4 Tips for Cannabis Brands to Connect with Journalists and Generate Publicity in 2024

Publicity is essential for cannabis brands in 2024. Many marketing and advertising opportunities are not available to businesses operating in and with the cannabis industry, which means convincing journalists to talk about your brand in their content should be a top priority.

The problem is it’s not easy to get noticed by journalists or convince them to mention your brand in articles, videos, and other types of online and offline content and communications. Fortunately, help is available! Cision’s 2024 State of the Media Report is packed with data that tells savvy cannabis brand marketers how to successfully get publicity from journalists!

The data can be encapsulated into four key tips, which are detailed below.

Get Social

Cannabis brands have to be visible where journalists spend time looking for story ideas, sources, and data. In North America, Cision found that journalists are very active on social media where they not only look for information for their stories but also promote their stories, which leads to more publicity for the brands they mention.

Nearly two out of three journalists in North America (62%) use social media to source information, and nearly one out of two journalists (47%) use social media to connect with experts and interview subjects. In addition, nearly four out of five journalists (79%) use social media to publish and promote their content.

If your brand isn’t active on social media, journalists who are looking for information and sources will have a hard time finding you! Over the next year, the highest percentage of North American journalists told Cision they plan to increase their activity on Instagram (47%) followed by LinkedIn (38%), Facebook (37%), YouTube (31%), X/Twitter (27%), and TikTok (24%).

Choose the channels where your target audience is most likely to spend time, and start increasing your brand’s activity on those channels now. Journalists are looking!

Give Journalists the Content They Want

Journalists are looking for different types of content from brands and public relations professionals who send pitches to them. You need to make sure you’re sending the content they want, or they won’t notice your brand.

In North America, journalists want to receive the following types of content:

News announcements and press releases: 79% Original research reports (trends, market data, and so on): 58% Exclusives for stories: 50% Access to events: 48% Interviews with industry experts: 46% Multimedia (videos, images, infographics, and so on): 30% Products or samples to test: 29%

According to the research results, journalists want newsworthy stories. Don’t make them have to connect the dots to figure out how to make an industry expert interview or video newsworthy. Instead, send them the actual story and offer to supplement it with interviews, videos, and so on. The more work you can do for them, the better.

If you do send multimedia content to journalists, try to send the type of assets they’re most likely to use in their stories. According to the Cision study, journalists are most likely to use the following types of multimedia elements provided by brands and public relations professionals in the content they produce:

Images: 72% Data visualizations and infographics: 34% Videos: 33% Web polls/surveys: 29% Social media posts: 22% Brand logos: 13% Audio: 8% Livestreams: 8% Interactive elements (games, dashboards, and so on): 5% Quizzes: 4% Animations: 4%

More than half of journalists who responded to the Cision research survey said multimedia elements included with a pitch make no difference to them when it comes to pursuing a story or not. Only 18% said multimedia elements do affect whether or not they pursue a story, and 37% said it depends on the type of multimedia included with the pitch.

Another piece of the puzzle is the source of stories. Journalists reported in the study that they find press releases the most useful source for generating content or ideas (68%). This was followed by direct pitches (47%) and industry experts (47%). Other sources deemed comparatively less useful include news agencies like AP and Reuters (37%), company news/press room (33%), brand/company spokesperson (30%), company social media channels (26%), and press release distribution services like PR Newswire (25%).

Based on the survey data, it’s best to pitch newsworthy content to journalists in the form of press releases with useful multimedia elements, particularly images.

Send Pitches Journalists Want to See

The Cision study revealed that one out of two journalists (49%) receive more than 50 pitches per week while 25% receive 51-100 per week, and 10% receive 101-150 each week. One out of 10 journalists (10%) receive more than 151 pitches every week! These pitches come via email, phone, social media messages, and more.

There are a few problems aside from the obvious volume of pitches. First, 87% of journalists want to receive pitches by email. Sending pitches through other channels could be a complete waste of time. Second, 73% of journalists say less than one-quarter of the pitches they receive are relevant. If you’re not sending your pitches to the right journalists, you’re wasting your time.

Third, 64% of journalists say brands and public relations professionals should only follow up about a pitch once while 27% say they should never follow up on a pitch. If you’re following up on pitches you send more than once, only 8% of journalists will be happy (or at least tolerant). The other 92% will not be happy, so again, you’re wasting your time according to the study results.

The research report also reveals the top five things that journalists want from brands and public relations professionals:

Understand my target audience and what they find relevant: 68% Connect me with experts/spokespeople to set up interviews: 52% Provide data and key research: 48% Respect my deadlines (respond quickly to inquiries and provide information in a timely manner): 47% Provide new and relevant story ideas: 46%

In simplest terms, journalists want relevant pitches that are newsworthy and include information that makes their jobs easier. Give them what they want to see in your pitches or they’re unlikely to write about your brand!

Avoid Doing Things Journalists Don’t Like

While it’s important to give journalists what they want, it’s just as important to avoid doing things they don’t like! In its research, Cision asked journalists to weigh in on things that brands and public relations professionals do that would prompt them to put those people on their block lists. Here’s the ranking:

Spam me with irrelevant pitches: 77% Provide inaccurate or unsourced information: 62% Send pitches that sound like marketing brochures: 55% Follow up with me repeatedly: 48% Dodge inquiries or lack transparency: 41% Cancel on me at the last minute: 27% Fail to respond to me on the same day or within the deadline: 26% Address me by the wrong name: 19% Contact me on social media when we’ve never met: 19% Attach files to emails (instead of embedding links): 12%

To sum it up, if you’re sending pitches to journalists that are irrelevant, inaccurate, unsourced, or promotional (rather than newsworthy), then you’re unlikely to convince any journalist to mention your business in their content.

Key Takeaways About Connecting with Journalists in 2024

Journalists are always looking for story ideas and sources, but they’re very busy. Cannabis brands can generate publicity if you send relevant, newsworthy content to the right journalists. Do your homework before you reach out and make sure you’re sending the content each journalist wants through the channel they prefer to receive pitches.