The List

The List

Christopher Murphy · 13 August, 2020

Summary: When it comes to press releases, don't adopt a shotgun approach, randomly emailing press releases to editors left, right and centre. Instead, do your research. Find the right people to target and begin to cultivate connections. Send fewer, but better emails and you'll improve your hit rate.

Make a list of everyone who is potentially helpful for your marketing and press strategy. As I've noted in the summary, do your research and find the right people to target.

Here's a list for REDACTED, a design × technology × fashion startup, I'm mentoring.

My first piece of advice to the team at REDACTED, when we discussed their marketing campaign, was to:

  1. make a list;
  2. break the list down and categorise; and
  3. find relevant writers to contact.

Who would be interested in this?

Often a product or a service will present multiple angles through which you can promote it.

One of the products that REDACTED is launching is a piece of 'connected jewellery', so we broke the list down into the following categories.

  • Design
  • Technology
  • Fashion

In each of these categories, there will be writers we can target. It's important to do research and find them.

Design-Focused Publications (Magazines, Blogs)

I'd suggest further categorising here by type of publication, analogue and digital:

  • Magazines
  • Websites


There are a number of magazines that REDACTED could pinpoint. I've listed just one, but the principle applies to all: 1. Find the editor (they may or may not be the person to contact, but you should find out what their interests are). 2. Find the writers that are relevant.

Consider a magazine like Creative Review. It will have a cross-section of writers – some in-house, some freelance – and those writers will all focus on different aspects.

For REDACTED, it's important to identify the writers who are interested in jewellery from a design perspective. They might also be writers interested in emerging technology.

If you contact one of the writers who's interested in design for the music industry with your press release about a piece of jewellery, don't be surprised if they ignore your email, A little common sense goes a long way!


Technology-Focused Publications

Repeat as above.

Fashion-Focused Publications

Repeat as above.