The Public Relations Blog

Use these strategies to slice, dice, and personalize your company’s media segments.

Pitching journalists can seem chance-oriented, like throwing spaghetti against a wall to see what sticks. To boost your opportunity for success, you need an organized system for keeping track of media contacts and targeting pitches. The key is to segment your lists into smaller groups with shared interests. Here are smart ways to slice and dice your lists for better pitching results.

Here are the key takeaways, tips, and trends from analyzing media pitches to improve your company’s outreach.

An extensive analysis of over 14 million pitches sent to journalists over the past year reveals several noteworthy trends and best practices that PR professionals should know. By understanding when and how reporters prefer to be pitched, you can refine your own media outreach strategy for greater success. 

Streamline the pitching process and other workflows with smarter tools.

In the fast-paced world of public relations, every second counts. Finding ways to maximize efficiency while maintaining high-quality work is essential, which is why text replacement has emerged as an invaluable time-saving tool for PR pros pitching media.

Grab journalists' attention, spark engagement, and get your messages opened with these tips.

Getting the attention of a busy journalist is the first and most crucial step to ensuring your message stands a chance against the competition to earn media coverage. With some strategic planning and tested best practices, you can craft email subject lines that grab attention and get your pitch past the first step. 

Here are 11 tips for writing email subject lines and templates that will ensure your email is opened and read:

The right connections will open doors for your company, but the substance remains most crucial in earning media coverage.

It's common for public relations firms to emphasize their close connections with journalists as a top selling point. The idea is that leveraging personal rapport can make it easier to pitch stories and gain coverage for clients. 

However, many experts argue that while relationships matter, their actual influence is limited. Bottomline, reporters decide what to cover based on newsworthiness, which poses an important question: Are strong media relationships vital for earning coverage, or are their power overstated?

Craft better stories and connections through shared interests, listening, and adapting.

The process of sales is commonly compared to the journey of dating. The goals are similar: make a meaningful connection, demonstrate value, and build loyalty to lead to a longer-term relationship. The courtship activities involved in PR outreach parallel these dating rituals. 

Your company can harness the benefits of AI while mitigating risk.

Since the explosive growth of artificial intelligence, AI is already transforming public relations workflows. According to The State of AI in PR, presented by Muck Rack, 61% of PR professionals currently use AI tools or plan to explore them. Companies that invest in PR agency services should understand the opportunities and risks of AI.

Google Autocomplete is one of the best tools your company can use to drive traffic and perfect SEO strategy.

Google's autocomplete feature has become an invaluable part of the search experience, providing predicted search queries as users type. But it also presents unique SEO opportunities for brands. 

In this complete guide, you’ll learn what Autocomplete is, how it works, why it matters for SEO, and how you can optimize for it.

Writing an effective headline for your news release is a critical skill for professional communicators. Journalists could receive hundreds of news releases in a day, so standing out in their busy inboxes is no easy feat. A compelling headline, however, is the secret sauce to pique interest and entice a reader to click and read.

If you want your press release to stand out in a crowded media landscape, follow these seven elements of captivating headlines:

Mixing AI and public opinion can be tricky, but it’s possible to implement AI in PR ethically.

Artificial intelligence continues to transform industries as adoption accelerates globally. For companies exploring AI’s capabilities, understanding the surrounding media narratives and public perceptions is critical to guiding PR strategy. 

Cision’s comprehensive analysis of AI conversations across traditional and social media from July 2022 to July 2023 provides valuable insights for PR clients on this landscape. The trends and themes that should inform messaging and positioning become clear by examining millions of posts and articles.