Three steps to earning free PR for your business

Executive overview

Journalists wake up every day needing stories. You're not asking for a favour — you're providing one. Cameron Herold grew 1-800-GOT-JUNK from 14 to 3,100 employees in six years with no marketing budget, generating 5,200 media stories using these three steps.

PR is not a marketing function. It's a sales function — and that distinction changes everything about how you staff and execute it.

Treat every journalist as a prospect: give them an angle, let them write the story.

The three steps

• Know your angle — the story headline, with a maximum of five bullet points. Never pitch 30 things.
• Know your target audience — each outlet (Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Inc., local business journal) has a different readership; position the angle accordingly.
• Pick up the phone — reporters receive hundreds of emails and almost no calls. Call rate gets through; email rate does not.

How to pitch on the phone

• Open with: "Do you have two minutes? I think I have a great story for you."
• Journalists are quiet, analytical personalities — match their tone; don't overload them with energy.
• If they say no, respond: "How about I call you tomorrow or Tuesday?" — they will usually say yes.
• When they engage, share the angle and five bullet points, then ask: "What do you think?" and let them lead.
• If they reject the angle, ask what they hate about it — or move to angle two.
• Call in the morning (9–11am). Journalists plan stories in the morning; in the afternoon they're on deadline.

Building an in-house PR team

• Hire a salesperson, not a writer — marketers retreat at rejection; salespeople don't.
• Expect 30–35 calls per day; the role lives on the phone.
• Hire for: rejection tolerance, positive attitude, good phone voice, curiosity, ability to listen.
• First-round interviews should be by phone only — so you hear what journalists will hear.
• The PR person gives the angle and bullet points; the journalist writes the story. Sending a pre-written piece is an insult.

Getting media-ready

• Offices, vehicles, and team must be camera ready before any coverage lands.
• Media won't direct your team — train staff where to stand, what uniforms to wear, how to frame a shot.
• Create checklists: logo visibility, clean vehicles, polished signage.

Finding journalist contacts and amplifying coverage

• Use Cision, Media Atlas, or Muck Rack to buy journalist contact databases — they include emails and phone numbers.
• Pro tip: phone the photographer listed beside a magazine photo. Almost no one calls photographers; they always pick up and can pitch the editor directly.
• Keep a running list of journalists who responded positively — they're your warmest future contacts.
• A story alone won't drive traffic. Amplify every placement on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere.
• Start with small, local outlets to practise before targeting national publications.