Recently, I asked my Instagram audience what their biggest PR question is, and it was unanimously “How do I know who to contact?”
If you’ve been wondering the same thing, I want you to know that you’re not alone. I also want you to know that being aware of who to contact, though super important, is only the first step when it comes to positioning
i.e. pitching yourself to editors, podcast hosts and so on in such as way that featuring you is a no-brainer and immediate ‘yes’
I was reminded of this as I was going through my emails recently as someone had written to me with an article idea for my website
While they had found someone who has a blog (me), their pitch and article idea didn’t align with my business or the interests of my audience. So, of course unfortunately, it was a no
Not to mention the fact that I don’t even accept guest posts
All of that to say, although when many of us think about positioning, we think of it as getting ourselves in front of the right people- this is only partly true
It’s also the easy part as most platforms have contact pages and submission guidelines which will give you all the information you need about who to contact and how. But I digress…
You also need to know how to position yourself in a way that demonstrates your expertise, experience and why editors, influencers, podcast hosts and so on would be mad not to accept your pitch
And that all comes about by ”offering a clear map…defining what you are, and more importantly, what you are not, to help people make informed choices” (Seth Godin)