5 Ways to Find Journalists for Your Startup.

Have investors not heard about your startup? Posts on the project page on Facebook like only you? Can’t find a way how to show your product for the whole world?

In the last time, I have often been asked for help by founders of startups: “Can I give them a base of journalists to send out a press release on it?” and “Hey, look! Is this a good press release or not?”

Then, I decided to prepare a guide for startups which does not yet have a PR specialist.

Prepare your press-release.

Picture by memegenerator.net

Firstly, you should decide on the topic that you want to tell the community. No need to write a lot of excesses, preferably in a press release to fit the most important thing you need. If you have friends, firstly let them read. Get feedback. Then, streamline the text.

Remember that not every informational occasion can be news that journalists want to get.

What do you want to tell the community? What is unique in your product? Perhaps you have a significant partner? What difficulties did you encounter? Write only about what will be interesting.

In no case, do not use: “Our startup is the wonderful/beautiful/best.” Write more believable.

Advice: If you have doubts about the magnitude of your informational occasion, consult with someone familiar with the media market. If your news turns out to be insignificant, it will help you find a different angle of presentation of the material or more exciting news.

P.s If you can’t write a press release, write to me, I’ll try to help you.

2. The proper feed of news.

When many startups are launched for the first time, they cannot precisely determine how to submit material for the community and start doing it at random, which is fundamentally wrong.

The most important thing is how your news is filed. It should be intriguing for the readers who will follow the link to look at your product or service.

What is attractive to journalists:

• What have you done that no one has done before YOU;
• A major partnership with industry giant;
• You have been blocked, a famous person has abused you, etc.

Be confidence with journalists.

Very often, you will hear “no,” “we are not interested,” etc. In this situation, it is best to act to pretend a salesperson. Per 100 cold answers, you will get 2–3 useful publications.

You should have the internal motivation to get a publication you are not buying it, but instead selling it. (I know it might be difficult, but you need to imagine that) Try to conduct a conversation competently.

Also, note that you will not be able to immediately get into the major media if you have not invented a cure for cancer or something else like this. Start with small web magazines.

Where to get contacts of journalists?

1. Press Hunt is a categorized database of ~400k journalists, reporters, and media outlets. You can build media lists of your favorite journalists, export their contact info to CSV, then run PR campaigns to them.

Journalists are categorized by what they’re interested in writing about next, so you can quickly find the ones most likely to feature you.

They also have a platform for investors researching — Investorscout.co

2. Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an online service for journalists to obtain feedback from the public. It enables journalists to connect with experts in issues relevant to their reporting. Many big media outlets like The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, WSJ, Fox News, and Reuters are using HARO.

Help A Reporter Out gives users free and paid packages. The free package is where a user receives the HARO daily email and responds to reporters that have questions up and vice versa.

3. Paydesk provides access to data of about 1,000 journalists in 150 countries. Search criteria — language, country, region, city. To use the service, you need to go free registration; then you can send messages to potential journalists. It is assumed that the entire process of choosing/hiring/paying for the services of a specialist will take place directly on the platform, the customer determines the cost of the work, and Paydesk takes commission 25% of each order.

4. Hey.press is a platform for researching media professional journalists. There are no additional functions, conditions, opportunities. Just type keywords into the search box and get results. A list of 30 email addresses of verified journalists for $ 15 a month, 120 emails for $ 49 and an unlimited database by agreement with Hey Press administration.

5. Anewstip — another new tool for searching. You can specify the main keywords, and then also specify where exactly to look for experts — on Twitter, by profiles, in the news selections. The service allows you to sort the search results by language, time, the field of activity. The free version is available ten requests per month, registration as a must.

Conclusion — My perfect strategy.

Identify the list of media with which you want to share the news. From them, select the ten that you consider being a priority (you will get in touch with the journalists of these media before sending out the press release).

Step by step contact each of your list of top journalists ( e-mail, phone, social networks) and discuss your news. If you are interested, immediately send additional information from the first part of your Q & A, plus illustrative material (better download link), plus be ready to answer possible questions promptly.

Then you should send press release (I use UniSender or MailChimp), post the news in advance and set the distribution time.

About 30 minutes after the expiration of the lifting of the embargo (and the distribution of the press release, respectively), you start calling/sending messages the editorial board where the news has sent. You are interested in the following questions:

• Have you got my news?
• Are you interested?
• Why not?
• Can this news be submitted differently?

P.s Be prepared to suggest the editor make a publication, not based on a press release.

If one media is denied you, go next.

No media has a monopoly on opinion. Got a rejection from one editor? Try to contact his colleague. The news, which is not attractive to the editor of the “Business” section, may well please the editor of “Innovations.” This is especially true of large media, where there are dozens of journalists in the staff. If the second editor is not interested, call the other media.

Thank you for your attention! Will be glad if you clap this article!

5 Ways to Find Journalists for Your Startup. was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.