How to Get Press Coverage for Your Small Business: Advice From a Former National Journalist

Getting press coverage for a small business is often made to sound far more mysterious than it really is.

There are endless templates, press release formats, journalist databases and pieces of advice promising to show you how to get featured in the media. But most businesses make the same fundamental mistake before they have even written their first pitch.

They start by thinking about what they want.

The journalist is thinking about what their audience wants.

I spent part of my career as a national journalist writing for the Daily Mail, where I received hundreds of PR pitches every day. I now run Fair Public Relations, where we help small businesses, founders, experts, coaches and consumer brands turn their expertise, products, services and stories into earned media opportunities.

Having sat on both sides of the inbox, the most useful advice I can give you is this:

Stop asking, "How can I get a journalist to promote my business?"

Start asking, "What can I give this journalist that helps them create something their audience will want to read?"

That small change in thinking affects almost everything else you do.

1. Think like the journalist, not the business owner

When I was a journalist, I had a few seconds to decide whether a pitch was worth reading.

There were simply too many emails to carefully consider every one.

The subject line mattered. The first few sentences mattered. But most importantly, I wanted to immediately understand what somebody was actually offering me.

Was this:

• an expert I could interview?

• a product I could review?

• a service review opportunity?

• an interesting real-life story?

• a genuinely useful news angle?

• somebody who could comment on something I was already writing about?

The clearer that was, the easier my decision became.

One of the biggest misunderstandings in small-business PR is the idea that a journalist should somehow want to write about your company simply because you have an interesting business.

That is not how journalism works.

A journalist has editors, deadlines and, most importantly, an audience.

Their job is to create content that audience is interested in.

Your job when pitching is to work out how your business can help them do that.

This is why stories that seem enormously important to a business owner can fall completely flat with national journalists.

Opening a new bakery, winning a relatively small local award or celebrating an internal company milestone might matter enormously to you. It may also be genuinely interesting to your local newspaper.

It is unlikely, on its own, to interest a national newspaper.

That does not mean it is a bad story. It means you are pitching the wrong audience.

A new bakery opening in Worcester could be perfectly relevant to local media in Worcester. The same opening will need a much stronger hook before it becomes relevant to the Daily Mail, The Telegraph or another national publication.

PR gets much easier when you stop asking whether your story is interesting and start asking:

Interesting to whom?

2. Target journalists properly

One of the quickest ways to waste your time is to send the same pitch to hundreds of journalists regardless of what they actually write about.

A friend of mine who worked at the Daily Express used to receive pitches for men's razor blades.

She was not writing about men's grooming products.

The pitch was irrelevant before she had even opened it.

This happens constantly because businesses often think primarily about the publication they want to appear in rather than the individual journalist they are contacting.

"I'd love to be in the Daily Express" is not a media strategy.

Who at the Daily Express?

What do they write about?

What have they published recently?

Would your story, product or expertise genuinely fit into their work?

The journalist does not owe your business coverage. Journalism is not a public service designed to promote companies.

You are asking for access to somebody else's audience.

So you need to bring something useful in exchange.

3. Make your subject line painfully obvious

I am a great believer in simple subject lines.

You do not need to be clever for the sake of being clever.

You need to tell the journalist what you have.

When we pitch journalists, we often make the format clear immediately. Depending on the opportunity, that might mean making it obvious that we are offering an:

EXPERT

PRODUCT REVIEW

SERVICE REVIEW

REAL-LIFE STORY

INTERVIEW

The journalist can then make a decision immediately.

Imagine you are inviting a travel journalist to stay at a new hotel in Morocco.

Do not send:

"Exciting new luxury concept arrives in North Africa"

If you are genuinely inviting them to visit and review it, tell them.

"Hotel review opportunity: New property in Morocco"

Now I know why you are emailing me.

And yes, I would probably have opened that.

If you have a brilliant real-life story, put the interesting bit in the subject line.

Something along the lines of:

"35-year-old woman loses 12 stone after..."

or:

"Formerly homeless entrepreneur builds £2m business..."

