Borrow an audience instead of begging for one

This week I analyzed 51 successful Nontraditional Media placements landed by my Inner Circle members.

Here are the types of outlets/creators they succeeded with – keep reading for what I was most surprised by:

• 33% – podcasts
• 29% – other companies’ owned content
• 16% – newsletters
• 11% – influencers/creators
• 6% – blogs
• 4% – other

Digging into that “others’ owned” category was eye-opening. The PR pros that explored this segment found some low-friction opportunities that were easier to pitch than Traditional Media, yet delivered equal (and sometimes greater) impact.

• Three pros working on policy news found blogs/newsletters run by think tanks that snapped up their contributed content.
• Three others landed coverage in magazines run by associations their clients already belonged to and hadn’t yet considered.
• A hospital PR rep landed three social posts from a Grammy-winning Christian pop duo whose music inspired one of her patients through recovery.
• And two enterprising pros earned major coverage by placing their subject matter experts inside paid membership programs. Including one creator whose newsletter goes to 160K subscribers with a 65% open rate.

Reminder:
Broadening your definition of media for your target list isn’t about adding a new column called “podcasts” or “newsletters.” It’s about asking:

Who already has the audience I’m trying to reach?

Whether that’s a 100-year-old newspaper or a course creator whose emails get read by 100K people, it doesn’t matter.

This week I walked my Inner Circle through these numbers and the actual pitches that landed the strongest Nontraditional wins – big podcasts, niche newsletters, and everything in between. The virtual training, Lessons Learned from the Best Nontraditional Pitches, is available only to Inner Circle members.

If you’d like access to this replay (and future sessions like it), join the Inner Circle Wait List so you’re first in line when doors reopen.