DIY PR Part 2: Laika’s Top Tools & Tips For The Daily Comms Hustle

Photo by Ian Doole on Unsplash

Even if you love your job, it can’t always be easy, and PR is not always about roses either. However, there are many ways to get the work done more quickly, or easier which makes doing our job a much more pleasant experience!

Each team member at Laika has some small supporters; from techie tools to mindful rituals that help us get the most out of our day and explore the communications world with ease. As we’re always looking for valuable ways to beat the clock, we updated our list for you on our magical potion of tricks that fuel our work. Check out the tools that we really love: 

Do you have any tips to share that make (PR) work easier in general? 

• A totally new discovery of me is the Deep Focus Playlist on Spotify. That one will get you through!
  An End-of-the-day-walk home (1 hour!) to reflect and give the poodle some exercise. Also, start the day with coffee and end the day with... Feierabendbier with colleagues!
  - Ela 

• Try to stay away from too much multitasking. Start on one task and stay focused until you have finished it before going to the next one. Also, good headphones and some relaxing and focus promoting music will go a long way!
  - Kamal

• It’s a no-brainer: Be aware of the news! Not only the immediate important news for your client but also general news that is relevant for journalists and media and that might impact their workload.
  - Can

• I always set up an to do list for every week (with pen and paper), with the general tasks for the week with help from Asana.
  - Annalena 

• The 50/10 Method works wonders for me to increase focus at work; work for 50 minutes and take a break for 10. I also like to prepare each work day the night before, I make a list with everything I have to do in chronological order. This not only gives you a great night's rest but also let’s you start the new day with a clear overview of tasks. A good morning, it is!
  - Noëlle 

• Prioritise in the morning what’s most important during the day. Ask clients questions if you don’t understand something, they are the experts in their field and can help you
  - Julia S 

• What definitely makes PR work easier is a big appetite for magazines, newspapers and books. Otherwise you lose touch and also the feeling of what is a good article, whether the tone is right, etc. But above all, it gives you a good pool from which you can build your next pitch. 
  - Tolgahan 

What (free) tech tools speed up your PR work for you?

• Deepl is probably my favourite timesaver ever as the free version is incredibly helpful for quick, and still very good translations.
  - Ela

• Grammarly checks your English spelling and grammar. The tool has a great extra feature of detecting the tone of your e-mails. So I use it to always check if my e-mail comes across professional, friendly or a tad too serious. I also use the text expansion tool atext.
  - Anna

• For me Asana is the best tool for successful location-independent teams. I can manage projects, programmes and processes and make even complex tasks more accessible. 
  - Kamal

• Session Buddy allows me to save all tabs from a research session for remote work, for ongoing research or for sharing it with others.
  - Tolgahan

• I use Crunchbase to check investments, and Similar Web and IVW for media reach research. 
  - Julia S

• Boomerang for Gmail is a handy free add-on you can use to schedule mailings, plan follow-ups and see if your recipient opened your mail.
  - Isabelle

• I go oldschool: my big love for sticky notes, and notebooks comes in handy here. I always write notes, or any tips that my colleagues give me in a notebook. Like Anna, I also like to use Grammarly to check my spelling. 
  - Annalena

• I like using Synonyme to find different wording for one word.
  - Julia M

• I like to listen to some music while concentrating, Spotify gives me access to millions of songs. Another super useful tool is hunter.io. Hunter lets you find e-mail addresses in seconds and connect with people that matter for your business.
  - Can 

The tricks & tools we use to find the right journalist for our stories 

• At Laika, we constantly foster our internal media - so the combined memory power of all colleagues feeds into that system. If we still have no clue who the right contact might be we check out our Cision databank, but the tool is very expensive. If you are a startup and on the hunt for freebies, then check out Hunter.io. This Google Chrome browser add-on allows you to scan websites for email addresses. So if you see an article by an editor relevant to your story, you might catch his or her email address that way.
  What also works great for me is creating a topic cloud in my head (or on paper), that includes all possible story angles my client has in itself. e.g. take a circular economy client - then I search/get alerts for stories around circular economy, sustainability, entrepreneurship or even local business from the town of the client.
  - Ela

• I google who may have written about a similar topic before by typing in relevant keywords and searching in the news. Oftentimes you can find the editor’s email address on the magazine's website. if not I try Cision or search in Laika's media lists/docs if one of us was already in touch with the particular journalist. If that doesn't help, I look up email addresses of other editors/journalists of this magazine and guess their email. 
  - Julia M

• Newsletters, newsletters, newsletters. We subscribe to relevant media newsletters to check for trending topics and who is writing about them.
  - Isabelle

• If Cision and Google don’t do the trick there’s another way: ask colleagues if they have some good close contacts. At Laika we love teamwork and work closely together to find the right journalists. 
  - Kamal 

• Last but not least, the oldest trick in the book: Call an editorial office and ask nicely for the right contact person. This surprisingly still works more often than one thinks!
  - Sandra

  What “hacks” do you use to pitch a story to a journalist?

