How to get your brand in front of small business audiences with Dan Martin
Dan Martin has spent over 20 years writing about small businesses.
In that time he's interviewed some of the most recognisable names in entrepreneurship, put together more than 50 events and travelled internationally on small business trade missions.
He's worked across some of the UK's leading small business publications and support organisations, and today edits SME Web, hosts the Small Business Sessions podcast (part of Enterprise Nation) and was previously head of content at Enterprise Nation itself before going freelance.
We sat down with Dan for a live session on what gets a small business noticed: how to pitch a story that lands, what makes someone worth interviewing and how to stay on a journalist's radar long after the first email.
Here's a taste of what he shared.
What makes a small business story stand out
For Dan, the strongest stories almost always come from the business owner themselves, not a polished press release written on their behalf. A good PR person helps, but a founder who clearly understands what a journalist covers, and reaches out directly, tends to stand out more.
A few things he specifically looks for:
An opinion. Dan's editorial at SME Web leans heavily into government policy and what it means for small businesses. Founders willing to share a genuine view on issues like business rates or regulation are far more likely to get a response than those pitching a generic product story.
Evidence you've read what they write. Not a mass-send. An email that shows you understand the publication's focus, rather than one addressed to "Hi editor" or "Hi SME news desk," makes a real difference.
A subject line that earns the click. There's no single formula, but avoid wasting the space on generic terms like "press release" or "business news."
How to get on a journalist's radar
Long before you need coverage, it helps to already be visible. Dan pointed to a few channels that consistently work:
LinkedIn, above almost everything else. Dan said he's talked about LinkedIn more than PR itself this year. Following journalists, engaging with their posts and commenting when they're looking for case studies all build familiarity over time.
X (formerly Twitter), for speed. The "journorequest" hashtag is still active, and Dan finds it one of the fastest ways to reach people in real time, since LinkedIn's algorithm doesn't always surface posts instantly.
Community groups and memberships. Being active in a relevant Facebook group, membership community or industry network puts you front of mind when a journalist needs a specific type of business owner.
PR platforms and services. PR platforms like PR Dispatch give founders and brand teams a UK journalist database, expert support and pitching tools to build direct press relationships and land their own coverage.
Existing relationships. People Dan already knows, who reliably have something useful to say, get contacted first when a fast turnaround is needed.
Crafting a pitch that lands
Once you're ready to pitch, a few small details separate the pitches that get read from the ones that get deleted.
Do:
Personalise it. Use the journalist's actual name.
Keep it brief: a short intro, then bullet points of what you could speak about.
Include relevant data or research, but only if it's genuinely tied to a topic they're actively covering.
Have decent images ready in a shared folder like Dropbox or Google Drive, not attached directly to the email.
For podcast pitches specifically, come with five or six strong hooks that would make a compelling headline.
Don't:
Send a press release as the main pitch. Dan noted it's unlikely to be covered unless it's genuinely significant news. If you're unsure whether your story qualifies, see what a press release is and when you need one.
Over-research to the point of being strange. Referencing a specific past article briefly is useful; explaining it back to the person who wrote it isn't.
Mention coverage in a direct competitor's publication. It reads oddly. Coverage in a clearly unrelated title, mentioned subtly (a logo in an email footer, say) works far better.
Use a leftover template. Dan described receiving a pitch that literally included the placeholder text "insert episode name here," an instant sign the sender hadn't listened to a single episode.
Think beyond your product
One of the most useful parts of the session was Dan's reminder that founders, especially product and eCommerce businesses, often overlook everything they could speak about beyond the product itself. He called this the "expert pitch."
Ideas that came up directly:
Policy and regulation. Business rates, GDPR, email marketing rules, anything that affects how you operate day to day.
Access to finance. Whether you've bootstrapped, taken a bank loan, secured a grant or run a crowdfunding campaign that either succeeded or didn't, funding stories consistently perform well.
How you work. PR Dispatch founder Rosie Davies-Smith, who hosted the session, shared that her own team's four-day work week has generated coverage simply because it's an interesting talking point, distinct from what the business sells.
Tips and how-tos. Some publications actively take contributed listicle-style content, "five tips for building an eCommerce brand," for example.
Traditional craft meeting modern tech. One attendee running a heritage hat-making business, using patterns dating back to the 1890s, was told this exact tension, needing to master platforms and algorithms despite working in a centuries-old craft, was a strong feature angle in its own right.
