We're a PR agency. We make money when people hire us. So why are we writing a guide on how to do PR yourself?

Because not everyone can afford an agency – and that shouldn't mean your story never gets told. At Payper, we're genuinely passionate about ensuring good stories get told. We're confident in the value we bring as a partner to our clients to ensure they get more great stories in the media, so we're never afraid to pass on free advice to those who can't afford, or don't want to pay, for our services. The reality is that you can get great results by doing your own PR, if you know what you're doing.

At Payper, we talk to a lot of early-stage founders and small business owners who have genuinely great stories but no PR budget. Sometimes we take them on. Sometimes their story isn't quite ready. And sometimes they just need someone to point them in the right direction so they can have a crack themselves.

This article is that direction. It's everything we'd tell you as a friend over a coffee if you asked us how to get media coverage without spending a cent on PR. Some of it will feel obvious, some of it won't.

First, Figure Out if You Actually Have a Story

This is where most DIY PR falls over before it even starts. You're excited about your business – of course you are – but excitement isn't the same as newsworthiness.

Journalists don't write about businesses. They write good stories and there's a major difference.

A story has tension, timing, or significance. It answers the question a reader would ask: why should I care about this right now?

Here are some things that are usually newsworthy:

• You've hit a milestone that means something: A funding round, a major partnership, an expansion into a new market, reaching a significant customer number. Numbers with context.
• You're doing something genuinely new: Not a minor product update – something that changes how people do things or think about your industry.
• There's a human story underneath: You quit your corporate job to solve a problem that affected your family. You bootstrapped from your garage. You nearly went under and came back. Real stories, told honestly.
• You have a contrarian take backed by evidence: If everyone in your industry says "zig" and you can prove "zag" is the better option, that's interesting.
• Your timing aligns with something bigger: A government policy change, a cultural moment, an industry trend. If your story plugs into what's already in the news cycle, your odds go way up.

If you're not sure whether your story passes the test, we wrote a whole article on exactly that – Is It News? How to Tell Before You Pitch. Read it before you go any further. Seriously. It'll save you from pitching something that was never going to land.

Build a Media List (A Small, Good One)

You don't need to email every journalist in New Zealand. You need to email the right five.

Here's how to find them:

• Read the outlets your customers read. If you're a food brand, that's probably Cuisine, NZ Herald's Viva, The Spinoff's food coverage, and your local newspaper's food section. If you're a tech startup, think Caffeine, NZ Herald Business, Newsroom, Interest.co.nz, and The Spinoff's business desk.
• Find the actual journalists who write about your space. Not the editor-in-chief. Not the general inbox. The specific reporter who covered a story similar to yours last month. Read their recent work. Know what they care about.
• Check their social media. Most NZ journalists are active on LinkedIn or X (Twitter). Some even post what they're working on or what pitches they want. That's free intelligence.
• Start local. Your regional newspaper, your local Stuff reporter, community publications. Local media is chronically under-pitched and genuinely interested in local stories. Everyone wants to be in the NZ Herald first – but a Christchurch Star or Waikato Times story is still coverage, and it often leads to bigger outlets picking it up.

Put your list in a simple spreadsheet: journalist name, outlet, what they cover, email address, and a link to a recent relevant article. That's your media list. You don't need a $500/month media database for this.

Write a Press Release That Doesn't Read Like an Ad

Most press releases written by business owners read like marketing copy. They're full of superlatives, internal jargon, and quotes that no real person would ever say out loud.

Journalists see through this instantly and the release goes in the bin.

A good press release reads like the top of a news story – because that's essentially what it is. It answers who, what, when, where, and why in the first two paragraphs. The quote adds colour and personality, not corporate puffery. The rest fills in the detail.

We've covered this in depth in two other articles that are worth reading before you write anything:

• 8 Things New Zealand Journalists Really Want in a Press Release – what to include and what to leave out
• The Inverted Pyramid – why structure matters more than you think

The short version: write it like a journalist would. If you can't tell whether your release sounds like news or marketing, ask someone outside your business to read it. If they say "so what?" – rewrite it.

Send the Pitch (Not Just the Release)

Attaching a press release to a blank email with "Press Release – Please Publish" in the subject line is the fastest way to get ignored.

