You know how important PR is, and you’ve crafted a succinct, yet powerful, story. All that’s left to do is share it with the world.

But journalists have to write up to seven stories per day^[1] — so how do you ensure your press release is one of those stories? And just as importantly, how can you make your distribution email stand out in a crowded inbox?

Follow this five-step guide to learn how.

1. Find journalists who might be interested in your press release.

When you want to share some news, I’ll bet you’re tempted to tell as many people as possible. You want everyone to hear about it, right?

However, that’s not always the right thing to do — because not everyone is interested in your story.

(Brutal, but honest.)

Along with crafting a press release that journalists are interested in, you’ll need to be super-specific with the people to whom you send your pitches.

You can do that by searching for journalists who’ve already written^[2] about your topic or industry.

For instance, let’s say you run a car parts business. You’ve conducted some research around potholes, gathered some interesting data, and turned it into a killer press release. But mailing every journalist under the sun is probably going to be a waste of time.

Instead, it’s worth seeking out journalists who’ve covered similar topics before.

To do this, fire up Google, type in your topic (potholes), and navigate to the News tab:

As you can see, there are plenty of recent articles on this topic, meaning journalists are more than likely interested enough to cover it.

Next, read some of the articles on Google News and make a note of the journalists’ names.

A simple spreadsheet with the journalist’s name and the publication they write for is a good way to keep a log of your distribution plan:

If you have the budget, you can also use a media database such as Cision^[3] or Muckrack^[4] to find relevant journalists and reporters.

This method is much more likely to get you responses because you’re only pitching the release to journalists who’ve demonstrated an interest in your topic already.