A few years ago, an editor at Built In emailed me. He told me that one of my guest posts was featured in their “Editors’ Picks” of the year. I opened the article and, sure enough, there was my name and a link to my article. Then I scrolled the rest of the Editors’ Picks.
Woah, there’s an article by Jeff Bezos.
Cool, here’s one by Reid Hoffman. Andrew Chen. Ursula Burns. Business legends.
So, what the hell was my name doing on this list?
Publicity is one of the most widely ignored sides of the content marketing industry. You can find a thousand articles about how to publish regularly on LinkedIn or X. Hundreds of practitioners will tell you why SEO matters and how to get started.
What fewer people talk about is this: Where does publicity fit into your content strategy—and why does it matter?
Since publicity has been a major part of my own writing business, let’s talk about that.
Where does publicity fit into your content strategy?
Some people collect Pokemon cards. Others collect old coins. I wish more founders and CEOs collected media logos.
Earned media should be the North Star in any long-term content marketing strategy. Why do you create content, anyway? You do it to create buzz, to get people talking about you and your business.
The ultimate expression of "buzz" is when other people write, talk, and publish content about your product. That's earned media. That's publicity.
Publicity also reinforces every other aspect of your marketing initiative:
The more media attention you earn, the easier it is to achieve future media spots. It eventually turns into a virtuous cycle.
Media attention bolsters every other aspect of your content marketing machine: It gives you backlinks for SEO, drives new followers to your social channels, and makes both you and your company generally easier to find online.
Media logos stay with you forever. Once you’ve appeared in the Wall Street Journal or Adweek, two appearances I’ve made this year, that fact can live forever in your professional bio and company website. As you achieve larger and larger publicity, replace the lesser-known logos with bigger ones.
Every time your name appears in the media, your company is sharing the headlines with celebrities and major companies. When people Google your company, instead of finding a lonely business LinkedIn page, people see articles from Forbes and Bloomberg. Not bad for first impressions.
It’s one thing to call your own business important on social media.
It’s a different league entirely when journalists and your favorite bloggers start writing about you and your organization. Or when you begin writing for the biggest publications in your field and appearing on podcasts and radio shows.
Publicity is the social proof that ties your entire marketing strategy together in a nice bow. So, why don’t content marketers talk about it? What's the catch?
The price of publicity: Control
The problem with publicity is that very little is in your control. Editors will turn down your ideas more than they accept them. Once accepted, they have the final editorial authority. They control the content and the distribution.
Case in point: The first “big” interview I ever had was with a Forbes journalist. She wanted to write a short feature about how Sarabeth and I used our writing business to become digital nomads and travel for six months during our honeymoon.
The interview took place. My hopes went sky-high. But the article was never published. It felt like someone promising me a big break only to rip it away from me.
There was nothing I could do. It’s called “earned” media for a reason. Almost nothing is in your control.
That’s why most content teams focus on self-published articles, videos, newsletters, and social media. You get the analytics and the editorial discretion. Content marketers like to be judged on what they control: Words produced, articles published.
As a result, “gatekeeper” has become a dirty term in marketing. The internet made traditional media a type of enemy. Like: Why pitch an editor who might turn down or change your story—when you can just self-publish this tweet or run a paid ad?
The slow burn: Playing the media game
I received a serendipitous message while writing this article. A new connection on LinkedIn said, “I'm literally reading Cal Newport's Deep Work for the first time, and now I see you wrote for his blog—very cool!”
This captures the heart of what I love about publicity. People begin to associate your name (and your business) with the media in which you appear.
Throughout this article, I’ve described publicity as an ignored part of the content marketing world. The reason I categorize publicity under content marketing is because earning media attention is a writer’s game.
You either need to draft persuasive pitches to earn coverage from busy journalists and bloggers. In this case, you must know what is and isn’t newsworthy—and then learn how to turn what is newsworthy into a relevant story for that specific writer. This requires some keen copywriting skills.
