When you’re running content campaigns and looking to gain traction from larger publications, blogs or within the press, this tactic could work well for you. Instead of pitching ideas directly into publications, go after freelance journalists.
Freelance journalists are incentivized to work with you as they make their living from pitching in stories or interesting news into publications. One freelance journalist will write for many different pubs, which means 1 relationship can create inroads to many different publications (this is particularly useful if you have several clients that you manage content campaigns for).
*How to Find Them*
There are lots of tools out there like JustReachOut.io, Pitchbox, Muck Rack, etc. but I’ve found the MOST effective way is to run advanced Twitter searches.
Most freelance journalists will state their title within their Twitter bio – they’re usually very active on Twitter so you can reach out to them there too. Use this search to get started: https://twitter.com/search?f=users&vertical=default&q=”freelance journalist”
One extra thing I’d recommend is refining the search to be focused on a specific location. Picking up local freelance journalists is even easier because you could go grab coffee with one of them or hop on a quick call.
Another tactic I’ve found to work well is to commission them to write some content for your client (or you) to begin with – this creates a strong relationship – after that goes down well and you’ve paid them, pitch them on something for an external publication.
Happy link building