You’ve done good work, and you’d love the right people to hear about it. But you’re not sure whether your business has a story worth pitching, or how to approach a journalist without sounding like an advert.
Fundraising for NGOs is how I first met journalists, publishers and podcast hosts. It showed me how the right story at the right time helps a business win customers and capital. A useful pitch explains what changed, why it matters to a specific audience, and what evidence a journalist can check.
Start with one thing a reader could learn from your business: a change in buyer behaviour, a practical experiment or a problem you can explain with evidence. Make that the subject of the pitch.
Founder field note
How visibility became part of my work
Fundraising work for NGOs introduced me to journalists, publishers and podcast hosts. Alongside my customer-acquisition and investor-outreach work, it gave me another reason to pay attention to the story: the person receiving it needs to understand why it matters to their audience.
That is the starting point I use here. Choose the reader you want to reach, identify what they could learn from the business and prepare the material that lets a journalist inspect the idea.
Write the reader’s reason to care
Start with the publication’s or podcast’s audience. A local business paper, an industry trade magazine and a national tech reporter serve different readers. Read their recent work before deciding your story fits.
Ask yourself: what would a reader understand better after this story? What changed? Why is it relevant now? What can we show, rather than just claim?
If your honest answer is “people should know our company exists”, publish a clear explanation on your own website first. It can still help customers, even if it isn’t ready for independent coverage yet.
Check the evidence before the headline
Say you’ve noticed customers changing how they handle a recurring task. Record how many cases you looked at, over what period, who was included and what the records actually show. A small sample can support an interesting observation. It can’t prove a national trend.
Scroll across to compare every column.
| Readiness question | Useful material |
|---|---|
| What changed? | A specific event, finding or development |
| Who is affected? | A clearly defined audience with a reason to care |
| Can it be checked? | Records, your method, or a person willing to be interviewed |
| What are the limits? | Sample size, time period, uncertainty or other explanations |
| Why this journalist? | A related recent article or their known coverage area |
Get permission before offering a customer’s name, quote, photo or business details. A happy private message isn’t automatic permission for media use.
Keep the pitch short enough to judge
Subject: What eight small manufacturers taught us about delayed quotations
You recently covered how smaller manufacturers handle sales enquiries. Over a six-week product pilot, we reviewed quotation workflows with eight firms.
In that small sample, incomplete buyer specifications repeatedly delayed the first usable quote. We can share the questions we asked, an anonymised workflow comparison and the limits of the sample. Two owners are happy to talk about their experience, once interview arrangements are confirmed.
Would this be useful for your coverage? I can send a one-page summary.
The pitch connects a specific observation to the journalist’s coverage and offers material they can inspect. Build your own version around records and people you can make available.
Respect the editor’s judgement
Use the journalist’s published professional contact route and follow any submission instructions. Keep follow-ups relevant and few. If you don’t hear back, let it go; don’t chase anyone across personal channels.
For podcasts, propose what listeners will learn and why you can speak on it responsibly. Your full career story can sit in a short bio. The episode idea itself should be easy to grasp.
Know what you’re paying for. Earned editorial coverage, contributed articles, sponsored posts and press-release distribution are different things. Ask any service provider which one they’re offering and how it will be labelled. A distribution receipt isn’t independent coverage.
Measure what actually helped
Save the published page or episode. If it brings relevant visits or conversations, record those separately: a link in a publication, a customer enquiry and money received are three different outcomes.
Add an optional “What brought you here?” question to your enquiry form. People often see a story, remember your name and return weeks later through search, so attribution will never be perfect. A smaller industry audience may also matter more to your buyers than a famous logo.
If you don’t have news yet
Publish the useful material somewhere you control: a clear explanation of a customer problem, a permitted demonstration or a practical guide. You never need to inflate a small observation into an industry trend. A careful note about eight firms is interesting on its own terms, because readers can inspect the detail.
Prepare the one-page story brief
Before sending the pitch, prepare the material behind it: the observation, the period covered, how you collected it, the records or examples you can share, a contact who can answer questions and the publication’s likely reader benefit.
For the manufacturer example, show the missing information that delayed a quote and how the workflow changed. That is more useful to a reader than a claim that a company is transforming an industry.
Publish a useful version on your own site too. A reader arriving from your comment or a journalist’s article should be able to inspect the idea and understand what you know about the problem.
Questions you may have
Do I need a PR agency to get media coverage?
Not to start. A clear story, honest evidence and a well-targeted pitch to the right journalist can work on its own. If you hire help, ask exactly which kind of coverage they deliver and how it will be labelled.
Is paid placement bad?
Not if it’s clearly labelled and you know what you’re buying. Just don’t confuse it with independent coverage when you measure results.
How do I find the right journalist?
Read recent articles in publications your customers read, and note who covers your topic. A writer who covered a related story last month is a far better fit than a long generic list.
A rough story idea is enough
Send me: “I want to reach ___. We’ve noticed ___. What we can show publicly is ___.” I’ll tell you whether the angle is clear before you prepare a media pitch.
Read next: a clear offer makes coverage useful, so make your offer easier to judge.
Prefer a conversation on social? Message me on LinkedIn.