You are trying to get the attention of journalists who have seen some extraordinary stories over the course of their careers.

That means your pitch sometimes needs to be slightly more sensational in its presentation than the finished article will eventually be.

You are competing for attention.

Do not bury the interesting part in paragraph seven.

4. Do not make your pitch sound like an advert

Award-winning.

Revolutionary.

Market-leading.

Groundbreaking.

Best-in-class.

The problem with promotional language is not simply that journalists dislike it. It takes up space that could be used to explain why the story is actually interesting.

Journalists are skimming.

They are looking for the useful bit.

Paragraphs explaining why your company is wonderful normally make that harder.

The same applies to things like:

"You don't want to miss this!"

"Extra, extra, read all about it!"

"This incredible brand is changing the industry forever!"

It is unnecessary and can feel slightly insulting.

Give the journalist the facts and let them decide whether something is interesting.

And do not use 30 words when 10 will do.

5. Avoid the amateur press release template

There is another mistake I see frequently when businesses start doing their own PR.

They Google "how to write a press release", find an old template and produce something that starts:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

or:

EMBARGOED UNTIL...

Then finishes with:

ENDS

There are situations where formal corporate announcements use these conventions.

If you are announcing something significant on behalf of a huge corporation, there may be a reason for that degree of formality.

If you run a cafe in the Midlands and are pitching a journalist an interesting story, it can make the whole thing look unnecessarily official and rather amateurish.

Professional PR pitching is normally far more conversational and practical.

You are talking to another person.

Tell them what you have.

Tell them why it could work for their audience.

Tell them what happens next.

6. Do not send a journalist an entire article

Another common mistake is writing what is effectively a finished article and emailing it to a journalist in the hope they will copy and paste it.

That is generally not how earned media works.

Different opportunities require different information.

If we are pitching a product, for example, we may include:

• the product

• price

• a concise description

• its main USPs

• why it fits the feature

• availability

• whether a review sample is available

If it is being pitched for a Christmas gift guide, Mother's Day feature or summer travel roundup, we will shape the pitch around that particular opportunity.

A real-life story needs something completely different.

We might include:

• the person's name

• age

• location

• occupation

• a strong headline

• a concise summary of what happened

• the key stages in their story

• relevant quotes

• photographs available

• whether they are available for interview

You need to understand what the journalist's next step is likely to be.

If they like a real-life story, they may want to interview the person.

If they like a product, they may request a sample.

If they like an expert, they may send questions.

If they like a service review opportunity, they may ask about dates and availability.

Make that next step easy.

7. Keep the email simple

There is no single format every journalist prefers.

Some like everything contained within one email.

Others prefer links to additional information.

Some have very specific preferences because they receive so many pitches.

As a general rule, I would keep the important part of the pitch in the email itself.

Do not make a journalist click three links simply to discover why you contacted them.

If you have additional photography or supporting information, one link to a well-organised folder or document is normally enough.

Too many links can also create problems with spam filters.

The principle is simple:

The journalist should understand the opportunity without clicking anything.

Anything they click afterwards should simply make their life easier.

8. Be careful with obvious AI-written pitches

AI can obviously be useful when creating content, but journalists have become extremely sensitive to pitches that sound AI-generated.

That includes repetitive corporate phrasing, generic introductions, unnecessary padding and writing patterns people now associate with AI.

Even punctuation has become part of it.

Ironically, I naturally used long dashes in my own writing for years. I've largely stopped because journalists increasingly interpret them as an indication that something may have been generated by AI.

The bigger issue, though, is generic language.

A journalist wants something specific.

A point of view.

A real story.

Actual expertise.

A useful statistic.

An interesting product.

A credible human being.

AI-shaped filler gets in the way of all of that.

9. Why expert commentary works

Experts are useful to journalists because they add authority to an article.

If a journalist is explaining a complicated subject, offering consumer advice or discussing something where professional knowledge matters, being able to quote a credible specialist adds weight to the piece.

