How to squeeze the most out of PR

PR can feel overwhelming when you're starting out, but it's not only massive brands with huge teams getting media coverage.

In this webinar, Riannon Palmer delivers a practical beginner-friendly session on how start-ups and small businesses can start generating press coverage without a huge budget.

She breaks down how to start building visibility through simple, strategic PR that fits into your wider marketing efforts.

You'll learn how journalists think, how to shape your story into something media-worthy and how to start getting your business seen in the right places.

Topics covered in this session

• What PR actually is (and what it isn't): How PR helps build awareness, credibility, SEO and AI search visibility – without you having to pay for ads

• How to find your story angle: How to turn your founder journey, expertise or product into something journalists genuinely want to cover

• How to pitch journalists properly: Simple tips for writing pitches that media people actually open and respond to

• Reactive PR and "newsjacking": How to tap in to trends, breaking news and cultural moments to secure quicker opportunities for coverage

• PR on a budget: Free and low-cost tools you can use to start doing PR yourself, even as an early-stage business

About the speaker

Riannon is the founder and MD of Lem-uhn, a feel-good PR agency helping purposeful start-ups grow through meaningful media coverage.

After burning out in traditional PR agencies during the pandemic, she launched Lem-uhn in 2021 to build an agency that genuinely cared about both people and purpose.

Since then, she's helped growth-stage businesses secure coverage in titles including BBC News, Stylist, HuffPost and more.

Riannon is also a LinkedIn Top Voice and has won recognition from Women in Marketing, SeedLegals and Startup Awards UK.

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Transcript

Lightly edited for clarity.

Caitriona: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Caitriona, and I'll be your host today.

For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses. I'm pleased to introduce Riannon Palmer, who's the founder of Lem-uhn.

In this session, Riannon will explore how start-ups and small businesses can start generating press coverage without a huge budget. If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end.

Today's webinar will be recorded, and we'll send a follow-up email with the recording and further resources later today. Over to you, Riannon.

Riannon: Hi, everyone. Lovely to be here today. Hopefully, I can give you some useful knowledge about PR, demystify it a little bit and help you get some press for yourself.

Today, I'm going to talk about how to squeeze the most out of PR. First, a quick introduction. My name is Riannon. Five years ago, I was working for big global PR agencies, and I decided I wanted to work for a better type of agency that cared about its employees and worked with better brands. There wasn't one, so I started Lem-uhn.

We get clients into magazines, newspapers, TV, radio and anywhere else there's press. We also help clients with influencer management, so if anyone has any questions about that, I'd be happy to share some information today.

We like to practise what we preach, so you can see some of the press coverage we've got for ourselves as a company.

I'm looking forward to sharing some insight into what PR is, because I know it's one of those things people can get confused by.

I'll also share how to find and shape your start-up story, when and how to pitch to journalists, some tools and tips to get yourself PR coverage, how to tap into the news agenda with reactive PR, where PR fits into your marketing strategy, and some tools and guides you can take away today.

So first, what actually is PR?

PR is all about getting yourself into the press. You're giving journalists something interesting to write about that is topical, useful and relevant. It needs to fit into the news agenda.

It's the type of story you might talk to people about in a café or pub. It's the kind of thing people want to discuss.

It also needs to be useful. We need to provide useful content that makes journalists' lives as easy as possible. Journalists sometimes have to write up to 12 articles a day.

If you can provide content they can quickly use, shape into an interesting angle or even copy and paste parts of, they will be grateful and more likely to feature you.

PR is about earning your space in the press, so it's free. You may have had emails saying someone can get you into an article about the top businesswomen or businessmen.

Those are usually too good to be true, and they can ask for tens of thousands of pounds. Proper PR is about earning your place in the press by creating relevant and interesting stories.

PR is great for growth. It can help with brand awareness, credibility, trust and SEO. It means you can have "as seen in" logos on your website.

It can help you rank higher in Google searches and improve your visibility in AI search as well. Everyone wants to be visible in Gemini, Claude and ChatGPT these days. Different studies give different figures, but around 80% to 85% of AI search results are driven by PR coverage.

In turn, all of this helps to grow your revenue. You're getting yourself spoken about without having to pay for ads. That makes sense, especially when everyone has smaller budgets and needs that budget to go further.

What you need is you. That could be your story, your product or your insights. You need to fit into the news with relevancy and timing, and then you can get some lovely PR coverage.

I'll try to leave time for questions at the end, so please pop any into the chat.

What do journalists actually want? Journalists want relevant stories. They want things that are really timely.

If you see an article and think, "I could provide some expertise on that," or "My business is relevant to that," that's perfect. They want stories that fit into trending topics.