AI and technology adoption, particularly from traditional or craft-based businesses. Dan actively covers this and said it's a growing area of interest.
Slow growth. Dan was clear that press coverage skews heavily toward scale-ups, when the vast majority of businesses grow at their own pace, for entirely valid reasons. A founder building sustainably, rather than chasing hypergrowth, is its own compelling and underused story.
The absence of social media. A business thriving in 2026 without a visible social presence is, in Dan's words, a genuine story rather than something to downplay.
Two pitch angles worth stealing
Two ideas from the audience Q&A stood out as genuinely reusable tactics.
Regional collaboration. One attendee, one of only a handful of Scottish businesses on a UK-wide list of 100 companies, grouped together with the other Scottish entrants and pitched a single, ready-made story to a national Scottish newspaper. Making the journalist's job easier by doing the coordination yourself made the pitch far more attractive.
Reframing a personal story. Another attendee, who had grown her business slowly around chronic illness and caring responsibilities, was encouraged to see this not as a weakness but as a genuine counter-narrative to the "unicorn" growth stories that dominate business press, especially when paired with a live issue like the rising conversation around over-50s workforce participation.
What makes someone a great interview
Asked what separates a strong interviewee from a weak one, Dan's answer had little to do with polish:
Knowing your subject properly. Whether that's your own business or a topical issue you're commenting on.
Having something to say. Short, one-line answers are the hardest thing for a journalist to work with.
Being ready to go off-script. Dan shares topics and questions in advance, but the best interviews happen when someone can respond naturally to something unexpected, rather than reciting prepared lines.
Think beyond the inbox
Getting in front of an audience doesn't always start with a traditional press pitch. Dan shared a few other routes worth considering.
Landing a podcast guest slot
Podcast bookings often follow a loose seasonal theme, so being genuinely active in a relevant community counts for more than people expect. Dan pointed to Enterprise Nation's WhatsApp group as an example: members who consistently show up and contribute are the ones producers think of first when a guest slot opens.
If a pitch doesn't land immediately, that's not necessarily a no. Many shows work in seasons, so following up later, referencing a specific episode you've genuinely listened to, keeps you in consideration for future rounds. If you're building out your target list, we've rounded up 12 podcasts worth pitching as a founder-led eCommerce brand.
Getting a speaking slot at events
The same principle of visibility applies to events and panels. A few practical tips from the session:
Be genuinely active in any community tied to the event you want to speak at.
Watch out for "pay to play" opportunities charging a large fee for a speaking slot. It's occasionally worth it for a perfectly matched audience, but treat it with caution.
Attend an event as a delegate first to understand its format and where you'd realistically fit.
Look beyond the obvious: trade shows, TEDx events (increasingly common regionally) and consumer shows with a speaker programme are all worth exploring, particularly for founder-led, product-based brands.
Don't overlook local press, radio and TV
National coverage gets the attention, but Dan was clear that local and regional media shouldn't be an afterthought.
Local papers, hyperlocal titles and regional radio are often genuinely easier to reach, and national outlets frequently pick up stories that first ran locally, especially within larger publishing groups.
A few specific opportunities worth remembering:
Local radio phone-ins, particularly live ones, are a low-effort way to get your business name mentioned.
Guest slots on local radio and TV exist simply because these formats need a steady supply of local voices to fill airtime.
Award wins are a good hook for local press specifically, even if, as Dan pointed out, "won an award" alone rarely justifies national coverage on its own.
Build relationships that last
The founders Dan comes back to repeatedly share a few traits: they respond quickly, they're reliable and they have something new to say each time rather than repeating the same pitch.
He also made the point that founders often forget how much their own story has moved on. A business he first quoted at the startup stage may now have an entirely different, more relevant angle, once it's scaled, adopted new technology or moved into a new market, and it's worth actively re-pitching with that update rather than assuming a journalist already knows.
If you'd rather have the contacts and tools to run this yourself, we support founders across categories, from homeware & gift brands to wellness & beauty brands.
The overall takeaway from the session: PR isn't a single pitch that either works or doesn't. It's a long-term relationship, built on being useful, visible and honest about where your business is right now.
Want more insider PR advice like this?
This is just a taste of what Dan shared in our live member session. Join PR Dispatch Pro today to watch the full replay, and access 1,000+ press contacts, expert PR support and practical tools to help you get your brand in front of journalists.