That has arguably become even more important in a world of AI-generated content, deepfakes and growing concerns about the credibility of information online.

But simply calling somebody an expert does not make them one.

Credentials matter.

Experience matters.

Relevance matters.

The people who tend to get repeatedly used by journalists usually have a combination of:

• strong credentials or demonstrable experience

• useful opinions

• clear communication

• willingness to help

• fast response times

• reliability

Once a journalist discovers somebody who consistently gives them useful information quickly, they have a reason to return to them.

That is where expert PR becomes particularly powerful.

You stop being somebody repeatedly asking for media coverage.

You become somebody journalists know can help them.

10. Respond to journalist requests quickly

Speed matters enormously.

If a national consumer journalist sends you questions, two hours is a sensible rule of thumb if you can manage it.

Sometimes you will have longer.

Sometimes you will have much less.

Business-to-business publications can operate on completely different timelines. A feature might be planned weeks or even months in advance.

But generally, faster is better.

If you cannot provide a full answer immediately, communicate.

Tell the journalist:

"I can get this to you by 2pm. Does that work?"

Or send a few initial thoughts and tell them the fuller response is coming.

This is also where having help becomes valuable.

You might send a voice note to an assistant, member of staff or PR agency and have them turn your thoughts into a structured response.

That is one of the ways we work with clients at Fair PR. Clients can send their thoughts through quickly, including by voice note, and the team can help shape genuine expertise into something suitable for the journalist's deadline.

You do not necessarily need more time.

You need a better mechanism for responding quickly.

11. Should you follow up with a journalist?

Usually, I wouldn't.

This is one area where my advice differs from a lot of generic PR guides.

As a journalist, I hated being repeatedly chased by PRs and businesses after they sent me something.

And I would very strongly advise against calling journalists to ask whether they received your email.

They received it.

They are busy.

If they are interested, they may respond.

They may also save the pitch and return to it much later.

We have had journalists return to pitches days later, weeks later, months later and, occasionally, much longer after the original contact.

Silence does not necessarily mean your idea was terrible.

It may simply mean it does not fit anything they are working on right now.

A better strategy is to find a genuinely different reason to pitch the opportunity again.

Perhaps the product now fits a Mother's Day gift guide.

Perhaps Christmas gives you another angle.

Perhaps a story can be reframed around a new trend.

That is not sending the same journalist "just following up on my email below" five times.

It is giving them a different editorial opportunity.

12. There is probably more news inside your business than you think

I do not really believe founders when they tell me there is absolutely nothing interesting about their business.

There normally is.

You just need to look beyond announcements.

Consider:

• business anniversaries

• unusual customer stories

• employee stories

• founder experiences

• suppliers

• milestones

• unusual statistics

• local activity

• charitable initiatives

• changes in your industry

• customer trends

• interesting things you have personally experienced

A fifth or tenth business anniversary can become much more interesting when you place it in context.

Perhaps a large percentage of businesses in your sector fail within five years.

Now the anniversary represents something wider.

For a local business, you can go further.

Invite local councillors, community figures, business owners or, where appropriate, the local MP.

Support a charity.

Create an event.

Get some decent photography.

Invite the local press.

It does not need to cost a fortune.

Sometimes a few guests, a ribbon and some Marks & Spencer quiches can do a surprisingly good job.

13. Your story does not always need to be about your business

This is one of the biggest opportunities founders overlook.

Imagine you run an online furniture company.

You also happen to have lost a significant amount of weight because you wanted to become healthier and more active with your children.

That transformation could potentially be a far stronger media story than anything happening inside the furniture business.

That does not mean the company disappears.

If a journalist genuinely likes your personal story, they may still identify you as the founder of the business and include the company naturally.

You gave the journalist the content.

You received visibility in return.

That is the exchange.

The mistake is thinking every piece of coverage has to be a glowing article entirely about your product or company.

Often the strongest PR happens when you stop trying so hard to make the business the story.

14. What makes a real-life story newsworthy?

Transformation is one of the strongest themes.

