If there’s any group of people that often holds the key to success in the crypto industry, it’s crypto journalists. As with any emerging industry, a crypto journalist stands at the forefront of communications, letting both newcomers to the space and existing investors know what is happening at any given point.
Crypto journalism is more important than ever before, and this means that for businesses in the crypto industry, pitching and engaging with journalists is also more important. Luckily, pitching crypto journalists can be boiled down to a science of sorts, and this means higher success rates. If you’ve ever wondered how to get your business seen by the right people and right publications, this is for you.
Why Crypto Journalists Matter for Web3 Projects
Before you begin wondering why you should go through all the stress of pitching to a crypto journalist in the first place, it’s important to contextualize their role in the ecosystem. First of all, crypto journalists are an important access point to top publications. A crypto journalist finding your business interesting means that they are likely to include it in articles, blog posts, user guides, and so on in the publications they work with.
If they work with especially influential publications, this means more exposure for you. It also means that you have an ally in the media should anything go wrong. If you’re dealing with a PR crisis and immediately need to change the public narrative about your business, having a crypto journalist in your corner can give you the sort of goodwill that money cannot buy. So, the crypto journalists can offer you a mix of publicity, credibility, industry access, and allyship.
Understanding What Crypto Journalists Actually Want in a News Announcement
While it is easy to be tempted by the perks of engaging with the crypto journalist, you need to know what exactly to send them to get these results. It’s important to note that the average crypto journalist gets several pitches each week, with the most important ones getting several per day. So, it’s not a matter of just sending a pitch but understanding what they actually want.
The best way to do this is to look at their most recent work. If they’ve been putting out a lot of stories about sustainability within the blockchain sector, then you’ll know that this is the angle they will be interested in. Also, consider the general direction of the news website. If a particular blockchain product is trendy at the moment, they’ll probably want news announcements regarding it. Before you send any pitch to them, ask yourself how this benefits them specifically, and you’re more likely to have success.
Research the Right Crypto Journalists
Another angle you need to consider when pitching a crypto journalist is choosing the right one. The boom in crypto-related media means that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of crypto journalists. And while you might assume that this means there are thousands of journalists for you to pitch, not all of them are right for you.
Some journalists focus on news while others primarily do analysis pieces or interviews. Some journalists who work with publications simply would not be a good fit for your business. Some simply focus on an aspect of blockchain that has nothing to do with your own project. To avoid wasting time and resources on all ends, it’s best that you research the right crypto journalist.
This, of course, means looking into the work of whatever journalist you’re considering. Ideally, you want to start with individual publications and look at the journalists covering crypto topics on them. You can also research specific crypto topics and see which journalists appear to be writing the most about them. This will give you a helpful shortlist of who to approach and who will not be a good fit.
Crafting a Strong Crypto Media Pitch
After you’ve identified the journalists you want to reach out to, you want to apply the following principles when crafting your pitch.
A Clear Subject Line
Always assume that the crypto journalists you are reaching out to get dozens of pitches per week. To stand out, make sure you have a clear subject line that summarizes the project and gets attention. If you are putting out a crypto wallet that stores over a thousand tokens, a headline that says ‘New Crypto Wallet With Over 1k Tokens PR’ allows them to know what is going on and can stand out. Just like with a news headline, avoid falling into the trap of clickbait as this will likely annoy them.
A Concise Introduction
While you should obviously include a greeting and be professional, do not write a long-winded introduction. Instead, you should explain in one sentence what your business is and who you are. This gives them a background to you before you immediately explain what the pitches are about and why they should read it. The goal is that even if they only read the first paragraph of your pitch, they should have a good idea.
The News Hook
While a crypto journalist will have experience in crafting news hooks, you are more likely to get the attention if you give this to them. If you’ve developed a meme coin with higher return potential than Dogecoin, mention that in the first paragraph. Whatever the unique selling point of your project is, communicate it as soon as possible and write it in a way that would read well in the headline.
