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Ben Treanor, Digital PR Strategist at Time2play, says:

As the Digital PR Strategist at this pretty new company—we were founded in 2021—my main focus is to build authority and gain visibility through organic link building for our sites. I do that by creating blog content then outreaching to journalists.

Before Muck Rack, we used Buzzstream, and it was clunky, not intuitive and not well maintained. I could easily spend a 40-hour workweek building a couple of media lists.

I had to hunt down every journalist and their contact information. Not only that, but I’d often unknowingly find email addresses that no longer existed. When I checked my inbox an hour after sending a pitch, I’d have dozens of failed email notifications.

But my job wasn’t even done once I finally found the information. I then had to manually fill out forms and wade through endless spreadsheets.

Time2play is a newbie when it comes to Muck Rack. We’ve been using it for about a month, but so far it’s been incredibly intuitive and user-friendly, and I’ve already seen its impact.

Creating niche media lists

Because Time2play is relatively new, I primarily use Muck Rack for outreach efforts, mostly to build media lists. I can easily search for exactly what I need, and Muck Rack shows me a curated list to choose from.

For example, we recently published a piece about cheating in the video game world. Muck Rack allowed me to find journalists who cover video games and, more specifically, ones who have covered—or even tweeted about—cheating.

I can really drill down to a specific niche, which allows me to send the most relevant journalists a more personalized pitch. It gives me the opportunity to really cultivate relationships with writers in a more organic way that’s mutually beneficial.

I also use Muck Rack to search for contacts regionally. I’m working on a campaign about the states that drink the most for St. Patrick’s Day. Spoiler: Pennsylvania is the winner, so I used Muck Rack to find journalists to pitch in the Philadelphia area.

Pitching journalists

One thing I did like about Buzzstream was its pitching tool, but I’ve got to say: Muck Rack has one that’s just as good.

I like sending pitches in Muck Rack because it keeps everything organized in one place. I also like that I don’t have to send dozens of individual emails. Instead, I can tailor a pitch to an individual journalist within the platform.

As we continue to pitch, we’re going to start tracking open rates and click rates through Muck Rack. We’ll use the data to determine what’s working or what we need to change to get our pitches to perform better.

Building relationships with journalists

I’ve also started utilizing Muck Rack’s relationship management features.

These are especially useful when a journalist responds to let me know they’re not interested in the topic at hand but that they want to keep in touch. Or maybe the pitch isn’t quite a fit, but they’re interested in a related topic. I’ll note that for future pitches.

1. How has it been working with Muck Rack’s customer success team?

I’ve only had a few questions so far, but the team has been extremely responsive. Usually within an hour I have an answer to my question. It’s worth mentioning I’m on Central European Time, so that’s pretty impressive.

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

I would be a lot more stressed out. I would be a lot more exhausted. This is going to sound cheesy, but I’ve noticed a difference in how I feel at the end of a workday. When I was building media lists in Buzzstream, it was extremely draining. Now that I have Muck Rack, I can turbo-charge my work, and it’s a lot less exhausting.

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

I would say absolutely at least give it a try and see if it works for you. It’s saving our company a ton of time in labor hours and efficiency. I don’t think we’re going to be burning as many bridges with journalists by pitching the wrong stuff.

4. How would you describe your experience with Muck Rack in three words?

Efficient, intuitive, insightful.