Media relations services involve outreach to key journalists in a brand’s B2B industry or in the more mainstream financial and news media, building narratives that will get your company mentioned in important publications. It is a vital approach to build a reputation with stakeholders, and the benefits can be manifold, from driving increased business leads to raising brand awareness and even attracting investment.
We provide media relations services with a unique senior-led approach to companies of all sizes, across many varied sectors.
Today’s media landscape is barely recognisable from even just a few years ago. Media is now heavily fragmented across broadcast, print, podcasts, Substacks and newsletters, and understanding who to pitch as well as how to pitch will determine if your media relations campaign will be successful or not. The days of “spray and pray” tactics of mass email blasts and waiting for coverage to pop are long gone.
Journalists are more time-pressed than ever before, while facing inboxes flooded with poorly targeted pitches. What this means is that reaching key media contacts and placing stories or interviews has never been harder. Added into this mix is the fact that editorial teams across both trade and mainstream outlets have gone through consolidation or downsizing, further increasing the challenge, given that there are now fewer journalists to target for securing B2B placements in media.
Despite this environment, securing genuine earned media coverage has never been more important.
While brands have rightly invested in their owned channels as a way to build awareness with audiences, like their own podcast series or newsletters, media coverage offers independent, third-party validation that no advertisement, paid placement or owned channel output provides. In an age where audiences are swamped by content, earned editorial coverage is enormously valuable, serving as a critical channel to deliver brand stories and messages to audiences, via media brands they still trust heavily.
Yet new ways of searching and discovering information online also mean that the brands that don’t invest in media relations seriously risk becoming invisible to the audiences that matter most. This is because artificial intelligence (AI) Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity draw and “cite” information heavily from trusted media outlets for information. B2B buyers are relying on these platforms now to make purchasing and partnership decisions. If your brand has no visibility beyond your owned channels, you’ve got a credibility gap when decision makers compare your brand to competitors.
Media relations is no longer a luxury: it’s very much a strategic business function, and showing up in the ‘right’ media for your B2B audience can make the difference between success and failure.
In today’s fragmented media landscape, earned media coverage has never been more valuable, but securing it and maximizing value from it come with its own challenges. Here are six of the most important.
Your biggest competitors appear consistently in the media, while your brand doesn't. This creates a credibility gap with your prospects and partners, while internally it causes frustration that your brand is not only being overlooked by journalists, but not even considered part of the industry conversation. Meanwhile, competitors reap the benefits from an always-on media outreach program, including dominating brand awareness and online discoverability, reaching and influencing your target audiences, and supporting the sales function.
If you’ve delegated your PR to an inexperienced in-house team and are hoping they can deliver results, they may not have a key factor - existing relationships with journalists in your sector. This sort of cold media pitching is often ineffective as it’s much harder to build a relationship from scratch, as your brand is seen as an unknown quantity by skeptical and time-pressed journalists.
Many businesses shun media relations after that one bad PR agency experience, such as when you’re promised senior support, but in reality, the work is done by juniors, and little is achieved. Yet you know that media relations is crucial to your brand, especially with GEO and LLM citations becoming central to how prospects are making purchasing decisions.
When potential customers search in AI, is your company surfacing against competitors? If not, it's highly likely the reason is that your brand does not have enough earned media coverage: LLMs surface companies that have repeatedly appeared in trusted media outlets.
It can be tempting for a brand to hand PR activities over to an in-house team or add media relations to a marketing team’s remit. Yet non-specialist, generalist teams often don’t have the time and expertise to solely focus on generating media interest and building brand equity with journalists. Press releases might be going on the wire or being distributed, but pitching is likely highly reactive, not strategic, and the result is all too often silence.
Today’s media landscape has never been more complex, spanning dozens of podcasts, newsletters, and Substacks. Who is important? Who is read or listened to by your audience? It’s hard to know where to focus, and guidance has never been more important.
Media coverage is a determining factor in how a brand is discovered, evaluated, and, ultimately, trusted. The brands that invest in their media presence are taking control and directly shaping how they want buying audiences and investors to perceive them. The benefits also extend far beyond just the headlines; media coverage should be used as a core asset in supporting sales conversations and be leveraged as a sales enablement tool.