There are also events that happen year in, year out, like Father's Day, and we've got the World Cup coming up. There are lots of different moments you can fit your company, expertise or products into to get yourself into the press.

You also need to pitch to relevant journalists. If you're a sports company, don't pitch to food journalists unless you've found an angle that genuinely fits. Make sure you're reaching out to the right people.

Journalists want a fresh perspective. They love people who haven't been in the press before. You can pitch yourself as a new expert. Maybe you've got an interesting case study about how you started your business. Journalists like new angles and new voices.

They also want real stories. If you have an interesting founder story, or customer case studies that fit well into the press, that's a great opportunity.

Finally, they want efficiency. As I mentioned, journalists are very time poor. We want to help them by providing everything they need: links to imagery they can access easily, all the relevant information and anything else that makes their life easier.

Where do you begin? Where do you find your story?

You might be sitting there thinking, "This sounds great. I can get free advertising. But where do I actually find my story?"

Start by thinking about what is interesting about your brand. When you tell people you have a business, what makes them say, "That's interesting"?

Maybe it's your founder journey. Did you start your business because of something that happened? Was there an emotional reason behind it? Did you set out to solve a problem or support a social mission? Or do you have a unique product with an interesting angle?

You need to find your USP. Then get your assets ready. That means high-quality photos kept in an easy-to-access drive.

We use Google Drive, but you could also use Dropbox. This means that if a journalist says, "Where are the photos?" you can respond quickly. Ideally, they won't even have to ask because you've already sent the link. If you can't respond quickly, you can miss their deadline.

You also want a short company description. Keep it short and clear. Pull out the interesting points and bring them to life.

Link to as much as possible: your website, social links, a fact sheet and any other useful background. A fact sheet is a one-pager with your founder biography, a bit about your company and any awards or funding you've had.

Then build your media list. A media list is a contact list of journalists. Look at who writes about your industry. I'd go onto Google, search through the news function and look up companies similar to yours, industry topics and things that have been spoken about.

For me, I might look up "PR agency", "marketing agency", my competitors or terms like "female-founded businesses" and "small businesses". That helps me see which journalists cover those topics and where I could be seen in the press.

If you're looking for journalists' contact details, most PR agencies will have access to expensive databases. But if you can't afford that, search the journalist's name first and see if their email comes up.

If you can't find their exact email address, look at the publication and find someone else's email address, then copy the format. Sometimes it's first name, last name.

Sometimes journalists have their email on Twitter or X, and sometimes they have their own website. You can usually find it with a bit of digging.

Then think about where your voice belongs. That could be local press. I'd always say start easy, because PR can be off-putting when journalists don't get back to you and you aren't getting coverage.

If you start with local press, podcasts or niche trade titles, and you start seeing some coverage there, you'll feel more confident and can then go for bigger titles.

Local press always love local stories. You could say: "Yorkshire founder has grown the business by X% in the past few years," or "Yorkshire founder started business because X happened, which resulted in Y." Something interesting and locally relevant.

Podcasts are great as well because your words don't get cut. It's really nice to speak in depth, especially if there are industry podcasts you could speak on.

Niche trade titles are usually more generous too. Once you've built confidence there, you can go to bigger and national press.

So how do you write a pitch?

PR writing is quite different from other forms of writing. To make a journalist's life easier, write your pitch a bit like you'd write an article. Look at similar articles about similar companies in the press and see if you can structure yours in a similar way.

Start with an interesting headline or email subject line. For example: "New female-founded skincare brand tackling adult acne, which one in X women suffer from," or "The £11 sleep spray that…" You need an interesting angle that shows why it's different and why people need it now.

If you're saying lots of women suffer from adult acne, that's why it's relevant. If the sleep spray has a unique property, that's why it's relevant.

Putting the cost of something in the subject line, if it's affordable, can work well. We did this recently with a client, talking about an £11 shampoo that helped with a particular problem, and that did really well.

Then open with some context. Why now? Why is it important? Why do people want to know about it? Is there a trend, a date or a news event you can tie it to?

Then introduce yourself and your business. Focus on what's unique. Don't give all the information. You can link to more information if they want it.

Then share the story angle. What's the hook? Why should they care? Why is it important now?

Keep it concise. In email pitches, you can always put a full press release below your email pitch, and I can talk about that more later. There's also a link to a guide with a press release template. But for the actual email, keep it to two to three paragraphs because journalists are time poor.

Include links to your website, product, pricing and a drive with relevant imagery.

Timing is really important in PR. For big calendar moments like Christmas, Father's Day and Mother's Day, you need to pitch quite far in advance. Christmas starts in July in my world, so we'll start talking about it next month. Otherwise, think around three to six months ahead for those big moments.

