This guide will help you search and import Media Database contacts. Each section below outlines key concepts and contains links to other articles in case you need more details.
Table of contents:
- Introduction: Media Database
- Step 1: Search the Media Database
- Step 2: Import Lists
- Step 3: Manage Lists and Contacts
- Step 4: Send a Campaign to the MD Lists
Introduction: Media Database
Media Database (MD) is your go-to tool for finding journalists, influencers, and media outlets for your outreach efforts. Whether you're searching for individual contacts or building targeted lists, MD offers access to new media contacts, and you can send emails directly through Presspage. With over 1.1 million profiles and ongoing updates by a dedicated research team, ensuring the most accurate information 99.6% of the time. Plus, if you can’t find a specific journalist or outlet, you can submit a research request through Support to get the details you need. Lastly, the database is fully GDPR compliant.
Note:
Media Database is an add-on feature available for all plans. You can see if you have access when the Media Database Search and Lists items are visible in the left menu in Contacts.
Go to GDPR for details.
Step 1: Search the Media Database
Select the Search Type (A). Click on the dropdown next to Search for and choose between:
- People and/or outlets: Allows you to search for lists of individuals, outlets, or individuals at outlets.
- Keyword: This option lets you search for people based on topics they write about. You can enter general terms related to your industry or area of interest.
- Specific Person: If you have a particular journalist or influencer in mind, this option enables you to search for them by name.
Search for People and/or Outlets
When you select People, you can define your search criteria via the available fields, for the full list of criteria with explanation go to: Search the Media Database
To refine your results combine multiple filters. Or use the Search Logic (B) next to Writing About. You can choose between:
- OR Condition: Displays results that match any of the selected criteria.
- AND Condition: Displays results that match all selected criteria.
Search for Keyword
Search any topic of interest that MD Contacts are writing about. Optionally, use the Located in field to refine your results based on where someone is located.
Search for Specific Person
Search for the name of a specific journalist in the database.
Click the View results button to see the list of matching contacts and/or outlets. The results section will display the number and contacts that match with the selected criteria.
Search Outlet’s email
MD's main use case is to get in touch with the specific journalists and to build a relation with them. Therefore, the email addresses of outlets cannot be imported into Lists. It is possible to look them up via the Media Database. Search on outlets and/or in the Search Results select the name of the outlet in the Outlet name column (A). This takes you to the details page where you can find the email addresses under Outlet Information.
Go to Search the Media Database for details.
Step 2: Import Lists
To import the MD contacts (de)select individual contacts (B) or use the mass select option (B) at the top of the results list. When moving to other pages in the results, the selection of previous pages is saved.
Click the Import contacts to a list button to start the import process. On the next screen select Add contacts to existing lists or Create new list. If you work in an account with multiple languages, use the Select languages dropdown to specify the access language(s) for the list. Click the Save button and the system will import the contacts. Depending on the number of contacts this might take a few minutes. The list will be visible under Media Database Lists.
Note:
The platform does not save search criteria. We recommend including the search criteria in the List title for future purposes.
Go to Search the Media Database for details.
Step 3: Manage Lists and Contacts
Manage Lists
Under Media Database Lists you can manage your lists and contacts.
Lists do not get updated automatically with additional contacts, to ensure you keep full control of who you are sending campaigns to. Redo searches periodically to keep the lists up to date and relevant new contacts are added.
At the top of the List Detail Page you can add a tag (A) to the list, change the list details via the Manage Settings (B) button, and add additional contacts via the Add contacts button.
Tags are meant to build an internal structure for your lists in Presspage. For example, you can use tags to identify important lists, or you can create a comprehensive structure of different groups of lists. Once added you can quickly navigate to a group via the filter box at the top of the Lists Dashboard.
Contacts can coexist in the owned database and MD. Wherever is the originating source for the contact, that information will be shown in the other database. This means:
- An owned contact also exists as an MD contact, viewing it in MD shows the data from the owned database.
- An MD contact also exists as an owned contact, viewing it in owned Lists shows the data from MD.
For these contacts the email address cannot be edited. If you need to update the email address the contact needs to be removed from both databases and manually re-added to the Owned Database and/or an update to the MD needs to be requested via Support.
Manage Contacts
Select a contact in the MD Lists dashboard to open the detail page.
In the left panel of the detail page you can Unsubscribe or Delete a contact via the three dots (A). Below that you can view the Contact Information. This data is hosted on the database and therefore cannot be adjusted, but will be synced every time the contact details are opened. In the right panel you can view the Email Statistics, Inquiries and imported Notes from the Database.
Step 4: Send a campaign to the MD Lists
In Email click the Create a New Campaign button or select a campaign from the Draft Campaign dashboard. Continue to the Recipients screen and select the list(s) from the Media Database Lists dropdown. Click the Send button in the breadcrumb or in the bottom right to continue to the Send Options to send out the campaign.
Before sending, the platform will sync the added MD contacts one more time with the database to filter out any removed email addresses and update any contact details.
Go to Add Recipients and Send Campaign for details.