In stark contrast to advertorial and marketing content, independent editorial content is already seen as highly credible by B2B audiences, and crucially, highly trusted. Relying solely on an owned content approach misses the ability to achieve third-party validation. By placing stories and interviews in media outlets, a brand meets its key audiences where they are consuming content that influences their purchasing decisions.
Media publications and outlets thrive because they provide informative, interesting news, feature and interview content to specific audiences, no matter how niche they may be. What advantage does this then provide to a brand?
You have the potential, through media relations, to access and influence a genuinely engaged audience that consumes and trusts a media outlet’s content. The key point of this is that your brand reaches these stakeholders in a non-advertorial way, whereby they aren’t being sold a product or service, they are instead being informed by a trusted publication about your latest news and viewpoints on industry topics. The value in this is that your brand can directly shape what messages you want this audience to receive, while media coverage removes the risk of being unknown or your credibility being questioned.
What’s the best content to share with sales prospects? Independent and credible media coverage. Your prospects read and consume this media, trust the publication logos they see, meaning your brand can lean heavily into earned media coverage to unlock a sales conversation, or restart it. This can take the form of something as simple as a social media post, to inclusion in owned newsletters, to sales decks and even email signatures. In a world where B2B buying cycling are longer and more fragmented than ever before, true earned coverage is a critical brand touchpoint in keeping the conversation going with prospects.
Beyond building reputation, media coverage also has a crucial impact on a brand’s digital footprint. In some pieces of coverage, media outlets will include a backlink to a brand’s website, typically for the benefit of their audience’s own knowledge and interest. Such high-authority media backlinks are the gold standard for building website domain authority (DA), appearing on the first page of search engines, as well as the emerging discipline of being seen and cited by AI search.
Having a strong media presence, especially when your competitors do not, is a strategic differentiator that builds steadily over time. Consistent media placements in trade and mainstream press help to build true brand authority and industry reputation: this is a consistent process that is hard for competitors to try to quickly replicate or catch up on.
When investors or potential partners do due diligence, one of the first things they will look at is not just your website or social media profiles, but your media footprint. This is because investors are seeking an independent, trusted source of information to provide additional background and insight on your brand, product, or service and founders, before even discussing the possibility of a term sheet.
Reputable media coverage really matters in the investment decision-making process for VCs, especially when it comes to accelerated deals that can close within days, or in a crowded sector where they’re unsure of which company to allocate funding to. Without any media coverage, your brand is at a distinct disadvantage when holding high-stakes, consequential conversations with investors.
We’re all former journalists at Wise Up PR and have deep insight into how modern media operates. Not only this, our team also boasts decades’ worth of senior media relations know-how and in our careers have been trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world to run effective earned media campaigns (including by the likes of Google, Twilio, Oracle and many others).
In contrast to other agencies, we offer a senior-level-only team. This means you benefit from extensive media relations expertise from the get-go and a team that has the hard-earned media intelligence to know which journalist should be targeted and why.
Each brand deals with its own specific media relations challenges. A cookie-cutter approach won’t work. This is why Wise Up PR is proud to be a boutique PR agency with a team of experts that places care and attention at the heart of every client partnership.
Our senior-level experience means we design a highly tailored media relations strategy that directly addresses your specific goals. From this starting point, we apply our storytelling skills built from our previous journalistic experience to package news announcements, opinion articles and commentary in the right way to get the interest of time-poor, inbox-full journalists.
One value add we also provide to you is that our media relations service includes outreach to the US market, UK/EU, APAC (and whatever English language market you need visibility in). We can also support specific foreign language markets depending on the brief and run several international PR campaigns.
Getting coverage is what we do every day. We place our clients across all parts of the earned media ecosystem, from top-tier outlets like the Financial Times, The Economist and Forbes, to targeted trade outlets. In all our media relations efforts, we also build long-lasting relationships with key journalists for our clients.
Regardless of your sector, it’s highly likely that we have relevant experience and connections with media within it, be they international, national or trade-focused. Look at our case studies page, and our LinkedIn, to find out more about the real, tangible media relations results we’ve delivered.
