A story is only great if there are people to enjoy it and share it with others. When you think of a media list you should look at is as a special invitation to hear your story; it’s ultimately who you want to tell your story.

If you are new to the term “media list” it’s basically a (targeted) list of reporters with their contact and other relevant information. It’s essentially an address book for media personnel to whom you want to reach out. Though the result is quite simple, the creation process should be strategically precise and should be built with caution.

Assembling a rock-solid media list requires that you take additional efforts before the building process actually begins. Think of building the media list as your blueprint and the pitching outreach as building the house – the media list is detailed, well-organized, highly targeted, and specific.

Journalists will not publish a story that does not fit with their publication or their writing topic, and that run the risk of losing readers, listeners and/or viewers. So it’s important that you pitch the right story to the right reporter, at the right publication, at the right time – it all boils down to a well-thought out strategy. To better understand how fundamental media lists are to good coverage I have outlined five crucial steps to consider when developing a media list.

Step 1: Find writers who currently write about your topic. A reporter who writes about fashion trends will not care about your tech development in computer software and will probably be annoyed that you didn’t take the effort to research them. I recommend researching the reporters thoroughly. Keep in mind that reporters tend to move around like gypsies, so a reporter who wrote about tech five years ago could now write about fashion – it’s important to always double check.

Step 2: Consider the reporter’s social media accounts and how influential they are within their networks. Today, if a reporter publishes an article in a publication, he or she is likely to share that story across their social channels and some reporters have tens of thousands of followers. That’s a lot of eyeballs and sometimes more so than their pub’s circulation number. Many reporters have a consistent following on social networks and often engage with their followers that way. Reporters will often use their social channels, such as Twitter, to direct their audience to particular websites or stories.

Step 3: Know their job title and what it means. The roles and responsibilities attached to each role vary significantly. For example, you should be careful with the editor-in-chief because he or she is responsible for the business end of the publication and does not create content. However, editorial assistants are usually looking for unique stories and ideas so they should often be included in your list(s). When there are many people at an outlet that cover your topic it’s important to choose only two to three people for your media list, and never pitch them all at once. Choose one senior-level person or above and one editorial assistant or staff writer. Pitch one contact the first day, send a follow-up note the second day and on the third day if there is still no reply, now you have the green light to pitch the second contact and so on. We call this “first round” and “second round” of pitching.

Step 4: Consider the scope of your outreach. You must define what kind of story you are telling and what kind of a value it has to the rest of the world. If you think the world will care about your story you should include contacts from national outlets in your list. If the story pertains to a particular region, city, county, or community, you should narrow your list to only regional pubs. Make sure you are aware of the story and how significant it is to the world around you. You don’t want to waste time pitching The New York Times about an animal shelter opening in your neighborhood – they simple won’t care.

Step 5: Time is money – spend it wisely. There are many ways to obtain contact information of (almost) anyone in the world. There are media databases with hundreds of thousands of media contacts and various research and list-building capabilities, such as Cision, Vocus, Meltwater Press, and more. These tools can be quite costly, so if you are someone who builds media lists regularly, a database will save you a ton of time. On the other hand, there is always the internet and (thankfully) Google as a short-term alternative and in this case I highly recommend saving the information in a spreadsheet for future reference.

MAIN TAKEAWAY: Before you start pitching your story, you should have a blueprint containing a well-organized and highly targeted media list. Once you develop an immaculate list, and you may have more than one, you should craft and start building your tailored pitch(es). Keep in mind that each list should be accompanied with a unique pitch and always consider the audience you’re trying to reach. The last thing to remember is that journalists are busy people just like you, so be mindful of their time and happy pitching!