How to get press coverage for your small business

Most small business owners who want press start the same way: they write a press release, find as many journalist email addresses as they can, and send it to all of them. When nothing happens, they decide that PR is something only bigger companies can afford.

It is not a budget problem, because reporters need stories every single day and plenty of those stories come from small businesses. When a pitch goes unanswered, the cause is almost always the angle or the person it went to.

If you are wondering how to get media coverage without a big budget, this is the process I use for small businesses, and you can run it yourself once you understand how journalists decide what to cover.

What earned media actually means

Marketing people usually split visibility into three buckets. Paid media is anything you pay to place, like ads and sponsored posts, while owned media is what you control, like your website, newsletter, and social accounts. Earned media is coverage that someone else chose to give you, whether that is an article, a podcast interview, or a quote in a roundup.

Earned media is the hardest to get and the one people trust most, because nobody paid anyone to say it. It works like word of mouth with a much bigger audience, and an earned media strategy is simply a plan for getting that coverage on purpose.

Start with the story

A journalist is looking for a story their readers will care about, and your business might be a good example of one.

So before you write a single pitch, work out what you can offer that a reporter cannot easily get elsewhere. The angles that get picked up most often for small businesses are these:

• Numbers only you have, such as your own customer data or a pattern you have watched over years of doing the work.
• A clear explanation of something in the news, so that when a rule changes or a trend takes off in your industry, you can tell people what it means for them.
• An opinion that goes against the usual advice, as long as you can back it up with experience.
• A seasonal or calendar hook, such as tax season, back to school, the holidays, or an awareness month.
• Good news with a local angle, such as an award or a milestone, for community and business pages.
• The founder’s own story, when it connects to something bigger than the business.

Sometimes the product itself is the angle. When the Daily Pilot, the Los Angeles Times paper for coastal Orange County, wrote about The Dirty Cookie in 2019, the story opened with the question every reader would ask: “A cookie shot glass? How does that work?” A reporter could explain it in one line and show it in one photo, and that made it easy to cover.

Write your story idea down in one sentence, and if you cannot, it is not ready to pitch. When a reporter agrees to cover your story, it is because it serves their readers first.

Pick 20 reporters and read them first

Mass emailing a media database is the fastest way to make reporters ignore you, since most of them can tell a blast from a personal note in about two seconds.

Instead, build a short list of people who have written about your topic in the last three months. Search the publications you want to appear in, read the articles, and note the name on the byline, because 20 well-chosen names will do far more for you than a purchased database.

Look wider than the national outlets, since local papers, trade publications, newsletters, and podcasts all count and are often easier to land first. A small piece in front of your exact buyers beats a big one that nobody who could hire you will ever read.

How to pitch a journalist

Good media pitches are short, so aim for under 150 words. By the end of the second sentence the reporter should know what the story is and why it matters this month, and the reason you are the right person to tell it can wait for the end.

A structure that works:

1. A subject line that reads like a headline.
2. One sentence connecting your idea to something they have already written.
3. The story in two or three sentences, with the most interesting fact first.
4. A single line on why you are the right source.
5. What you can give them, such as data, an interview, photos, or a customer who is willing to talk.

Do not attach anything or paste a full press release into the email, because if they want more, they will ask.

Send it on a weekday morning in their time zone and follow up once, about four days later, with one new piece of information. If they still do not answer, move on and pitch them something different next month.

Make yourself easy to quote

A lot of coverage starts with a reporter looking for a source. Services such as Qwoted and Featured send daily requests from journalists who need an expert, and if you answer the ones you genuinely know about, quickly and in plain language, you will start showing up in roundups.

Expert commentary like this is small on its own, but over time it builds relationships with journalists, who start coming back to you directly whenever your topic is in the news.

It also helps to have a simple press page on your website with a short bio, two or three good headshots, the topics you can speak on, and an email address. When a reporter is on deadline, the person with the easiest page often gets the quote.

Turn one article into more

Coverage keeps working long after the day it runs, as long as you use it.

Share it on social media and thank the reporter publicly, then add an “as featured in” line to your website and link to the article from your About page.

Write a short blog post about it on your own site and use it as a case study in sales conversations, since one article gives you enough material to create content for weeks. When happy clients share it as well, that user generated content carries weight of its own.

Press also matters for search. A link from a respected publication tells Google your site is worth trusting, and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity lean on outside sources when they recommend a business, so one good article can help you show up in places you never pitched.

That is how it went with The Dirty Cookie. Each round of coverage made the next pitch easier, and the brand went on to appear on Good Morning America, Shark Tank, and QVC, with a feature from Katie Couric Media along the way.

How long it takes

Expect this to take a few months of steady effort before it feels like it is working, because the first pitches are practice. By month two or three you will know which angles get replies, and reporters who passed once may come back when your topic is newsworthy again.

That is why PR works best as a regular habit: plan to pitch a little every week, and keep a simple sheet of who you contacted and what they said.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a publicist to get press coverage?

No. Plenty of small business owners get covered by pitching themselves. A publicist or PR consultant saves you time and brings relationships and judgment about angles, which is worth paying for when you are ready, but you can start without one.

How do I get featured in the media for the first time?

Start small and close to your buyers. Trade newsletters and niche podcasts are far more open to new sources than national news outlets, and a couple of those pieces make the bigger names more likely to say yes later. Answering source requests is the other easy way in.

Should I send a press release?

Rarely. Press releases suit formal announcements such as funding or a merger, and trade outlets and wire services use them most. For most small business stories, a short personal pitch to the right reporter will outperform a release sent to hundreds of inboxes.

How much does PR cost for a small business?

Doing it yourself costs your time. Freelance PR support and consultants usually charge a monthly fee or a fixed project price, and agencies charge more. Be wary of anyone who guarantees placements, because nobody controls what a journalist decides to write.

What is the difference between PR and advertising?

With advertising you pay for the space and control the message, while with PR you earn the space and the journalist controls the message. That loss of control is exactly why readers trust it more.