Your pitch email matters more than the release itself. It's the thing the journalist actually reads first. It needs to be short, specific, and demonstrate that you understand what they write about.

A good pitch email is three to five sentences:

1. Why you're emailing them specifically (not a generic blast)
2. What the story is, in one sentence
3. Why it matters right now
4. An offer to chat, send more info, or connect them with the right person

That's it. Copy and paste the full release for detail beneath your personalised email. But the pitch itself should stand alone.

We wrote an entire guide on this – How to Pitch a Journalist (And Actually Get a Response). It covers subject lines, timing, follow-ups, and the mistakes that kill most pitches before they're even opened. If you only read one other article from this list, make it that one.

Use the Free Tools That Actually Work

You don't need expensive software to do DIY PR. Here's what's genuinely useful:

• Google Alerts: Set up alerts for your industry keywords, your competitors, and your own brand name. This helps you spot opportunities – if a journalist writes about a topic you're an expert in, you can reach out as a source for their next piece.
• LinkedIn: Not just for networking. Publishing your own perspectives on LinkedIn builds a public track record of expertise. Journalists increasingly check LinkedIn when researching sources. If your profile is active with thoughtful commentary, you're more likely to be approached.
• Source request platforms: Services like Qwoted and SourceBottle connect journalists with experts. Sign up, set your areas of expertise, and respond quickly when relevant queries come through. Speed matters – journalists on deadline don't wait.
• Your own website: Have a media or press page. Include a short company bio, founder headshots (high-resolution, downloadable), key facts, and contact details. When a journalist is on deadline and considering your story, making their job easy is the single most effective thing you can do.

Follow Up Once, Then Let It Go

If you don't hear back after your initial pitch, one polite follow-up three to five business days later is fine. Keep it short: "Just checking this landed – happy to chat if it's of interest."

That's it. One follow-up. Not three. Not five. Not a phone call asking why they haven't responded.

Journalists are drowning in pitches. Research from Muck Rack suggests only about 3-4% of pitches get a response. That's not because journalists are rude – it's because they receive hundreds of emails a day and most of them aren't relevant to what they're working on.

If your pitch doesn't land, it doesn't mean your story is bad. It might mean your timing was off, or the journalist is chasing something else, or the news cycle swallowed everything that week. Wait a few weeks, find a fresh angle or a different journalist, and try again.

Track What Happens

Even without a fancy PR reporting tool, keep a simple record of what you pitch, who you pitch it to, and what happens. Over time, this tells you which angles work, which journalists engage, and where your story resonates.

A spreadsheet is fine. Columns: date, journalist, outlet, story angle, outcome. If you get coverage, note the link and the reach of the outlet. This is your DIY version of PR reporting – and it's more than most small businesses do.

Know When DIY Stops Being Enough

We'd be lying if we said DIY PR works forever. It doesn't.

DIY works well when you have a clear, obvious story and the time to pitch it yourself. It works less well when you need sustained coverage over months, when you're navigating a crisis, when you're trying to land national or international media, or when you simply don't have the time to research journalists, write releases, and follow up on pitches while also running a business.

That's not a sales pitch – it's just honest. There's a reason PR agencies exist, and it's not because the work is easy.

If you want to understand what an agency actually costs in New Zealand – and whether it makes sense for where you are right now – we broke it all down in How Much Does PR Actually Cost in New Zealand?. No gatekeeping, no vague "it depends" – real numbers.

And if you're at the stage where a single, well-timed campaign could make a difference – a product launch, a funding announcement, a major milestone – Payper's on-demand model was built for exactly that. You pay a flat pitch fee, and a success fee only when coverage actually lands. No retainer, no lock-in, no risk of paying thousands for nothing.

We've seen it work for early-stage companies like Contented, who used a single PR campaign around their seed round to land coverage across major outlets – and for hardware startups like FTN Motion, who needed the right story told at the right time.

But honestly? If you're bootstrapped, early-stage, and scrappy – start with this guide. Get a few wins under your belt. Learn what works. And if you ever want a hand, we're here.

Get in touch here and we'll give you a straight answer, always.