That might be:

• a dramatic health journey

• significant weight loss

• an unusual achievement

• financial transformation

• rags to riches

• riches to rags

• an extraordinary travel experience

• overcoming something physically or emotionally

• a remarkable career change

• an unusual fear or condition

• an experience involving a celebrity or major organisation

It needs movement.

There is a before and an after.

Something happened.

Something changed.

Something was overcome, achieved, lost, discovered or transformed.

That gives the journalist a narrative.

15. Products need a genuine USP

"We launched a product" is rarely enough.

When we start working with a product business, one of the first questions I ask is:

What makes this special?

Then:

Who are the competitors?

What does your product do differently?

Why would somebody choose yours?

Why would a journalist care?

If the honest answer is that the product is almost identical to 40 other products already on the market, PR will be more difficult.

That does not make it impossible.

Seasonality, expert commentary, founder stories, customer stories and gift guides can all create opportunities.

But a genuine USP makes product PR dramatically easier.

16. Photography can make or break your story

Photography is hugely underestimated by businesses doing their own PR.

Imagine your story is:

"My grandmother taught me to cook and inspired me to become a chef."

A journalist will probably ask:

Do you have a photograph with your grandmother?

If you do not have one, you may have just lost one of the strongest visual elements in the story.

If your story involves a health condition, journalists may want photographs showing that period in your life.

If you lost significant weight, they will probably want before-and-after photographs.

If your story involves travelling around the world, they may want pictures from those trips.

And the same principle applies to businesses.

Hotels need beautiful photography.

Restaurants need beautiful photography.

Spas need beautiful photography.

Consumer products need clean, professional images.

You do not necessarily need an enormous photography budget.

You do need photographs a publication would actually be comfortable publishing.

No grainy screenshots, please.

17. Journalists are not part of the backlink economy

This is one of the most important things for businesses to understand about PR.

Journalists generally do not care about your SEO strategy.

They are not sitting there wondering whether your Moz Domain Authority needs improving.

A backlink is provided when the journalist or publication believes it has editorial value.

Some publications link freely.

Others rarely link.

Policies change.

One publication might appear generous with external links for months and then suddenly stop.

A journalist may link to your website because it genuinely helps the reader understand who you are or where to find something.

You can politely ask.

If somebody is writing an exclusive piece about you, there may also be opportunities to discuss what information is included.

But you are not entitled to a backlink.

That said, when genuine earned media does result in a high-quality editorial backlink from a major publication, it can be extremely valuable.

It may support SEO and wider online authority.

It can also give search engines and AI systems another independent source connecting your name or business with particular topics.

Treat the link as a valuable bonus.

Do not treat it as something the journalist owes you.

18. PR takes bloody ages

There. I said it.

Real earned PR takes time.

There are plenty of services online that can make media exposure appear immediate.

There are also publications and contribution models where money changes hands.

That is a different proposition from consistently earning independent editorial coverage.

Real PR requires:

positioning.

ideas.

pitching.

testing.

learning.

relationships.

reworking angles.

responding to opportunities.

sometimes changing direction completely.

A campaign might spend several months trying different approaches before discovering that one particular type of expertise, story or angle consistently resonates.

Then you do more of what works.

PR is often trial and error.

But the reason businesses keep doing it is that the results can compound.

You build a collection of media coverage.

That coverage can strengthen credibility.

Some articles may provide backlinks.

Your search visibility may improve.

Prospective clients may Google you and find credible third-party references.

You can reuse articles in sales conversations.

You can share them on LinkedIn.

You can put them on your website.

You become increasingly associated with particular topics.

One article is unlikely to transform your business.

A growing body of credible media coverage can become an extremely valuable business asset.

19. How long should you do PR for?

I would be cautious about starting PR if you are only prepared to give it a few weeks.

My general preference is that businesses think in terms of at least six months.

Nine to twelve months often gives you a much better opportunity to see what sustained PR can actually do.

That does not mean you should keep paying an agency indefinitely if nothing is happening.

If there is little activity, no strategy, poor communication and no indication that anything is developing, you should absolutely question it.

