The Art of Selling In

“Selling in” refers to the process of contacting journalists to tell them a story or product launch on behalf of clients - this interaction between PR professionals and journalists is the bread and butter of our profession. In the dynamic world of PR, success hinges not only on the quality of the services we offer, but also on our ability to effectively communicate with the media, and it usually goes a little like this…

Step 1: Understanding the client's needs

We find out exactly what the client is looking for in terms of press coverage, and who they are looking to target to inform which outlets we should be sending the press release to. We put together a list of our client’s ‘dream publications’ and make it our mission to get their stories here.

Step 2: Build the media list

When we have a clear understanding of what our client wants and where we think their story fits, we put together a media list of all the relevant contacts that we’re going to target. This could be freelancers with specific interests, journalists who write for our target columns, newsdesks for the dream publications, or people we have already built relationships with to see if they can put together a story about our client. 

Step 3: Sell in!

We put together a personalised pitch for each journalist we contact. We keep it short and snappy to grab their attention quickly, and explain why our release is a good fit for them to ensure maximum impact. This is the most time consuming and important part of the process - this is how we build relationships, it’s how we generate coverage, and most importantly, it’s how we get people talking about our client’s product or service. This is usually done a couple of times in the process, and we tend to follow up directly with the journalists who are most relevant to ensure the stories hit.

Step 4: Check for coverage

We have Google alerts set up for every client for real-time updates about the coverage coming in, and we do manual checks every day across print and online publications. When the coverage comes in, we check the reach of the publication and send it over to the client, and we keep a record of everything coming in. Each month, we put all this coverage together and send a report to the client so they can see what people are saying!

Step 5: Repeat the process!

Selling in is not a one time thing - client’s needs change, media lists need updating, and our emails don’t always make it to the inbox. By repeating the process we can tailor our approach based on the results we get and ensure we always have happy clients!