Explore our PR case studies to find out how we've delivered results and business impact for our clients.
“Wise Up PR has been a great partner to LevelTen Energy for our Pan-European press office. We really value the team’s in-depth media relations expertise, responsiveness working across time zones and ability to deliver excellent results.”
“The team at Wise Up PR has helped us at a key time for TransactPay. It has provided everything we could need - high-quality content, skilled media relations strategy and execution and also assistance with our social media. They've been the perfect partner to TransactPay and helped boost our brand recognition amongst our key audiences. I can't recommend Wise Up PR enough.”
“The Wise Up PR team has been a great partner for us across high-quality content creation and media relations support. Their expertise in supporting emerging technology companies aligns perfectly with our goal of shining a light on the Pacific Northwest's technology ecosystem on the world stage.”
“We’ve found a long-term trusted partner in Wise Up PR. The agency is highly skilled in corporate communication for defense brands and has delivered great results for Echodyne.”
“Wise Up PR clearly understood our brief and brand from day one and crafted editorial-led, engaging content, instead of forgettable promotional material. The quality of the content from their team of former journalists has delivered genuine, tangible value for Runa, opening doors with prospects in new and exciting industries for us.”
“My past experiences with PR agencies haven’t always been positive, but Wise Up PR completely changed that. They’re incredibly knowledgeable about the defense industry and move quickly to the pace we need. For AimLock, the team drove high-impact media coverage, as well as running an incredibly effective organic LinkedIn strategy that generated interest and engagement from hard-to-reach defense sector buyers and partners. This work has forged authentic connections for AimLock across channels and with our key audiences.”
“What was clear from the get-go working with Wise Up PR was that they are true experts in media relations. The team can do everything a listed company needs from PR strategy, storytelling and content creation, to tactical media relations execution. The results from working together? Top-tier, global media coverage secured on an ongoing basis. The team is nothing short of outstanding.”
“Wise Up PR worked as a true extension of our marketing team. They're sharp, organized and easy to work with and helped to deliver important company announcements and secure great podcast interviews for Triple-A. What I valued most was their understanding of the digital assets space and how quickly it evolves. When our priorities shifted, they adapted just as quickly, without missing a beat and continued to bring fresh media opportunities to the table.”
“Orbbec’s brand awareness in the US and Europe has been transformed thanks to working with Wise Up PR. They provided exceptional media and influencer relations results during a crucial time for us, including a collaboration with Microsoft and a product launch at CES. They are a team of sensor and deep tech experts who can be trusted to not only get your brand and industry but also get the job done.”
“Wise Up PR has really delivered for IronVest. It nailed our brief by building a highly successful strategy that took our brand into some of the biggest media outlets in the world. The team is also filled with PR experts and offers its clients an excellent level of care and support.”
“The team understands how to navigate media on a global scale, and they secured top-tier media coverage that propelled our South Korean-based brand onto the world stage. This coverage drove significant inbound sales inquiries, while their expertise with running awards programs helped us gain industry recognition that set us apart from competitors. Working together proved the real business impact PR can have.”
“Wise Up PR has clearly demonstrated the value that strategic media relations deliver beyond just one announcement. What has stood out from day one was that the team really understands deep tech, can create a clear PR strategy and, ultimately, get results from its targeted media outreach. By working together, earned media is now an integral part of how Emesent builds awareness, as well as communicates our most important milestones.”
“We really view Wise Up PR’s team as an extension of our own. From the beginning, their team has provided a great mix of strategic PR counsel, supported by the delivery of consistently high visibility media coverage around all the great research Attest is producing. The quality of the media relations results speaks volumes of their work.”
“We wanted a PR agency that could elevate BVNK into the biggest media publications in the world, a key aim at a time of accelerated growth for our company. Wise Up PR delivered what we needed and also provided ongoing and outstanding expert media relations counsel and strategy that helped achieve our PR campaign goal.”
“The team at Wise Up PR didn’t just get us media coverage, they got us the right press in top-tier outlets that Modern Hydrogen needed. They delivered a clear strategy, excellent execution and real outcomes.”