You can always follow up closer to the time, but you need to give journalists enough time. They're probably going to get lots of pitches, so it's good to get in early.

This varies depending on the media type. Glossy magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar have a lead time of around three to six months for print. Online is usually around two to six weeks. Daily newspapers, radio and TV can be one to seven days ahead.

Even with online newspapers, radio and TV, I try to pitch at least a month before if I can, because then I can follow up. If it's tied to a specific date and you're too late, you're too late. Give them fair warning in advance, then follow up closer to the time.

With follow-ups, I'd recommend leaving about a week between each one. Make sure you're providing a new angle or new information when you're chasing, so you don't annoy journalists.

Being aware of seasonal and cultural moments is really important. As I mentioned, the World Cup is coming up. There are also annual moments: January is wellness, Veganuary and Dry January. March is International Women's Day. June is Pride. Journalists are always going to write about these topics, so think about where you can fit in.

One good tip is that if there are specific publications you want to be in, you can be a bit cheeky and email them saying: "I'm thinking of doing some advertising with you. Can I have your editorial calendar?"

They will often have planned the year already. If they're doing one issue on sustainability and another on a different theme, you can then pitch them editorially. That's a great tip if you want to get into certain publications.

How do you do PR on a budget? If you don't have much time or budget, this is what I recommend doing first.

Use free tools. Google Alerts is great, so if you haven't set this up already, please do. It can alert you when someone writes about your business or a topic related to your business that you could tap into for PR.

Google Trends is also useful. You can look at what people are searching for online. For example, has there been a rise in people searching for the World Cup or something else relevant to your business?

There's a Chrome extension called Glimpse, which has a free trial that lets you use it up to 10 times a month for free. It analyses the data for you, which makes things easier.

Moz is a great SEO tool. You can look at your domain authority, which is a rating between one and 100 that search algorithms give to your website to indicate how reliable it is and how much traffic it drives. It also has some other good SEO tools.

Twitter or X and LinkedIn can be great too. You can look up #journorequest on X. On LinkedIn, journalists may post opportunities too. Follow journalists to see if they post requests such as: "I'm looking for someone to help me with this story." You could be that person and get yourself some press.

There are also a few platforms I'd recommend for reactive PR. In PR, you have planned PR, such as press releases, and reactive PR. Reactive PR can mean newsjacking: jumping on the news agenda and tapping into something relevant.

If you're a sports business, the World Cup is a perfect opportunity. If you run a disability or accessibility business and see news about reforms affecting special educational needs, that's something you could jump on too.

There are platforms where journalists say: "I'm writing a story. Can I get help with it?" Like Editorial sends you one email a day. It's around £10 a month plus VAT. We also have a code here that gives you 25% off.

Pressflow is another one, and Lightbulb is a Facebook community where journalists post opportunities too. These are affordable platforms that are worth signing up to.

If you do nothing else, these journalist opportunities are coming into your inbox already, which reduces the amount of work you need to do to get press.

You could also build your own media list, as I mentioned, and see who has written about your competitors, rather than paying for an expensive database.

Reuse your content as well. PR can drive your wider marketing because it creates something topical, interesting and engaging that people want to write about.

You can turn those ideas into blogs, and I'd recommend doing that at the same time because it encourages journalists to link back if you have some additional information on your website.

You can also use the ideas in your email newsletters, LinkedIn updates and social media content. Reuse the ideas and writing you're already doing.

Be consistent. Even if you only do one pitch a month or one pitch a quarter, stick to it. Keep reminding journalists that you exist, because that can lead to more press coverage in the future.

Reactive PR is when you respond to news to get coverage. You can look at the publications you want to pitch to, identify a topic, put your perspective on it, share a quote with a journalist and hopefully get press coverage.

A few tips on this: reactive PR is about commenting on news that's already happening. Think about trends, data stories, timely quotes and expertise.

If you're an expert on a topic, this is perfect. And if you don't think you're an expert, remember that if you run a business, you're an expert in whatever your business does.

Speed is really important. You have to respond within an hour or two. Journalists get so many pitches, so you need to respond quickly and offer something unique. A strong opinion or interesting angle will make you much more likely to be picked up.

You could offer insights, stats or lived experience, but don't just say, "Here's my product," unless they have specifically asked for products. Don't be too salesy. Be helpful and provide all the content in one go because they often have short deadlines.

If you can, set up a little system. In the morning, read the BBC or another title that gives you an impartial view of what's happening, plus a trade site relevant to your business. You can then see if there are topical stories you could jump on. After lunch, check #journorequest or respond to opportunities from something like Editorial.

