Earn press coverage.
PR and earned media means getting a journalist, editor, or publication to cover your company without paying for the placement. The coverage is earned — through a news hook, a compelling story, proprietary data, or an expert perspective — rather than bought. Because the piece appears under the publication's name rather than yours, it carries third-party credibility that advertising cannot replicate. A single mention in a relevant outlet can do more for brand recognition and SEO domain authority than a month of paid impressions.
The channel is slow and non-linear. Stories are pitched on your timeline but published on the journalist's, and most pitches do not result in coverage. What increases the hit rate is having something genuinely newsworthy to say: a fundraising round, original research, a significant customer milestone, a contrarian take on an industry trend — something with a reason to exist as a story, not as a product announcement. Time to signal is measured in months because building relationships with reporters and earning coverage takes sustained effort before results appear.
When it fits
- You have a genuine news hook: a funding announcement, a data study, a market insight, or a moment in the news cycle that your company is well-placed to comment on credibly.
- Brand credibility and SEO domain authority matter to your growth model. A link from a high-authority publication contributes to both.
- You are patient enough to work a channel where most pitches do not convert, and you can sustain the effort over a quarter or more before expecting consistent results.
When it doesn't
- You have no newsworthy angle. Product feature announcements rarely earn coverage on their own; journalists cover trends and stories, not features.
- You need fast, measurable conversion. PR-driven awareness is difficult to attribute directly to signups or revenue, and the timeline from pitch to publication to impact is long and uncertain.
The trade-off
Earned media is among the most credible forms of awareness available and it builds an asset — published articles with your company's name — that persists after the effort ends and contributes to search visibility. The limitation is that you cannot control whether a pitch results in coverage, when it runs, or exactly what it says. The channel is best understood as a long-term credibility builder that works alongside direct-response channels, not as a replacement for them.
How to run a first test
PR cannot be tested in the same direct way as paid channels, but a structured first effort reveals whether the motion is viable:
- Identify 10–15 journalists who cover your category in the publications your buyers read. Muck Rack makes it possible to search by beat and publication. Read their recent work before pitching — a pitch that shows familiarity with what a journalist already writes converts far better than a generic press release.
- Build a media list and a short story angle for each journalist. The angle should answer "why would a reader of this publication care about this, today?" — not "why is our product important to us."
- Use Connectively (formerly HARO) to respond to journalist source requests in your category. It is a lower-friction first step than cold pitching because the journalist has already expressed a need; a useful response can get you quoted without a full pitch cycle.
- Track pitches sent, responses received, and published pieces over 60–90 days. If the hit rate is very low, the issue is usually the angle rather than the journalist list — revisit the hook before sending more pitches.
See Systematic Channel Testing.
Tools & services to activate it
- Muck Rack — Media database and PR workflow platform for finding journalists, tracking coverage, and managing pitches. (Custom)
- Prowly — PR software for building media lists, sending pitches, and monitoring press coverage. (From ~$258/mo)
- Connectively — Source request platform (formerly HARO) connecting journalists with expert sources for stories in progress. (Free tier; paid from ~$19/mo)
Related channels
More in Press: Awards / directories.