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Before Muck Rack: No structure, inaccurate info and lost time

Before Muck Rack, I spent a lot of time working from a spreadsheet. My team used BuzzStream to try to build media lists, but the journalists and contacts were always hard to find—or nonexistent. Typically, we had to spend a lot of time researching these contacts on our own.

We used another tool for outreach, but we encountered all sorts of issues with it when sending emails. We’d then go back to BuzzStream to build pitch reports, but the numbers never added up. It was just difficult to trust.

I’d heard about Muck Rack from Ben Treanor with Time2play. Ben told me it would save me a lot of time and help me build more relevant media lists—he was right.

With Muck Rack: ‘Far more robust than what we’d been using’

With Muck Rack: ‘We’ve definitely been getting more responses’

When we started using Muck Rack in March 2022, my first impression was that it’s very intuitive. We actually had a meeting set up with the Muck Rack team to walk through the platform, but I canceled it because I already felt so comfortable.

Ultimately, we used Muck Rack to replace two tools, saving us time and money.

Building targeted media lists with the up-to-date media database

With Muck Rack, we’re able to build media lists based on specific campaigns and location targeting.

In terms of the journalist contacts, they’re always up to date, so we don’t have to spend time digging for the most current email addresses. Muck Rack even shows you when a journalist starts a new job, which prevents us from sending irrelevant pitches.

The journalist profiles also include pitch preferences, like the time of day they prefer to receive pitches. This has been a game-changer, and we even build media lists based on these preferences.

Thanks to Muck Rack, I’ve also discovered a number of media outlets I would have never come across just from Googling.

Sending timely, effective and personalized pitches

Muck Rack makes it easy to send pitches. I love that you can go through the contacts and choose what pitches you want to personalize with just one click. It makes the process way more efficient.

I also like that, when I click on a journalist’s profile, I can see if my colleague has already added the contact to their own media list or if they’re recently pitched them. This helps us better collaborate and avoid sending too many pitches to the same contact.

Since using Muck Rack, we’ve definitely been getting more responses to pitches. We also lean on pitching insights to see how many people have responded, opened the email, clicked a link and more. We use this information to refine our pitch strategies.

Creating reports and staying up-to-date with the latest trends

When we finish a campaign, Muck Rack makes it easy to quickly gather the analytics and share them with our team. It’s also a huge plus that all the information is accurate. We don’t have to double-check it like we did with the previous tool we used.

I also love that I can keep an eye on trending topics through Muck Rack. This helps generate new ideas. If we’re working on a campaign in tech, for example, I look through trending keywords to help me brainstorm topics.

Fast questions with Inês Ferreira

1. How has it been working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?

The team is always eager to help and quick to answer my questions. For example, I had to switch the email I use with Muck Rack, and they very quickly made that update for me. They’ve also connected me directly with the IT team to get a more technical issue resolved.

2. What would your job be like if you didn’t have Muck Rack?

I think my job would be repetitive and very time-consuming. I also wouldn’t be able to pitch relevant journalists. With Muck Rack, it’s always a perfect match.

3. What would you tell other companies considering using Muck Rack?

Building media lists, pitching timely and effectively, and staying up to date with trends, they go hand-in-hand with PR pros’ daily work. With Muck Rack, it’s been great in terms of offering a tool that allows us to work more effectively and efficiently.

If they want a tool that gathers all these functions and replaces three or four other tools, then Muck Rack will help you save money and time.

4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?

Intuitive, collaborative and up-to-date.