RenewComm LLC is a marketing and communications firm specializing in renewable energy, clean technology and non-profits. Their senior consultants set up and optimize communications channels that help clients reach decision-makers and grow their business.

Ease of Use Compared to Legacy Platforms

Prior to using Muck Rack, the RenewComm team used Meltwater. We made the decision to switch to Muck Rack after we found ourselves dissatisfied with Meltwater’s search function, user interface and customer service.

Muck Rack respects journalists and journalists seem to respect Muck Rack to the point where they don’t unsubscribe from the platform. On legacy platforms, journalists feel like they’re being sprayed with pitches not relevant to them, which is a form of disrespect and often of little value. What Muck Rack offers is a way to respect the journalists we’re working with. For example, a particular journalist I was looking for from The New York Times had unsubscribed from Meltwater, leaving us unable to find his contact information. He has not unsubscribed from Muck Rack.

Consider this analogy: as a small company at RenewComm, we use a WeWork shared office space membership. This reflects the way our industry has changed and modernized. For us, having Muck Rack goes along with using WeWork. Both are expressions of where the workplace and tools we use on a daily basis are moving.

Search and Building Media Lists

We rely heavily on Muck Rack to get complete profiles of journalists we plan to pitch and discover new journalists to add to our media lists. Muck Rack’s profiles offer a handy snapshot of what a particular journalist cares about in one page -- you can easily see their latest tweets and recent coverage. Yes, this is information you can find on your own, but Muck Rack saves us time and clicks, and packages the information in a user-friendly interface.

Other platforms we’ve used in the past haven’t been super intuitive. It became difficult to find the right reporter within a big outlet like The New York Times. We use Muck Rack to find reporters covering specific angles of a topic one of our clients might be interested in. All of the insights Muck Rack provides about what a journalist is interested in makes it easier to tailor a pitch.

In-Platform Pitching

We really like Muck Rack’s in-platform pitching and the ability to load up a pitch template and then personalize it for a string of reporters. This feature semi-automates something we had habitually done before -- create email after email after email when sending pitches.

Not only is it easy to send pitches, but it also logs the results by allowing us to see which reportes opened our pitches. That takes things to a whole new level!

Recently we had a lot of success inviting journalists to a client event -- an insider briefing -- in DC. It can be a stretch to get reporters to set aside breaking news, go to a conference room in a hotel and sit down for a briefing. We had the advantage of a presidential candidate showing up to brief them. We used Muck Rack to send the invitation, and ended up with 40+ reporters at the event, including journalists from top outlets like Politico, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Pitching through Muck Rack is very intuitive. It’s the kind of tool I used to wish for, and now I have it!

1. What made you decide to use Muck Rack?

We learned about Muck Rack from a few different places, initially through their offering of finding journalists on social media and recently via the Muck Rack Daily newsletter -- we enjoyed the headlines and fun commentary on the news of the day. 

We had been using Meltwater for awhile, and became increasingly dissatisfied with the interface. We couldn’t find reporters we were searching for, it was awkward to organize and display the information, and at one point it took the Meltwater team weeks to get back to me about adding a specific reporter. I sought out other options and realized Muck Rack had a product.

2. How would you describe Muck Rack in three words?

Intuitive, personal, and smart
 

3. What has your experience been like working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?

Muck Rack’s customer service team has amazing turnaround time measured in minutes, versus competitors who sometimes took days or even weeks. This is huge having come from an experience with Meltwater where I didn’t hear back for weeks after continually pestering them only to find out a journalist had unsubscribed. It was so frustrating I decided I needed to find an alternative.

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

Without Muck Rack, the RenewComm team wouldn’t be as efficient in collaborating with one another since we’d potentially reach out to the same reporters without knowing. Muck Rack allows us to collaborate and see who is pitching whom, and who has responded.

We might still be using clients’ spreadsheets for media lists, which often don’t get updated as often as they should be. The whole process breaks down under its own weight. Muck Rack has taken spreadsheets into a new generation of software with automatically updated media lists, the ability to take notes on individual journalists, and simultaneously see their recent coverage and what they’re talking about themselves.

Muck Rack helps our team streamline to get more done in a given hour. Our team works to maximize often limited marketing budgets, so when we save time, we save our clients money and we can provide more services in a given day.

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

Take the leap! You’ll enjoy the platform once you have access.