Supporting Details
A good hook is not all you need to secure attention from a crypto journalist. You should also give a proper background to the project, all the details, links to your social media and website. These supporting details give further context and give credibility to what you are selling. These should come after the news hook, assuming that they will continue reading.
Outreach on the Right Channel
After you have crafted your award-winning pitch, it’s time to send it off to the appropriate crypto journalist. But the channel with which you reach out to the crypto journalist is perhaps just as important as the pitch itself. As we’ve noted in a previous article, some channels are more appropriate to reach out to a crypto journalist with than others. Email, LinkedIn, and official contact forms are considered the best options. At the same time, reaching out through other social media and channels might also work. Either way, consider these different channels and decide which one is most appropriate for the occasion.
Benefits of Using Press Releases to Support Journalist Outreach
While sending a traditional pitch to a crypto journalist is a great way to secure coverage, another option would be using press releases. When you publish press releases on worthwhile crypto websites, you automatically gain greater exposure to the journalists who already write for them. Often, they will look at the website’s recently published press releases to see which might be turned into new stories. Thus, it can serve as an entry point to developing a relationship with whatever crypto journalists you are targeting. The more platforms you publish your crypto press release on, the higher your chances of success.
Best Timing for Pitching Crypto Journalists
You should also consider the timing when pitching a crypto journalist. Just like with the timing of putting out your press releases, certain days of the week and times of the day are much better than others. You don’t want to send your pitch overnight, as it will likely end up in a pile of other pitches they will see first thing in the morning.
Ideally, you want to send your pitch around midday when they would have gotten through some of the emails in their inbox, and they’ll be more open to reading yours. If you want your press release published during a certain week, you’ll want to send it a day before. Sending a press release on a Friday means that by Monday, when regular publication resumes, it might be stale. So, you want to send your press release between Monday and Wednesday
Common Mistakes When Pitching Crypto Media
As many more companies are trying to pitch themselves to crypto journalists and crypto media generally, several mistakes are often made. By avoiding these, you increase your chances of success and ensure yourself a better time.
1. Overly Promotional Messaging
Because crypto journalists are trained in the art of selling a story to the reader, they can spot more than anyone when they are being pitched to disingenuously. When crafting a pitch, you want to convince the journalists that you have something worthwhile to say that the audience will want to hear. You also don’t want to make it look overly promotional. It’s one thing to say that your crypto miner objectively has a faster or more efficient mining rate than what is on the market. Calling it the future of the industry or the greatest thing in Bitcoin itself is doing a bit much and might turn off the journalist.
2. Lack of Clear Story Angle
As you write your pitches, always ask yourself why it is worthwhile to be turned into a story. So you’ve launched a new crypto token. What about it? What is noteworthy about it compared to the thousands of tokens that enter the market every year? You have to ask yourself this before trying to pitch this to a journalist. Always remember that you are going up against dozens, if not hundreds, of other pitches, and so, you have to convince them that there is a story angle. Crypto journalists do not write stories just for the sake of it, so always keep this in mind.
3. Spamming Large Email Lists
Pitching a crypto journalist is partially a numbers game in that you will have to deal with several rejections before you get the traction you are looking for. At the same time, you don’t want to turn into a spammer. As we have said in a previous block post, don’t go about sending pitches to every single journalist in one publication, as you will quickly gain a reputation for being bothersome.
Also, don’t randomly send your pitches to large email lists of journalists. Instead, choose a handful of relevant ones and send them semi-regular updates. Sending a pitch to the same journalist every day of the week will lead to you getting blocked, not featured. Instead, targeted and well-thought-out approaches are your best bet.
Conclusion
Getting pitches successfully picked up by crypto journalists is one of the best ways to secure more publicity for your business. Not only do you get more coverage, but depending on the publication, you get a major boost of credibility. At the same time, there is a process to this, from choosing the right journalists to crafting the pitches. Of course, press releases are also a great way to get yourself seen by these businesses, as we’ve outlined in this article. Look through our packages page to see some of the publications we grant access to, and reach out to us for any inquiries.