But expecting an enormous campaign with piles of national coverage in months one, two and three is often unrealistic.

There are exceptions.

A highly credentialled expert in a subject currently dominating the news may get significant coverage very quickly.

A genuinely extraordinary story may take off immediately.

A perfectly timed product can perform brilliantly.

But those are not sensible expectations on which to build a long-term PR strategy.

20. Why some businesses get more PR opportunities than others

After running campaigns for many different types of businesses and experts, patterns become fairly obvious.

The businesses that struggle often have some combination of:

poor photography.

weak differentiation.

limited expertise.

slow responses.

little willingness to participate.

very narrow ideas about what they will talk about.

unrealistic expectations.

The businesses that tend to do best are generally more open-minded.

They trust the process.

They respond.

They have decent assets.

They allow us to experiment.

They understand that some ideas will work and others will not.

And they give the campaign enough time to learn.

Those are frequently the clients who remain with us for years.

21. Should you try doing your own PR first?

Absolutely.

In fact, when small businesses speak to me about PR, I often encourage them to try it themselves.

You will learn an enormous amount.

Start by writing down:

What makes my business different?

What expertise can I offer?

What stories do I have?

What products or services could journalists genuinely experience?

Do I have interesting customers?

What could I help a journalist explain?

What am I willing to offer?

What would I ideally like in return?

Then start paying attention to journalists in your sector.

Follow them.

Read their work.

Follow relevant journalist requests.

There are journalist request platforms and media enquiry services that can help you find journalists actively looking for experts, products, stories and case studies.

Have a go at creating pitches.

Try different angles.

Do it consistently for three months.

Then assess what happened.

If you got some coverage and enjoyed doing it, learn more and continue.

If you struggled, you will be in a much better position to speak to an agency.

You can say:

"This is what I tried."

"This is what worked."

"This didn't."

"What would you do differently?"

You will understand the process enough to judge whether their answer sounds sensible.

You will also appreciate what goes into PR.

That makes for a much healthier agency relationship than going into it completely blind.

My five rules for getting press coverage

If I could give a small business owner only five rules, these would be them.

1. Give journalists something their audience actually wants

Do not begin with what you want to promote.

Begin with what the journalist needs.

Find the point where those two things overlap.

2. Help journalists even when every opportunity isn't perfect for you

If a journalist in your sector asks for something you can genuinely help with, consider helping.

Relationships grow through usefulness.

If you repeatedly make somebody's job easier, there is a good chance they will remember you when another relevant opportunity appears.

3. Be quick

Journalist deadlines can be brutal.

Respond quickly, communicate clearly and find a system that allows you to provide useful information without abandoning the rest of your business.

4. Make your pitch immediately understandable

No waffle.

No enormous corporate introduction.

No paragraphs telling the journalist how brilliant your company is.

Tell them what you have and why it might be relevant.

5. Understand that PR is a journey, not a destination

Do not chase one magical article.

Build a body of credible earned media over time.

Some articles may build awareness.

Others may strengthen credibility.

Some may provide backlinks.

Some may perform well in search.

Some may help a potential customer trust you.

Some may position you as an expert.

Together, they become far more powerful than any single piece of coverage.

Can a small business get press coverage without a PR agency?

Yes.

There is no rule saying you need to hire an agency to speak to journalists.

If you understand your audience, have something useful to offer, write good pitches, respond quickly and are willing to keep going, there is no reason you cannot generate your own earned media opportunities.

The trade-off is mainly time and expertise.

DIY PR costs less financially, but it can take a considerable amount of your time.

A traditional agency may require much less day-to-day work from you, but can cost several thousand pounds per month.

Fair Public Relations sits deliberately between those two models. We provide journalist-led strategy, writing, pitching and campaign support for £597 per month or US$797 per month, while keeping the process collaborative and accessible to smaller businesses, founders and experts.

Whichever route you choose, the principle remains the same:

Give journalists genuinely useful content, make their job easier and give the process enough time to work.

That is how good PR starts.