As I mentioned, PR drives your overall marketing. It gives you content ideas and helps get your brand story ready, which is one of your best assets.

It's also great for SEO and AI search visibility. If you want to be visible in AI search engines, you need to be thinking about PR.

Even Google now uses AI summaries at the top of search results, and most people use Google. So everyone needs to think about this. It's only going to become more important as society evolves.

PR also supports the rest of your marketing. On your website, you can say "as featured in", which is great for credibility. You can share your press wins on your website, in your email marketing and on social media. Just be careful when you share them, because there are some copyright rules.

We have a blog on our website about how to share press coverage online. If you search "Lem-uhn how to share press coverage online", it should come up. It explains how to do it without getting into trouble or ending up with a lawsuit later.

PR also drives traffic that supports conversions and sales. It can directly affect sales, not just brand awareness. We're quite analytical in our approach, and we monitor things like Google Analytics. You can directly see sales increasing when press coverage lands.

It's also great for collaborations, retailers and investors. If you're looking for investment, investors will search your name online. They want to see that you're a safe bet. If you have press coverage around your name, that can make investment more likely.

It can also lead to retail opportunities if you want to get into shops, as well as collaborations with other brands or people who could help grow your business.

So, next steps. If you do two things today, read the news and sign up to one of those reactive PR platforms. That's the quickest way to start landing press coverage because it can be time consuming, and this is the easiest way.

If you're ready to do a little bit more, write out your story. We usually find that founder-led stories, product reviews and roundups drive the most sales. If you can write up your founder story, that's powerful. People love buying from people, so they want to know you.

Have some lovely imagery as well. Look at what other founder stories say, then write your version and try to pull out the emotive angle behind why you started your business. If you have sales growth data or anything like that, you could include it too.

Be consistent. Show up. Make sure you're pitching to journalists and not treating it as a one-off, because journalists need to hear about you regularly before they cover you.

Track what works. You can get a tracker on your email that shows if journalists have opened your emails. That's really useful.

Look at who is replying, how much coverage you've got, and your Google Analytics, Shopify or whatever analytics platform you use. Has there been an increase in web traffic, social media followers, sales or positive sentiment because of the press?

Then you'll know where you should be featuring in the press, which types of stories work and which ones probably aren't worth as much of your time.

Finally, some free resources. We have this PR-ready guide. If you're thinking, "Am I ready for press, or do I need to do something to get ready?" you can look at this guide.

If you want templates and top tips about how to get press, the how to get press guide is here. I'll update these links and try to get this shared around, because we had our website done last week and the links need updating. I'll get that done so we can hopefully share this presentation around.

The PR hooks guide is useful if you're not sure what you should be pitching about. It includes ideas for different press stories. You can look through them and apply them to your business.

If you want to connect with me and ask questions later, my name is Riannon Palmer, and you can find me on LinkedIn.

Now we should hopefully have time for questions.

Caitriona: Thank you so much, Riannon. We can include the presentation in the follow-up email this afternoon.

Riannon: Once that's complete, I'll update those web links to the new ones.

Caitriona: Lovely. Thank you. If anyone has any questions, please pop them in the chat.

In the meantime, we have a question here from Osham. They're asking: "What would you recommend if we've just won best UK nanny agency award, and I'm a female founder and mum with three young kids? More local press, but also female entrepreneurial magazines. What would you say is the best approach?"

Riannon: Congratulations, firstly. Awards are always really great. Local press love to write about local wins. If you say, "Local woman has won this award", they'll usually cover it, so I would recommend pitching that out.

Also pitch to your trade press. They could pick that up too.

It sounds like quite an interesting business, and maybe you have a reason why you decided to start it. Maybe there was a need for it because you thought other nannying services weren't up to scratch, or you had your children and were stressed. Try to build out that emotive angle.

If I were you, I would pitch to your local BBC and ITV, the regional title, and then hopefully get picked up nationally and syndicated. If you can get on your BBC radio, TV and online, that's amazing. So I'd try that first.

Caitriona: Thank you. We had a question from Simon.

He's asking: "Is it important to use a PR agency that specialises in certain industries? For example, we're a sports agency, so would you recommend going to a specialist sports PR agency?"

Riannon: I would definitely say always ask for case studies. If people have done work in a similar industry, that's really important.

We are an agency, and it is one of the harder forms of PR, because agencies aren't always that exciting for journalists. Our press has always come from things that are unique about us as a company.

So I'd look to see if you have any USPs that set you apart from other agencies. We've done lots about our positive policies, such as menstrual leave, a work-from-anywhere policy, time back for employees and different things like that. That's the kind of thing that got us press.