• A/B testing of subject lines - to learn what message journalists and media reacts to more.
  Another thing: shorten every sentence! Read your pitch several times to make it as precise as possible. For me it's an internal victory if I can delete another unnecessary word.
  - Ela

• When it comes to pitches, the first sentence is the most important. So is the subject line. I try to find something that catches a journalist's attention. If it allows for it I like to add a bit of humour while, of course, remaining professional. Keep it short. No one likes to read loooong pitches!
  I also like to copy (small) images into my emails. This could be the client’s company logo or a mood image, as well as a portrait of the client/spokesperson/interview partner.
  And last but not least: be personal in your pitch if possible. If you have been in touch with them before for some other clients, even better!
  - Julia M

• If you pitch to a handful of journalists: check if they have written about something similar in the past and put yourself in the recipients perspective. Why would this piece you wrote be interesting for them?
  Trick: Write, shorten, take a step back, read again a bit later, shorten again aaand finalize. 
  - Kamal 

• I use a high amount of individualisation, and timing. I try to be relevant for the journalist and not focus on pleasing the client, the journalist is the person that needs to find the pitch interesting. 
  - Can

• To follow up pays off - a certain persistence without being annoying is important, journalists are bombarded with so many pitches every day that the likelihood they missed yours is extremely high.
  - Isabelle

What do you recommend for successful networking?

• Preparation is key - I try to find out who is attending an event way in advance and then put them on my “target list”. Sounds like a hunt, right? Well, sometimes it can be. Bringing a wing(wo)man then helps me to have the courage to talk to anybody. And having our VP of Happiness, aka Zelda, tagging along is a natural ice breaker. Who can resist a cute poodle after all?
  - Ela

• Be honest, real, friendly and interested. Connect on Linkedin and just stay in touch.
  - Kamal 

• Prepare, observe, be curious and smile! That’s my secret combination for networking.
  - Isabelle

• Ask questions and listen to people’s stories. Offer help, others will return the favour.
  - Julia S

• Follow up lunches! If you meet interesting people, make sure to meet them soon enough again. Many people focus on targeting that one person they want to meet. I generally just try to find interesting people and go with the flow. (Or probably I am just bad at hitting the initial target.)  And during a talk or a lunch afterwards, opportunities arise you haven’t thought of before.
  - Can

What helps you to get creative?

• Take your time! When writing, step away from it every now and then and come back to it a few hours or even a day later. It helps to refocus and be a bit more objective about our own work. And steal like an artist! Yes, do I sound like a criminal now? Well, I could also say "find inspiration from others". We are not reinventing the wheel when writing pitches, so I often get inspiration from others and collect some facts that I can rephrase and use in my own piece. Note though: I never just copy someone else's article or writing! That's a no-go!
  - Julia M

• Plan some time where you have some peace of mind, look at content or listen to something that gives you inspiration.
  - Kamal 

• Search the interwebs, I have a digital notebook filled with fun sentences I once came across. Even everyday life can give you new ideas. Go outside, look around, and don’t forget to look up from your desk once in a while. There is inspiration to find everywhere. I also like to use Instagram and Pinterest for visual inspiration. 
  - Noëlle 

• I focus on the task and sometimes take a short power nap, then my brain will do the magic. What also helps is music without lyrics and when having to write an article, I like to copy nicely written parts from other articles that have nothing to do with my subject in order to get some inspiration and get the keyboard magic flowing.
  - Tolgahan

• Talking, waiting and scribbling. If creativity was an animal it surely would be a cat rather than a dog. It doesn’t follow orders. To lure it out anyway, I like to exchange thoughts and ideas with colleagues early in the process as it helps getting a broader perspective on a topic right from the get go. The next step is to let it sink in a bit and let the brain do its thing. Then I start scribbling without judging and pick the most promising idea as a final step.

  - Anna

We hope these tips & tricks will help you along and get you in the ultimate productivity mode. Happy working day!