FAQs

How can a small business get press coverage?

Start by thinking about what a journalist and their audience need, rather than what you want to promote. Useful opportunities might include expert commentary, an interesting founder story, a customer case study, a distinctive product, a service review, original data or a genuinely newsworthy business development.

Do I need a PR agency to get media coverage?

No. Small businesses can absolutely do their own PR. You can identify relevant journalists, respond to journalist requests, pitch stories and expertise directly and learn what kinds of angles generate interest. The main trade-off is time, consistency and experience.

How do I pitch a journalist?

Keep the pitch short and make it immediately clear what you are offering. The subject line and opening should quickly explain whether it is an expert, product review, service review, real-life story, interview opportunity or news angle, and why it is relevant to that journalist's audience.

How long should a media pitch be?

Usually, shorter is better. A journalist should be able to understand the opportunity within a few seconds. Include the essential facts, the strongest angle and a clear next step, rather than sending a finished article or a long promotional introduction.

Should I send a press release as an attachment?

Usually not. It is generally better to include the important part of the pitch in the email itself. If additional information, photography or supporting material is needed, one well-organised link is usually enough.

Should I follow up with a journalist who has not replied?

In most cases, I would not. Journalists receive large numbers of emails and may save pitches for future features without responding immediately. A better approach is often to return later with a genuinely different angle, seasonal hook or new reason for the journalist to consider the story.

How quickly should I respond to a journalist request?

As quickly as you reasonably can. For fast-moving national consumer media, replying within a couple of hours is a useful rule of thumb. If you need more time, tell the journalist when you can provide a full response rather than leaving the request unanswered.

What makes an expert attractive to journalists?

Credible expertise, strong credentials, relevance to the subject, useful opinions and fast responses all help. Experts who consistently make a journalist's job easier are more likely to be approached again for future articles.

What makes a product interesting to journalists?

A clear USP is one of the biggest advantages. Journalists need to understand what makes the product different, useful, timely or particularly relevant to their audience. A launch alone is rarely enough.

How important is photography for PR?

Very important. Strong photography can significantly affect whether a story, product, hotel, restaurant, service or real-life case study is usable by a publication. Images should be relevant, high quality and suitable for editorial use.

Do journalists have to include a backlink?

No. Backlinks are an editorial decision and cannot be guaranteed. Some publications link regularly, others rarely do, and policies can change. A high-quality editorial backlink can be extremely valuable, but it should be treated as a bonus rather than something a journalist owes you.

How long does PR take to work?

Earned PR usually takes time. Some opportunities can happen quickly, but positioning, pitching, testing angles, building journalist relationships and learning what works can take several months. In my experience, businesses should think in terms of sustained PR rather than expecting one article to transform the company.

How long should a small business do PR for?

I would generally think in terms of at least six months, with nine to twelve months often giving a better view of what sustained PR can achieve. That does not mean staying with a campaign that shows no activity or direction, but it does mean allowing enough time for the strategy to develop.

What makes some small businesses get more PR coverage than others?

Strong photography, credible expertise, clear differentiation, responsiveness, openness to different angles and patience all help. Businesses that are willing to collaborate and give the campaign time tend to create more opportunities than businesses with very narrow expectations.

Is DIY PR worth trying before hiring an agency?

Yes. Doing your own PR for a few months can teach you how journalists work, what kinds of stories generate interest and how much time the process requires. It can also make it much easier to judge whether a PR agency's strategy and advice make sense later.

Would you rather have someone handle the PR for you?

Fair Public Relations helps small businesses, founders, experts, coaches and consumer brands turn their expertise, products, services and stories into credible earned media opportunities.

Our Standard PR service costs £597 per month or US$797 per month and includes campaign strategy, positioning, content creation, journalist outreach, proactive pitching, reactive media opportunities, expert commentary support, media monitoring and ongoing campaign management.

Earned media coverage, particular publications, backlinks and commercial outcomes cannot be guaranteed, but every campaign is shaped around the strongest credible media opportunities available to the client.

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