Look at whether there's anything unique you can tap into. Also think about the media that matters most to you. Once you know where you want to be, it becomes much easier to decide whether you need a specialist agency.

If you want to get started on your own, sign up to one of those reactive PR platforms. That could be a great way.

With any of those platforms, even if you think an opportunity isn't directly linked to your company, pitch yourself anyway. You are getting in front of journalists. They are learning your name, and when you have something more relevant to share, that will help.

For example, last week, because of the heatwave, there were opportunities asking how businesses were coping in the heat. That might not seem directly relevant to a sports agency, but it gets your name out there and can help create more opportunities in the future.

Caitriona: Thank you. A question from Wendy.

She says they work with a private detective agency that handles high-profile cases that get media coverage, but they stay anonymous. How can they raise their profile without talking about their clients?

Riannon: It's quite tricky because journalists want details. I would lean into your expertise.

You could position yourself as an expert who can talk about specific issues. Maybe you can comment on high-profile cases that are already in the press. If there are celebrity cases, which there always are, journalists will often want an expert who can comment.

So I would focus more on expertise and reactive PR. Once journalists know your name a bit more, they may be more willing to talk about you without being able to say exactly who your clients are. But journalists do love information, so it can be tricky.

Caitriona: Thanks. A question from Deepak.

They're saying PR would be a good way for them to get the word out about their business without the cost. Would the creation of new technologies to achieve goals for the customer be a good starting point for PR coverage?

Riannon: Potentially. But you have to think about not being too salesy.

Step away from "what is my business?" and start by consuming the press. Read the news and see how you could fit into it. Is there a topic being discussed where you could provide expertise or a relevant perspective?

Rather than thinking from your company's perspective first, look at what's happening in the media and think about how you can fit into those topics.

Because PR is free, you're earning your space in the press. You need to think about what journalists are already writing about and how you can fit into it, rather than being too salesy about your business.

Caitriona: Thank you. Many start-ups feel they don't have anything newsworthy to share. What are some examples of stories founders often overlook?

Riannon: Good question. As a business, for us, being an agency is quite a boring thing to talk about in the press, but we still find stories.

Something we did recently was pitch a viral post we had on TikTok and Instagram. It was already showing that the topic interested people and was getting engagement. So we pitched it to the press, and it got nice coverage in City AM, iNews and MSN.

So maybe look at whether you've ever had viral posts, or posts that people were really interested in. Your expertise is the easiest and most accessible thing you have. What is your expertise, and how can you talk about it in the press?

Your founder story is also important. Sometimes it needs work because what is interesting to us about our own business might not be interesting to someone else. Find a friend who is honest and ask them what the most interesting part is.

AI can be useful too. You could say: "You are a PR executive. Please be harsh and tell me what is actually interesting about my founder story." You can use the voice function and just talk to it. Tell your story and hopefully it will pull out the more interesting parts.

Those are probably your easiest wins.

Caitriona: Thank you. Do you have any advice for small businesses when it comes to paid PR? They can often find that PR agencies or publications reach out to them. How should they handle those conversations?

Riannon: What I'd call paid PR is usually sponsored articles. That's when a title says, "Give us £5,000 and we'll get you into the press."

I would really look into these opportunities and who is offering them. Sometimes titles like The Times or The Sun reach out with these opportunities, and they are legitimate.

But people can be hesitant when they see "sponsored" at the top of an article, so it may have less impact than earned coverage.

If you're time poor and a reputable title reaches out, it could be an opportunity. But do your research because there are lots of poor-quality titles that get very little traffic.

There's a website called Similarweb that shows web traffic for different websites. If a publication reaches out, look them up. Sometimes only around 100 people look at the website, so make sure you research first.

You can also negotiate. You can probably get half price on what they're offering, so see if you can negotiate the price down.

Caitriona: Thank you. We're coming to the end of the session now, but we have time for one final question. What is the most common mistake you see founders make when pitching to journalists?

Riannon: Being too salesy. As I said before, PR is about earning your place in the press. If you want to be salesy, that's where sponsored articles come in, because you can include more of your messaging.

With PR, make sure you're fitting into the news agenda and being helpful, rather than just saying: "This is my business. It's great."

If you're Chanel or John Lewis, journalists will probably write about your business. But when we're small businesses, we need to make sure we're fitting into the news agenda.

Caitriona: That's brilliant advice and a good way to end the session.

Thank you so much, Riannon, for your presentation. Thanks, everyone, for joining us today. We'll share the recording and further resources in a follow-up email this afternoon.

Riannon: Thanks so much.

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