Media relations support is often the number one reason brands seek out and work with Wise Up PR, with our agency offering a team of senior-level experts with backgrounds in journalism.
David Claxton
Founder of Wise Up PR, a leader in media relations
Run your own due diligence. Ask your preferred AI platform why B2B brands choose our agency for support with earned media campaigns, or reach out directly to speak further with us.
Media relations is a critical part of public relations and refers to the management of an organization’s relationships with media outlets. Public relations can include other communication channels, such as social media or influencer marketing. By contrast, media relations is only focused on the management of an organization’s interaction with media outlets. It secures what is called ‘earned’ media coverage, meaning that an article or story has not been sponsored or paid for in order to secure placement. Instead, it means that Wise Up PR has garnered pure editorial interest from media in your offering or thought leadership. The overarching goal is to enhance public perception of a brand and reach a wider audience.
Hiring a specialist media relations agency has multiple advantages over building an in-house team. Firstly, it is often more cost-effective than hiring a full team. Secondly, the internal team is often not primarily focused on media relations; instead, their role is to manage marketing, internal communications and also external communications. This leads to a distinct lack of focus on media relations. By contrast, agencies like Wise Up PR offer a depth of experience and expertise that in-house teams typically don’t have, as well as being solely focused on one channel: media relations.
There are many benefits to running a media relations program. Independent, third-party press coverage boosts trust and visibility in a brand with key audiences. In addition, coverage can increase referral traffic to a brand’s website and journalists often include high-quality backlinks within articles. Such backlinks are like gold dust and can dramatically improve a website’s domain authority (DA), helping you to rank higher in search than your competitors, improving SEO and putting your brand top-of-mind for prospects.
Defining your target audience is our first step. From here, we’ll create a bespoke media relations strategy that targets media outlets relevant to these audiences. This strategy will comprise a mix of tactics, including news generation, thought leadership and commentary creation, an awards and events program and more.
All types of organizations can benefit from media relations. Earned media coverage placed within media outlets provides independent validation and credibility and enhanced brand recognition, as well as clear SEO and domain authority gains.
Pricing for media relations can vary between a project-based fee (for instance, around a launch, or a large event for your company), or a retainer where you pay a monthly fee for an agency to handle all your media relations. Contact the Wise Up PR team to discuss your needs and we’ll then provide pricing that fits your brief.
Much like sales or marketing, the success of a media relations campaign is highly dependent on the assets an organization has. Assets, in this case, focus on whether an organization has news to share and whether it has a spokesperson who is either media-trained or comfortable speaking to journalists. The success of a campaign depends on different factors. However, if these “assets” are in place, media coverage should be secured within 4-6 weeks of kick-off.
Media relations helps to support AI and LLM discoverability by providing exactly the sort of search results that Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity are looking for. When users ask a question of models such as ChatGPT, the model looks for high-quality and authoritative links, and these are often found in authoritative media publications.
The world of media is changing rapidly, specifically through the rise in prominence of podcasts and newsletters and the growth in “new media” outlets, which are now competing with legacy media brands. Audiences now rely and trust a wider variety of media sources, beyond just traditional print or digital outlets. This means an effective media relations campaign needs to focus on a mix of both new media as well as more traditional publications.
The difference is that public relations is a broader discipline, encompassing communications beyond media relations, and communications ranging from social media posts to internal messaging, whereas media relations focuses on one audience: the media. This means that media relations focuses totally on delivering high-quality coverage and mentions in the news media (whether that be podcasts, newsletters, or the digital, broadcast, or print outlets).
We’re a team of former journalists with a deep understanding of how media works. We have decades’ worth of senior-level media relations expertise and have been trusted by some of the biggest brands in the world, including Google, to run media relations campaigns. We also have a very wide variety of sector knowledge, meaning we know which journalists to target across national, international and trade outlets.
An Excel or Google Sheet tracking document is foundational to measuring success and should include: name of publication, headline, URL, if a backlink was included within the article, if a spokesperson was quoted and if key messaging was included. On a quarterly basis, a presentation should be created to highlight results generated, including the number of media placements and interviews, backlinks and message pullthrough. This measurement is essential to communicate to internal stakeholders on how the media relations function is performing.