Or you need to write incredible thought leadership pieces so that your name appears in the byline of major publications. Most people can’t write at this caliber. Great writing gives you a distinct advantage in the publicity game.
Even for exceptional writers, the first media hits are a slow burn. You’re playing the long game. At first, editors will ignore you. You won’t even hear back from them. Ghosted.
Then, one day, something will click.
A journalist replies. They’d like to see a draft of your article. They publish the piece and perhaps even ask you to write another one.
A few weeks or months go by. Journalists keep ignoring you. Then, another acceptance. From now on, your pitches contain a different weight. You’ve made the news before. You have samples and headlines, proof that your name, ideas, and business are newsworthy.
The next pitches land easier. They land faster. More editors and journalists give you the time of day.
You collect a few more media logos. A podcaster reads your article in Forbes and wants to interview you about the topic.
Now, the pitching game flips around. Journalists, bloggers, editors, and podcasters begin asking you to appear in their articles and shows. Bloggers pull quotes from your other articles and feature you. You didn’t even pitch them. Now, you’re in front of their audience.
Every part of your content marketing strategy gains traction. Google sees your business as an authority and ranks your website higher in search.
Your social media readership expands, building a new form of social proof. Momentum builds. The cycle continues, now at a faster pace.
Welcome to the earned media game.
Media pitching best practices
Let's back up. You’ve seen the big picture. It's time to get tactical. How do you earn media attention?
There are dozens of ways to approach the media. Here are the tactics that have worked for my business and for my ghostwriting clients.
Find the newsworthy story: This is the most important part of the pitch process. Pitching the media is competitive. Some journalists receive hundreds of pitches per day. The easiest way to stand out is to find or create fresh stories.
A new product feature is not a story. A new hire is not a story. Most things that your team celebrates will not inspire a journalist to give you the time of day.
You must dig deeper. Find the human stories in business. What are the unconventional ideas and insights that you’ve gained from your business? Did you run a major survey and uncover interesting results? Offer those results to the journalist.
Did your company raise a major funding round? Let a big tech publication break the news. When you find a new and unique story, offer it to the media.
I can’t tell you what’s interesting about your business without knowing you (book a call!). But I can tell you this: The more time you spend selecting and carefully honing your story, the less time you have to spend pitching it.
Pitch journalists, podcasters, and bloggers: Once you have your story, it’s time to play the numbers game. Write tailored pitches of your story. What does it take to write a strong pitch? I’ll cover that in a future article. But for some quick pointers: Tell the journalist why the story is timely, why they’re the right person (or outlet) to cover this story, and why you’re important to the story.
The key is to make it personal and relevant. A journalist can tell when you’ve sent the same copy-pasted pitch to 1,000 journalists. Don’t bother waiting for a reply. They’re not interested.
Here's the exact pitch I used a few weeks ago to write an article for Adweek:
Follow relevant journalists on social media: I’ve earned multiple media features by simply responding in a timely manner to journalists and bloggers I follow online. So, read articles in your industry. When you see the byline at the bottom, track down that journalist and follow them. Make it easy to appear in future articles by existing in that journalist’s orbit.
Building my freelance business on publicity
This afternoon, I spoke with a new freelancer about where to find clients. I told her that you must take two marketing approaches in the beginning. You need to do the work to find clients this week. That means posting on LinkedIn, applying to gigs on job boards, joining niche social media groups, and so on.
But you also want to market for the long term. As a writer, that means playing the full media game. Write everywhere. Write on social, if you like. Write for your own blog and maybe even build a newsletter.
Also, write for any relevant editor who will publish you.
I give this advice because it’s exactly what I did. Now, I don’t have to do any of the short-term tactics I did early in my writing career. I don’t scour on job boards or join niche communities (unless I want to).
Clients find me through my writing. They find my articles on Google or social media. They find my bylines in Adweek, Built In, Foundr, and a whole host of popular blogs.
Every piece builds upon the others. But the piece that ties it together, in my opinion, is the earned media.
