Thomas Edison famously said, "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that don't work."
If you're looking at getting featured in top tier publications, it feels like that a lot of the time... Until attempt number 10,001 when suddenly it does work.
How do you even get featured in a top tier media outlet?
It takes a combination of hard work, perseverance and great PR tools to get the attention of top tier media outlets. Today, we'll show you how you can get featured in the top media outlets you love and look up to.
What is a top tier publication?
A top tier media publication is a highly regarded and influential magazine, newspaper or periodical in a certain industry. Top tier media outlets have a large following and readership base as well as an established reputation as a thought leader in the industry.
A top tier outlet is known for publishing high-quality content that goes through rigorous review processes. These media outlets set the standards for the quality of content, as well as standards for research and innovation.
While the definition of top tier media is universally accepted, it's important to note that for your specific case, general tier 1 media publications may not be all that valuable. For example, getting featured in Sports Illustrated as a SaaS business would not be a huge success due to the mismatch of target audiences.
In other words, your tier one media publications will depend on your industry and PR goals.
How to get published in top tier publications?
Landing features in top media outlets is vastly different for every business and client. To get mentions and stories in top tier media outlets, you're going to need a unique, personalized approach for every campaign.
Step #1: Have a unique, valuable story
What do you have that is worth top tier media coverage? Not even your local newspaper is going to write about you unless you have something special to share with the world. While your company or client may be amazing, successful and profitable, that does not interest top media outlets.
And mind you, tier one media needs tier one stories.
Here are some notable examples:
- Tesla hitting a market capitalization of $100 billion
- SpaceX sending NASA astronauts to the International Space Station
- Apple becoming the first publicly traded US company to reach a market capitalization of $1 trillion
While you don't have to be Apple or Tesla, you will need something remarkable for a top tier outlet to notice your pitch.
For example: you appointed a new CEO, opened a new branch of your company, started or donated to a charity, got a major round of investments, or something else.
In other words, have a top story first.
Step #2: Find relevant media outlets
You probably know the most important media outlets in your industry. Those with a large readership, many followers across different social media platforms, huge newsletters, and more. This is a good starting point, but you should look beyond numbers.
Make it your goal to find media outlets where your target audience spends their time and looks for information and news stories. The end result should be a list of digital and print outlets you want to reach out to.
And here is how to find them.
Prowly's Media Database has over one million contacts from media professionals around the globe and all across different industries. But you don't need one million people, you just need a handful of the right contacts for top tier media outlets.
You can use media database filters to search for the perfect match based on:
- Topic
- Location
- Tweets
- Keywords in previously published work
- And more
With just a few clicks, you can get a list of top tier media outlets and relevant journalists with accurate and up-to-date email addresses ready for outreach.
Speaking of which, you can also filter journalists based on their level of engagement in emails. If someone is consistently not replying to emails, you can move your top tier communications to a journalist who is more likely to reply.
But what if you want an even more efficient way of finding tier 1 media outlets?
The smart way: use AI to search for journalists
You may be spending too much time browsing news headlines, articles, or tweets when you could be pitching high-profile journalists.
For example, let's say you have a client as a PR agency that has just launched a new smartwatch. You type in the keyword "smartwatch," choose People for your desired search results, and choose Technology as your topic.
The end result: 2,881 people in the USA who write about technology. But you still have a long way to go to find tier 1 media outlets.
💡 The new way of searching is this: you enter your keyword ("smartwatch") in the keyword search tab and follow the suggestions on the screen.
The AI assistant gives you suggestions for related keywords, e.g. "fitness" or "health," to help you further narrow down your choice of publications. You can now check the articles published in those outlets, tweets from their accounts, and their most recent activity.
Perhaps most importantly, you can check their frequency - how many times a journalist posted content with your desired keyword.
This AI-based approach helps you go from thousands of possibilities to a handful of the very best media outlets in a matter of minutes.
Step #3: Analyze the outlets and reach out
Within the media database, you've now built a list of relevant media outlets. You can now start reaching out to them and sending press releases.
But here is the thing - you can't send the same press release to every outlet. Use Prowly's press release creator, which comes packed with AI features to build and personalize each of your press releases. You can create a personalized press release for every journalist you reach out to.
With Prowly's PR CRM, you can track your outreach campaigns all from a single dashboard.
You'll see who opens, reads and responds to your outreach emails so you can adjust your pitching strategy and get even better results.
Step #4: Be persistent and adapt
Winning top tier media features is a long game and it will take more than a few attempts to get it right. Even if you have an amazing story to share, sometimes your approach needs some tweaking so you can achieve the best results, especially if you're new to the world of PR.
Some of the changes you can make include:
- Change the angle of the story. For example, your company just got a major investment from VC funds, but no one is picking up the story. You can change the angle to the new jobs you'll open with that VC cash or the new technologies you plan on launching.
- Change the media outlets you pitch. Go through the list you created in the previous steps and try to pitch another outlet with a personalized approach. Your first choice may simply not be interested in covering the type of content you're offering.
- Change the journalist. Maybe you got the right outlet, but the specific media professional is not responding. Go through the Prowly Media Database and pick another journalist with high email engagement scores and reach out to them instead.
- Change the email. Maybe the story is good, but the way you crafted the email is not resonating with your target audience. Personalize it and mention the journalist's latest articles, reference their main topics of interest, the content they’ve shared on Twitter, etc. Sometimes, changing your pitching strategy can make all the difference for your email open rates and overall conversions.
The important thing is to not give up if you have your heart set on a certain publication.
Conclusion
Winning features in top tier media outlets can take months, even with the best story and hand-crafted, personalized pitches. Besides equipping yourself with the best PR tech, you need perseverance to get the features you want and deserve.
And while we can't teach you how to persevere, we can give you the tools you need to find relevant journalists and send them personalized pitches.
