| Emily Stulock 
Targeting your media outreach is arguably one of the most important facets of a successful PR program. By not targeting the right contacts, your perfect pitch can fall on deaf ears. To avoid this pitfall and earn media coverage, you must give thought to every media list, tailoring it to the appropriate audience for each story or piece of content you launch. This list-building process can seem overwhelming, but effective planning will cut down on the guesswork. The next time you're sitting on a story, reference these steps to find the sweet spot for your media outreach strategy. 1. Determine your scope. Consider the importance and impact of the news you're sharing. Does it require national attention? Perhaps it's more related to regional interest. Once you've established your focus, you can plan accordingly. For local news, compile a list of influential outlets in the region; for larger, national stories, think of top outlets across the country and pinpoint their most prominent writers. Don't just focus on traditional media; the rise of blogging and social media translates to a higher number of online influencers who attract content-hungry audiences. Identify non-traditional influencers in your industry whom you can target along with more standard media types. The timing of your news will also help dictate your outreach's scope. For breaking news, focus on outlets with quick turnaround times: broadcast, online, and dailies. For stories that are more evergreen or broader in scale, consider print periodicals like consumer and trade magazines. These outlets often require content months in advance, as they need more time to prep their layouts before distribution. Editorial calendars can be incredibly helpful in determining when to pitch certain stories. 
2. Do your research. It's best to start simple by answering the following questions: What is my story? What audience(s) are we trying to reach? Think about writers you read, writers your customers read, and top writers in your industry in general. Include broadcast, print, online, and social outlets in your brainstorming, then decide which media types and individuals may be the most appropriate to target. Pay attention to if/how your contacts deal with pitch requests, particularly on social media. Before reaching out via social media, look into whether or not they post on their official Facebook page that they're seeking story ideas or have indicated they prefer Twitter DMs for direct contact. If pitching through email, try to get a specific address and avoid using the general @info inboxes for outlets whenever possible. Similarly, determine the point of contact at an outlet who best fits your content. For instance, if you can pinpoint the lead travel writer when pitching a story on the year's top travel destinations, that will serve you better than reaching out to a general assignment contact. This attention to detail will help ensure your pitch doesn't get deleted on sight. Furthermore, don't discount the connections you already have; it makes more sense to pitch a dozen people whom you've built relationships with than to pitch a hundred people at random. Using established contacts allows you to make pitches more personal and offer exclusive content before it becomes more widely known. You may even be able to garner additional contact leads from these interactions. 3. Consider beats and job roles. Whether you're using a list-building database or are working from scratch with Internet searches, think about a media contact's job role in relation to where they work. For instance, radio presenters differ from producers. In a search such as this, being conscientious of job roles makes your targeting more accurate when combing the broad realm of "radio." Also be aware of the impact of keywords when conducting searches, particularly in reference to outlets vs. specific writers. Targeting food outlets is different than searching for people who write about food or entertainment in a more general publication. Freelance writers can contribute to various outlets, so it's always a good idea to check out their work beforehand to see if your content correlates. 4. Customize and organize. You'll never find all of the contacts you need in a single pass (list-building is a process!). A good way to start is by creating multiple broad searches spanning areas like relevant beats, keywords and geographies. After you've gathered your contacts, break up your lists by categories such as publication frequency and media type to ensure future targeting efforts are even more organized. Your media lists are living documents and require regular updates and maintenance; no list should ever be compiled once and never touched again. Make time to regularly update your lists: replace old contact information, remove individuals who didn't connect with your outreach, and add new leads. Use spreadsheets to make organizing, sorting, and filtering a snap. 5. Use a global database. Subscribing to a global media database can consolidate many of your PR efforts. Depending on the platform, they can serve as an all-in-one toolbox, giving you access to targeting software, list storage, and distribution capabilities. As opposed to doing Internet searches in batches, databases can conduct various searches with just a few mouse clicks, providing editable search criteria and a mass of contacts. When using a database, you still need to vet contacts and update lists; however, you have more tools at your disposal to help you. List-building platforms are great for auto-updates (like a change in contact information) and new contacts can typically be added. You can also import your own spreadsheets, or export ones you create within the platform. If media list creation and upkeep cuts into your PR schedule, the ease of a database may be a good solution. 6. Measure your lists’ success. As with any channel you distribute content to, your pitch lists will become better over time if you track their impact. After you reach out to the individuals on your list, monitor email open rates, earned media coverage, conversations and social amplification that resulted from your relationships with the list’s contacts. Even if a list doesn’t deliver the results you want, it’s not a lost opportunity. Your reporting results can help you re-evaluate whether you need to conduct additional research into what your target contacts find interesting and how they prefer to be contacted. Preferences and contacts will change so it’s important to continuously monitor the performance of all of your communications channels. Download our guide Matching Measurement to Medium: Press Release Metrics across Channels for more tips that will help you generate and demonstrate PR success. Author Emily Stulock is a product advocate at PR Newswire, assisting clients with the Agility workflow tool and PR Newswire's other platforms. | 
