This is the cold email plan we'd run for a PR agency that serves one industry. Press coverage is public and so are the moments that deserve it. A funding round with no coverage is one of the clearest openings there is.
Your market is every company in your industry with news worth telling. Startups raising money and firms launching products and companies hiring senior leaders all have stories. Few of them have anyone pitching those stories.
These are the signals worth looking for.
Crunchbase shows the round. Search the company name in the news. A press release and nothing else means the story never got pitched.
Search their industry's trade publications for their competitors' names. A rival quoted twice this quarter while they are never mentioned is a gap they will feel.
The date on the last press release in their newsroom tells you when PR stopped.
A new product or a new senior executive announced on LinkedIn. Both are stories trade reporters cover.
The yearly awards and top company lists in their industry. Rivals on the list and them absent.
A founder or partner who clearly knows the subject and has never been quoted. Reporters need sources like that.
Lead with the round and the coverage it didn't get.
Lead with the rival's coverage.
Lead with the announcement and the reporters who cover it.
Lead with the date of the last release.
Payments companies and cybersecurity companies are covered by different reporters. Keep them in separate campaigns.
The last 20 articles in their trade press that quoted a competitor. Put the reporter's name next to each one.
It works because it names the exact people who should be writing about them. The next step is someone pitching those reporters.
A few story angles built from their own news and data. Match each one to a named reporter who covers that topic.
It works because it shows them they already have stories. They just need someone to take them out.
Write one story pitch from their angle list and send it to the matched reporters. They approve the pitch first and pay nothing.
It works because they watch the whole process from angle to inbox. A reporter replying is the strongest argument for the retainer.
Send it within a week of the call.
Hi {{first_name}},
Congrats on the {{round}}. Searched for coverage and found the press release and not much else.
We do PR for {{industry}} companies. Pulled the reporters who covered {{competitor}}'s round last year.
Want the list?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
{{competitor}} was quoted in {{publication}} twice this quarter. Couldn't find {{company}} in any of the trade press.
Put together the angles I'd pitch for you and who I'd pitch them to.
Worth a look?
{{sender_first_name}}
Hi {{first_name}},
We get {{industry}} companies covered in the publications their buyers read.
{{proof_line}}
Worth a conversation?
{{sender_first_name}}
Swap {{proof_line}} for one real result of your own. A client placement in a publication their buyers read. If there is no result yet then leave the line out.
At startups the founder or the CEO decides. At bigger companies it is the head of communications or the head of marketing.
Results depend on the offer and the list. Three outbound agencies that publish their own numbers land between one booked meeting per 1,000 people contacted and one per 2,000. One of them also tested 650,000 cold emails with a plain offer and got about 3 to 6 interested replies per 10,000 people.
Those are other people's numbers and not a promise about your market. Your market's number only comes from testing it.
We build and run this campaign for one agency per industry.
Thirty minutes on your market and how we'd reach it.