How to follow-up with journalists

I know, we’re vegan, we don’t like to be pushy and we’re all about avoiding conflict.  But that will get you nowhere with PR!  After you have sent your email don’t just sit back and cross your fingers.  Pick up the phone and make a call.  If you are confident that your story needs to be heard by the world (and why would you be sending it in the first place if you didn’t?) then you need to make sure the journalist sees your email.  Journalists can get hundreds of emails a day and they simply don’t get a chance to look at them all.  It might be that they are actually interested in your story but just didn’t see it.  Call them, ask them if now is a good time for a quick chat and run through your story idea in 30 seconds.  They will soon tell you if they are interested or not.

PR is all about being persistent and not giving up.  There is a lot of noise out there for you to cut through so don’t worry about being seen as pushy; you are just bringing more vegan goodness to the public eye.  And just because one publisher isn’t interested, it doesn’t mean that no-one is.  They might not pick up your story because they have just done something similar or they don’t think it’s a good fit for their publication.  So try others, and keep trying until you find the person who engages.  Remember the Greggs vegan sausage roll.  Send them samples, make up an elaborate package and deliver it to their office.