If you’re thinking about trying to get press coverage for your pet business it can be overwhelming.

Where do you even start?

I thought I would go through the different places you can approach to see if they might be able to feature stories about your business.

When you’re at the stage where you think you’d like some media coverage, take some time to do your research.

Then, when you’ve put together your pitch or story idea, the more places you have to approach, the more chance you have of success.

Once you have won coverage locally, you can take the lessons you’ve learned and strive to appear in larger publications.

Here are five places where you can get media coverage for your pet business

Local newspapers

If you have a new service business, let’s say you’re setting up as a dog walker in Warrington, Cheshire, being in your local paper is a great place to tell people about what you do.

To find your local papers, go to Google and simply put in ‘local newspapers’ and ‘your town’ and a list of titles will come up.

Next, go out and buy the paper. Journalists get irked if people pitch to them who have never even read the paper.

Or if it’s a free paper go out and find a copy of it. You’ll usually find it in cafes and shops.

Hyperlocal websites

Most areas have lifestyle magazines and local news websites, sometimes described as hyperlocal websites which are often run by community journalists.

These are very much at the heart of the community they serve and report on stories that really matter to the people living there.

Like local papers, they like to feature stories of interest to people in the area they cover.

They often have large followings on social media too so a great tool for raising awareness of your business.

You can search for them on an interactive map at www.communityjournalism.co.uk.

Paid for and free local lifestyle magazines

Lifestyle magazines which are the magazines that may be paid for or given out for free in coffee shops, doctors surgeries and community centres.

Where I used to live, some of the paid for printed lifestyle magazines are Cheshire Life and The Cheshire Magazine.

Then there are some complimentary magazines like Cheshire Living and Living Edge, Lymm Life, Lymm Pages and the Essential Guide.

These are all magazines people pick up and browse for news in the area where they live so featuring in them gets lots of eyes on your business.

Blogs

Do you have a pet blogger living in your town? You can search here on the Vuelio Top 10 Pet Blogs or Feedspot UK Pet Blogs. 

If you do and they write about the animals you serve, approaching them is also a great idea.

Don’t think ‘it’s just a blog.’ Instead, consider they have a super niche, targeted audience who you know are already interested in pets.

Let’s say you run a luxury cattery and there is a cat blogger in your town. Lots of local cat owners will read their blog.

They might be on their e mail list and follow them on social media. So if they write a nice post about your business you are reaching your ideal customer.

TIP – treat bloggers in the same way as you would your mainstream media. They will put a lot of time, effort and love into their blog.

Radio

Do you have a radio station that serves your town?

They are always looking for interesting people to chat to and who doesn’t love hearing about pets?

Radio is really powerful as you have people’s attention far more so than on social media where there is so much noise going on.

If you appear on the radio you will be amazed at the number of people who will hear you and tell you about it later.

You can repurpose the recording on your website and social media channels too.

Conclusion

I hope I’ve demonstrated the importance of local media coverage.

It’s easy to be dazzled by the thought of appearing in Your Dog or Your Cat magazine, or on The One Show or the Daily Mail.

Yes, it’s really prestigious.

But it’s most likely it’s the people living close to you who are your ideal customers and who will become your biggest cheerleaders.

Plus, when you’re at the stage where you’re pitching to larger publications, journalists like to see that you’ve already been in the media.

It builds trust and enhances your credibility.

If you’d like to learn how to put this advice into action, and get support in pitching to the press, my membership is the place to be so check out Is my Pets Get Visible membership right for you?

And if you found this helpful, you might like to read: How press coverage can help your pet business or Dos and Don’ts when dealing with journalists.