CMW Media is a fast-growing, full-service public relations firm specializing in promoting innovative businesses from a broad spectrum of industries. Based in San Diego, their clients range from publicly traded companies to those in emerging markets — including the global cannabis industry. They are award-winning industry leaders and producers whose inherent talent is capturing messages worldwide and educating the public. 

After using Muck Rack, Kathryn Reinhardt, an account supervisor at CMW Media, says:

Before we started using Muck Rack, we did everything manually. Manual relationship tracking. Manual pitch tracking. Manual media monitoring. Manual reporting.

A lot of this was housed in spreadsheets, which were a pain. They had to be manually updated and then shared with the team. If a journalist didn’t want to be contacted, we updated the spreadsheet with that information. Reshare. If a contact had specific preferences, we’d add those notes into our spreadsheets. Reshare.

We also traded a lot of information face-to-face, which was fine in the moment, but not necessarily an effective long-term strategy — that information gets lost.

At the end of the day, we were wasting a lot of time with these processes — time that could be used servicing our clients.

I’d heard about Muck Rack through industry peers and PR groups, and we decided to start using it in early 2020. First impressions? It was super easy to use, and the support team was great — always willing to answer questions via chat, phone or even Zoom.

Now, our entire team uses Muck Rack, from our contractors to our CEO. Here are some of the features that have streamlined our processes and made us more efficient.

Relationship owners

Instead of updating spreadsheets, Muck Rack allows us to easily specify who’s talking to each journalist and automatically share that information across the company. 

This is especially helpful when we have new hires or are working with contractors on one-off projects or campaigns. They’re not in the day-to-day of the company, but they’re able to easily stay in the loop.

Having this database has also been useful in identifying relationship gaps. For example, we can use the database to say, “Hey, we don’t have a lot of contacts in the personal finance industry. Let’s make some connections.”

Activity tracking

Muck Rack’s activity tracking has obvious benefits. We can see who’s reached out to whom and how recently so there’s no cross-pitching or overloading contacts with pitches.

I also like keeping tabs on activities when onboarding junior hires or interns. For instance, I can go into Muck Rack and note the frequency of follow-ups, and if I need to, I can reach out and encourage them to follow up if it’s been a while. It’s also good on the opposite end of the spectrum. If I see someone is emailing a contact too often, I can let that person know to hold off.

This level of transparency makes it easy for me to provide this kind of specific feedback.

Contact preferences and ‘Do Not Contact’

Before Muck Rack, we were keeping notes in spreadsheets (if we remembered to update them) and disseminating information that way.

Now, with Muck Rack, we can easily add notes to each contact. We include the pitch title as well as any feedback. For instance, we may briefly add notes about the interaction and note to proceed with caution in the future.

We also use the Do Not Contact feature if a contact wants to “unsubscribe.” But I also love using that feature when I have a strong relationship. We’ve had a few journalists specifically tell me they just want to work with me — not a bunch of people at our firm. In that case, I’ll add them to the company’s Do Not Contact list so I’m 100% certain no one else will reach out to them, intentionally or accidentally.