Doug Simon talks to Annie Pace Scranton, Founder and CEO of ⁠Pace Public Relations⁠ and Author of The Guide to Earned Media. Annie explains how communicators can build authentic relationships with journalists. She talks about what to include in an email pitch. Annie also shares her journey of becoming an entrepreneur. 

⁠Buy a copy of The Guide to Earned Media here⁠.

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TRANSCRIPT:

DOUG: Your new book is called The Guide to Earned Media. And given that title, can you offer your top tip for earning media?

ANNIE: My top tip for earning media is to start to build relationships with the media, with the journalist that you want to be featured in, or that you want your client to be featured in. There are a lot of aspects that go into that process and a lot of work that you need to do before you start engaging with the media. But at the end of the day, you need to have those media relationships and have them be really strong and genuine and authentic if you want to get earned media.

DOUG: I used to say that, you know, the idea of who, you know, being is being so important, but you can actually create who you know. How do you go about doing that from building relationships with earned media,

ANNIE: There’s a few different tactics that you can use, but first and foremost, research them a lot. You know, right now, every single journalist is on Twitter, is on threads, is on LinkedIn, is on Instagram. A lot of our lifestyle reporters are on Instagram, and we use that as a way to get to know them. And just when I say get to know them, of course, get to know the types of stories they write, what interest them, but also on a personal level as well. Because if you’re following a journalist that you’re trying to develop a relationship with and you see that they posted a picture of their puppy, well, maybe one of your clients is in the pet space. So, you know, there could be a way for you to genuinely and authentically reference the fact that they have a pet at home and that’s just going to make the initial email outreach, that initial connection, it’s going to make it seem more genuine and authentic and is much more likely to elicit a response back and start that sort of dialogue going. And the other thing to do really is to make sure you read their articles if they’re a print or digital or journalist, listen to their podcast if they host a podcast or produce one and watch their TV show. If you’re trying to go after, you know, a broadcast interview for your client, the worst thing ever is to pitch something that’s not relevant to their wheelhouse. So, you want to make sure that you are very much up to speed on what they’re covering.

DOUG: To add to your point, it won’t only seem more authentic, it’ll actually be more authentic, which is the whole idea. So, if you’re an organization, how do you go about starting to set your goals of what you want to accomplish with earning media?

ANNIE: Well, you have to first understand really, really acutely what are the goals of the organization in general. You know, are you trying to hit a certain revenue number? Are you trying to expand in new markets? Are you trying to offer new services? You need to have those bigger company goals really set and crystallized first, which can sometimes be a problem or a challenge, I should say, for publicists. You know, you need to sort of have that time and access to the C-suite to really understand what’s going to drive them, what’s going to motivate them and help them achieve the success that they’re looking for. But then you sort of in tandem, you take those goals and then develop your own goals in sort of a media plan or a media strategy. So, you need to figure out, first of all, are you going after overall brand awareness? Well, then that’s probably going to be a mix of national media, local media, maybe some influencer, maybe some social, paid, etcetera. Is it market specific? Well, then, you know, you need to zero in on New York or LA. So really, it’s about figuring out the goals first and foremost and literally, sometimes I put a post-it note on my computer that has the goals of my clients. And so, with every pitch, with every outreach, I’m keeping that in mind. So that way I’m not wasting time or doing something that won’t benefit them at the end of the day.

DOUG: You have your strategy; you have your media targets. Any tips on some of the best ways to connect with the producers and journalists?

ANNIE: Yeah, I think email is still the best way to get in touch with somebody. I would recommend keeping it really short. Nobody has time to read a long email and I would say if you can come up with a subject line that’s going to resonate or catch their attention, even better. If you don’t have any thread of a connection to the reporter, I would maybe just do a simple introduction. Hey, I’m Annie. I work at Pace Public Relations. I’ve watched your show a bunch of times. I see you have a lot of political pundits. We represent, you know, this political expert. If you’d like more info or maybe we can catch up sometime, I’d love to tell you more about them. Something…

DOUG: Oh, I’m sorry. I was going to say that that’s great advice.

