I was very excited a while back when the legend that is Louise Shanahan asked me onto the 15 Minute Freelancer podcast. We had a good chat about all things PR and I thought it would be useful to share the highlights with you.

What could PR for freelancers look like?

People often think only big organisations can do PR. But I think individuals, freelancers and sole traders can all do PR too. You might not feel like you have a big news story but that doesn't mean you can't do PR. The place I always start with any marketing planning is: Who are you trying to reach? What do you want to say to them? And what do you want them to do as a result of hearing about your organisation?

For a lot of freelancers, their goal might be driving awareness or sales for their business or service. So you need to know where they consume their media content so you can effectively reach them with your messaging. For example, do you particular clients read a specific industry magazine? Do they listen to a certain podcast? Or watch a particular type of show?

Planning your PR

When you've determined the key publications read by your target audience, grab a cup of tea (and maybe a biscuit!) and read it. As you read through (you may want to read it several times or look through a few different back issues), think about the opportunities in that publication that you might be able to provide something useful for the journalist.

Rather than thinking, "I have a new course that I want to publicise" and trying to shoehorn that into the publication, look at it from the flip side. How could you offer something interesting or useful for the journalist writing those articles? For example, is there a weekly Q&A that you could put yourself forward for to talk about a topical subject. There might be the opportunity to talk about what you're promoting, too, but you don't have to lead with that. Heavy sales give journalists the ick too.

Doing it this way means you can actually add value when you get in touch with a journalist. They're going to be much more receptive if you're contacting them to offer something that's going to make their job easier: whether it's interesting content, stats or insights.

Should this be proactive or reactive?

A bit of both! This will depend on the news agenda as well as what works best for you. Proactive work lets you plan ahead, think about timely moments when you'll be able to add value to a topical article. But keeping an eye out for reactive opportunities can be beneficial too, although they can sometimes be a bit more stressful as they usually involve a shorter turnaround time.

You don't need to jump on every single thing. Try to vet opportunities to make sure you'll generate quality coverage that will add value to your business. It can be exciting but chasing lots of exciting leads can lead you to shout into the void a little if you're generating coverage that isn't relevant to your comms goals.

Identifying the right outlets to pitch

Start with the audience. Think about what they're reading and engaging with. Then get hold of those publications and actually read them. This can also help you determine which journalists to pitch. This approach can be time intensive but I always recommend a targeted approach as your time investment is likely going to have a better ROI than just throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping it sticks by pitching as many publications as you can.

How to send a pitch

Different journalists have different preferences. But, unless they've specified otherwise, I recommend pitching with all the information outlined (concisely!) in the body of an email if you can. As a writer, it's frustrating when PRs send things as attachments: they can clog up my inbox, I can't access them easily from my phone and they're also more likely to get caught in my spam filter.

Keep things concise but give the journalist enough information for them to make a decision about whether this is something they want to cover. Like everyone, journalists are super busy. Every time you put an obstacle in their way (for example, by making them have to come back to you to ask more questions), you're making it less likely that they'll run a story on you.

If you've got extra information, such as footage or images, use a non-expiring link (like Dropbox or Flickr) because sometimes a journalist won't reply but will file your email. Then, when they return to it in two weeks, all the lovely images you sent them have expired and it can be a bit of a faff to get it all over to them again (especially if you're busy or travelling).

Making media relations less daunting

Reaching out to journalists can feel a bit daunting so it's normal to be nervous. The thing to remember is journalists are just people, like you and me, trying to do their job. On the whole, they're not trying to catch you out or trick you or anything like that. Journalists are usually friendly and you can build a productive long-term relationship with them if you're focused on how you can help them with their articles.

Tailoring and targeting

Personally, I think it's more worthwhile to spend time really crafting a few well honed pitches than spamming a press release out to 100 journalists. Take the time to make sure what you're suggesting is relevant to the journalist or publication you're getting in touch with. That's the way I tend to work and I do find it gets better results. Otherwise, you could send an email out to 200 journalists and annoy 150 of them rather than pitching to 5 or 10 carefully selected journalists who actually pick up and engage with your content.

How can I help?

I hope you found these useful and feel a bit more confident about generating your own press coverage. Here are a few more links that might be helpful:

• My handy guide with tips on getting media coverage for your startup, charity or organisation
• A range of other resources to help you with your comms

Thanks and good luck with your media outreach!