Mutually beneficial relationships are the key to consistent media coverage. See how to use personalized outreach to form lasting, lucrative relationships with the media and online influencers.

1. How to Build Relationships That Land Coverage

2. “As a TV news
reporter for seven
years, my inbox
was always full of
bad pitches.

3. 43%Percentage of publishers who receive between 5 and 50
pitches per week
57%Percentage of publishers who receive between 50 and 500
pitches per week
ONENearly 7 out of 10 writers and editors write one story at most
per day.

4. More than 60% of writers
surveyed think it is of some
importance that you establish
a personal connection before
pitching.

5. “The degree to which we perceive
another person to be similar to ourselves
in traits and attitudes, and to be worthy
of our generosity or assistance, depends
on the extent to which we perceive a
personal connection with that person, no
matter how trivial.”
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/fulltime/nadler
/Nadler_Shestowsky.pdf

6. Author Bios
Twitter Bios
+ Tweets
Interviews Instagram LinkedIn

7. AUTHOR BIOS

8. AUTHOR BIOS

9. AUTHOR
ARCHIVES

10. Hi Martha,
I’m happy to see that January is usually the cheapest time of the year for air travel.
I’ve been dragging my feet on buying tickets home for Christmas, and now they’re so
expensive. Maybe I’ll just wait it out and head home after the new year instead.
When it comes to financial regrets, Americans have plenty to go around. My team at
Claris Finance surveyed more than 2,000 people about their biggest money successes
and their most heartbreaking financial regrets. Some surprising findings:

12. Hi Kristyn,
I lost way too much time this morning looking at #goatsinpajamas, but I couldn’t
stop myself from scrolling through all that cuteness. Thanks for sharing!
Do your pets influence the way people see you? My team at Petsies showed 1,000
people pictures of men and women with and without dogs and cats. We then asked
them to rank how that animal changed their perception of the person in the photo.
Some interesting findings:

14. https://www.wiwi.europa-
uni.de/de/lehrstuhl/fine/mikro/bilder_und_pdf-
dateien/WS0910/VLBehEconomics/Ausarbeitungen/Mere
Exposure.pdf
“[In studies of] interpersonal attraction
... the more often a person is seen by
someone, the more pleasing and
likeable that person appears to be.”

15. Have a candid
conversation
entirely unrelated
to a pitch.

16. Give credit
to the writer.

17. Ask questions,
or pull out your
favorite quote
from the article
in your tweet.

18. Do make sure your connections are:
Do add something to the
conversation. Don’t just say
the recent article or tweet
was “great” or “interesting.”
That says you didn’t read
the article and are just
offering a fake compliment.
Positive
Thoughtful
Showing personality
Not too political

19. Don’t ramble. Make your
connection concisely and move
on. It could be the best personal
connection, but if it’s a
paragraph long, it won’t get read.
Don’t be afraid to show your
opinion or sense of humor.
If you disagree with the writer, it's
OK to say that. Tactfully voicing an
opposing position is a great
conversation starter along with
humor — but do pay attention to the
writer’s tone and try to mirror it.

20. Hi Brett,
I always enjoy reading your thoughts in “For the Record.” It’s interesting to see that more
people are Googling “voter registration” this year than in 2012. I wonder if those Googlers are
planning to vote for Trump or Clinton – or hey, maybe people really are just trying to find
“Voltron theme song lyrics” after all.
How smart does Trump sound compared to other celebrities and politicians? To determine the
grade level at which different leaders speak, my team at Quote.com analyzed an average of
4,000 words per person and ran them through eight different grade-level tests.

22. Our research shows 85% of
writers open a pitch based on
the subject line alone.

23. Potential subject lines:
▪ Cheers from a fellow sweatpant-loving professional
▪ I could tell you hate winter based on your tweets;
here’s a warm front from Florida

24. Potential subject lines:
▪ Cheers from a fellow lover of beach yoga, have you
ever been to Delray Beach?
▪ I think it’s pretty cool that you’re a regular panel
speaker, any tips for a college grad?

25. Subject line:
Congratulations on your new job at Allure
The pitch:
Hey Hayley,
The view from your office window that you shared on
Twitter is amazing – congratulations on the new gig!

27. Beware of
template
formatting.

28. Don’t say the
recent article was
“great” or
“interesting.”

29. And of course,
don’t greet a man
named Roger with
“Hello there, Bill.”

30. Do your research
Be a human, not a robot
Build a relationship, not a
Rolodex

31. Get all of these tips and more in
“THE TELL-ALL GUIDE
TO DIGITAL PR”