ANNIE: Yeah, I mean, and I think, too, it’s also a good idea to start genuinely interacting on the journalists social media as well and it always helps if you, in your email can say, I saw you just posted this tweet. I loved what you said there, I totally agree with it or something and build a way in there to show that you’re paying attention to what they’re doing and the work that they’re doing.

DOUG: One of the things we like to tell new people on our media relations team, if they’re starting out, is do a non-pitch pitch as a first thing, introduce themselves and say these are the types of accounts they’re going to be working on. Hopefully they’ll have interest, even add in a note and a lot of times the journalist will actually provide guidance for someone who reaches out to them that way. Of course, they’re so busy. What’s your take on some other things? Maybe people who are new to the media pitching role can try and improve their success rate?

ANNIE: Love the idea of a non-pitch pitch. Sometimes you could do that as an introduction like you just mentioned. Or sometimes I will just send and say I loved your recent article. Pick out one specific example from it that really resonated with you and just say, I just thought I’d share that. Like I really enjoyed reading that piece today. They’re going to reply, you know, and then you can sort of start that dialogue going. Sometimes I will direct message on Insta, on LinkedIn, on Twitter. For some reason I think we all just live on social media so, I get responses, you know, on social as opposed to.

DOUG: And journalists do for sure.

ANNIE: 100%. So, I think by just, it’s not a perfect science. And that’s really the bottom line. There is no perfect science to developing a relationship with a journalist. You have to try a bunch of things and then see what works for your own style.

DOUG: And there’s not necessarily a perfect science to being a successful entrepreneur like you’ve become. But just like myself, you describe yourself as somewhat of an accidental entrepreneur. Can you explain what you mean by that?

ANNIE: Sure, so I started out my career as a TV news producer. It was always my dream. I did that for about ten years, but the show I was working on got cancelled and I was laid off very suddenly and unexpectedly. And I sent an email out after that happened saying I lost my job; I need a job. And I got an email back that really changed the course of my entire life. It was from a publicist who I had helped booking his clients on my show at CNBC. He said, I don’t think you have any formal PR training, but here’s my client. He’s a broker. He just wrote a book on the markets. If you can get him on any show on CNBC, I’ll pay 500 bucks. So, I was 28. I said, all right, sounds good. I checked him out. He seemed legit. I sent his info to a dayside producer, and she responded right away and said, he looks awesome can he come on tomorrow? And that was my light bulb moment, my proverbial light bulb moment. But I wasn’t planning to become an entrepreneur. I had never once in my life thought about owning a business or thought it was something I could do or even wanted to do. But I realized that I had kind of a special currency if you will. I had worked at so many different networks, I knew so many different producers, and I had an understanding of how TV worked and what it takes, what it takes to get a good guest on. That’s how I started. And that was 13 years ago.

DOUG: And one sign of a good media relations person is they always remember their first booking on that. That’s always a moment that sticks with them and it’s interesting that yours was so transformative for you. Finally, what do you hope that readers will take away from your new book?

ANNIE: It’s really meant to be a guide and a resource that you could read in one sitting or keep it on your desk and flip through chapter by chapter when and if you find yourself in a bit of a jam or a rut or just need some inspiration. But I hope that it will inform and help publicists to do the craft of media relations better than they were before. Media relations is really hard and it’s getting harder. The state of the media is not great right now, and it’s evolving and changing very, very rapidly. But I try to just give techniques in this book that are tried and true that will always work when you’re reaching out to journalists. That will always work when you’re putting together a pitch and that will always work as you’re crafting your message. So, I hope that it will just be a resource people can use throughout the course of their career.

DOUG: I’ll include a link to where people can buy the book, any places that they can in addition to maybe the common ones or the common ones, where can they get the book.

ANNIE: I think Amazon is probably like the biggest one. Our publisher, Kogan Page, you can also buy it through their website as well.

DOUG: Great. Well, it’s been such a pleasure speaking with you. Thanks so much for your time and insights.

ANNIE: Thank you so much for having me.