journalists who write for top tier publications, it can sometimes be worth your time to build a relationship with them beforehand so they're more likely to consider your pitch later. Look up a few of their recent articles to see what topics they cover and review their social media profiles to get a sense of their interests. When you stumble across an interesting relevant tidbit, share it with the journalist.
How to pitch a landing page or resource related to your product
Unless your product is incredibly interesting or innovative, it can be an uphill battle to get featured by the press. While you can't necessarily make your product any sexier, you can create a landing page or resource that shares interesting stories, data or content related to your product and pitch that instead.
Here's an example of a landing page Blueair, a company that makes air purifiers, created to show the quality of the air you're currently breathing.
Some landing page ideas:
・If you're a music streaming site, you can create a landing page called Where is the Love? featuring the least played songs.
・If you're a makeup subscription site, you can create a landing page called 'Popular makeup looks throughout history'.
❶Thank you for keeping us on top of emerging beauty and style trends before they become mainstream. :)
❷Wanted to share something interesting with you:
After pouring over hundreds of archives and old magazines, we put together a page showing the most popular makeup looks from every decade in the 20th century. With videos on how to recreate each look:
[screenshot of the most visually interesting part of the page]
❸Let me know if this looks interesting?
❶Provide a meaningful comment about the beat this journalist typically covers.
❷Briefly explain the interesting resource or content you created. Attach a screenshot to visually show them what it looks like to pique their interest.
❸Ask for their thoughts about it to open the conversation.
Frequently asked questions about pitching journalists
How do you find journalists to pitch?
Free
You can enter keywords related to the product or the space your company is in on Google and toggle to the News tab to find journalists who recently wrote articles about these topics. For example, here are some results when you search for 'NFT'.
Paid
You can search on journalist databases such as Press Hunter to find relevant journalists based on their beat and publication.
How do you find journalists' email addresses?
Free
Some news websites include the journalist's email address in their author bios on the articles they wrote. If it's not shown there, you can look the journalist up on Twitter to see if they mention an email address on their profile.
You can also enter the website of the publication they're a regular contributor of (not guest writer) on Hunter to see the most likely email format they use.
Paid
You can search for the journalist on Rocket Reach to find their contact information.
Does my company have to do something newsworthy to get press coverage?
No you don't have to be sending people to space to get press coverage, you just need an interesting angle to pitch. "But I sell toilet paper!" Don't worry, the angle you pitch doesn't have to be something your company is doing or has done. You can also create an interesting report or tool related to your company or the space it's in.
For example, if your company is in the crypto space, you can collect data about how influencer and celebrity mentions affect prices and transactions, create a report and pitch this to relevant journalists. If the journalist writes about it, they'll mention your company and possibly link to your website.
