For the last couple of years I’ve been writing about business in The Financial Times. I’ve also written for publications like British Airways ‘Business Life’ and contributed to Monocle magazine’s radio show on entrepreneurs. And of course as soon as people start seeing my byline, I get targeted by PRs and companies wanting me to write about them.

I’ve been on the receiving end of so many poor approaches, I decided to write my own ‘dos and don’ts’. I should stress I’m not a fully-fledged journalist myself, this is just my personal view (other journalists, editors and publications may have different preferences):

1. Do make your approach relevant to each journalist you target. Many approaches are so generic, I just delete them. If the PR company had stopped to think, they’d know that a press release proclaiming, “City lawyer named as one of the most influential people in Leicestershire,” (yep, I really got sent that) is not the kind of story I write about.
2. Don’t email attachments. Your pitch should be in the body copy of the email. I’ve been sent — unsolicited — huge PDFs along with multiple files of photographs. Not only is it a pain, it shows ignorance. A journalist rarely takes responsibility for obtaining photos — these would be requested at a later stage.
3. Do keep your pitch short. Don’t send press releases, send a pitch in a paragraph or two. But keep it short. I’ve been sent multiple-paragraph emails that run to 1,000 words. You think I have time to read that? Hit me with something short.
4. Do make sure your story is ‘fit for press’. Is what you’re pitching really worthy of an article about it? Can you truly see it being published in your target publication? One press release I got proudly announced that a company was celebrating ten years trading by making a £2,000 donation to charity. That is not a story. Remember, often it’s the entrepreneurial tale *behind* the business that is more press-worthy than the product or business itself.
5. Do personalise your approach. I only respond to emails where the person targeting me has the good sense to personalise it, demonstrating they’ve done their research. “Hi Ian, I really liked the piece you wrote on co-working spaces. So I wondered whether you might be interested in….”. That will yield a response.
6. Don’t send ‘me-too’ approaches. After I wrote about a burger startup, I got approaches from similar restaurant startups. But the reality is, if I’ve just written about a restaurant business, I won’t do again soon. Makes sense right?
7. Do be helpful. Be prepared to do some heavy-lifting your end. Last year I got targeted by a smart woman who wanted me to write about her business: she didn’t just pitch me her startup, she gave me some ideas for angles along with links to other businesses I could feature. Really helpful.
8. Do play the long game. Last year a PR company invited me to be part of a round-table discussion. When I didn’t reply straight away, they chased me up explaining they’d love me to be part of the discussion. I said I was sorry I couldn’t make it, but I was interested in the subject area, so might be happy to come along another time. But because I was a ‘no’ they didn’t bother replying. They’d spent all their effort trying to get to a ‘yes’. When they got a ‘no’ — then all that effort immediately dropped off, I wasn’t useful to them. They missed a trick for their client; you need to play the long game if you want to build relationships with a journalist. And basic courtesy goes a long way (see point 10).
9. Don’t spam me. If I ask to unsubscribe, please stop emailing. Otherwise it’s spam. It took several emails and tweets to get one PR company to stop sending me their emails.
10. Do say thank you. Freelance journalists like me get paid by the word, we don’t get paid expenses, so we don’t get paid to take a train out of town to do an interview. But sometimes we recognise that to do a good job, we like to do it face to face. So if I make the effort to write about you — and especially if I take a train ride to do the interview — it would be good to get a ‘thank you’.

So ditch the press release and try a more human-centered approach to targeting journalists.

But also, remember this: I have rarely written about a business because someone sent me an email. I write about businesses because I’m interested in the subject matter, because I stumble upon a good story, or because I bump into the founder in a bar.

Good luck strategising that….!