How Many Times to Follow Up With a Journalist (Crypto Edition)

Follow up once on a cold pitch, roughly three to four working days after you sent it. Send a second follow-up only if you have something genuinely new to add, like a confirmed date, a fresh data point or a spokesperson who's now free. After that, stop. Two unanswered follow-ups is a no, and treating it as one protects the relationship for your next story.

That's the short version. The longer version depends on what kind of silence you're dealing with, because a reporter who never opened your cold email and a reporter who said yes and then went quiet are two very different problems.

Why do follow-ups matter at all in crypto PR?

Because pitches get buried, not because reporters are rude. Crypto desks are small, the news cycle turns on a governance vote or an exploit, and an inbox that was empty at 9am can be full of breaking stories by 11am. A polite follow-up gives your pitch a second chance at a moment when the reporter actually has room for it.

I've been doing this long enough that following up is simply part of the day.

life of a PR manager: - eat breakfast - edit pitches - eat lunch - pitch pitches - eat dinner - follow up on pitches Shilika Jain on X, 23 May 2024

Notice where follow-ups sit in that list. After the pitching, as a normal step, not as a panic move. The problem I see with founders running their own outreach isn't that they follow up. It's that they follow up the same day, three times, with "just checking you saw this."

How many follow-ups is right for each situation?

The number changes with the relationship and the stage of the story. This is the cadence I use, and I'd call it the silence ladder: the further a reporter has already committed, the more follow-ups you've earned.

Read the last row twice. A clear "no" is a gift. It frees you to pitch someone else today, and it tells you the reporter respects you enough to answer.

What should each follow-up actually say?

Every follow-up has to pass one test: if the reporter only reads this message and never scrolls down to the original, do they get a reason to reply? If not, don't send it.

Things that count as new:

• A confirmed launch date or embargo time that wasn't fixed before
• A number the reporter can lead with, like a user count, TVL figure or survey result that's now public or available to them first
• A spokesperson becoming available, with two or three specific time slots
• A link to a related story that just broke, showing why your news now matters more
• A different angle for a different section of their outlet, such as a regulation angle instead of a product angle

Things that don't count:

• "Bumping this to the top of your inbox"
• "Did you get a chance to look?"
• The same pitch re-sent with a new subject line
• A longer version of the same pitch

Keep the follow-up shorter than the original pitch. Three or four lines is plenty. Reply in the same thread so they have the context without hunting for it, and use the same channel you first pitched on. If you're unsure whether a DM is ever appropriate, I've covered channel etiquette separately in pitching journalists on X DM or Telegram.

When is silence the answer?

More often than founders want to hear.

After a cold pitch and one follow-up with nothing back, assume the story isn't right for that reporter right now. It might be the beat, the timing, an editor's priorities or a breaking story that ate their week. You'll rarely find out which, and chasing won't change it.

The waiting is the hard part, and I don't pretend otherwise.

mini heart attacks while waiting for journos to respond to press pitches! Shilika Jain on X, 30 Nov 2023

What I'd do with that nervous energy is pitch the next reporter on your list instead of sending a third email to the first one. Silence after two touches is information. Treat it as a pass, note it in your tracker, and come back to that reporter with a different story in a month or two. A reporter who ignored your partnership pitch may well open your data report.

What if a reporter said yes and then went quiet?

This one stings, and it happens to everyone. I asked about it publicly because it's a genuine gap in how PR people talk about the job.

what are PR folks supposed to do if reporters ghost after saying yes? Shilika Jain on X, 4 Oct 2024

My sequence for it:

1. First follow-up, about three working days after the last contact. Restate what they agreed to, attach anything outstanding, and offer one concrete next step: "Happy to get the CEO on a 15-minute call Thursday or Friday."
2. Second follow-up, about a week later. Be direct and kind. Say you'd love to run it with them, and that if timing has changed you'll understand and offer it elsewhere by a specific date.
3. Release it. If that date passes, offer the story to the next reporter. Send the first reporter a short note saying you've moved on and you'd still like to work together next time.

That third step matters. If a story was offered as an exclusive, you can't pitch it to anyone else until you've formally taken it back. Doing the release in writing protects you and keeps things clean. My post on embargoes, exclusives and briefings goes into how to set those deadlines up front so you rarely need step two.

What does over-following-up cost you?

More than one missed story. Reporters remember names. If your name shows up five times in a week about a minor partnership, the next time it appears, it gets archived unread, even when you finally have real news.

There's also a quieter cost. Every follow-up you send to a reporter who has already passed is time you didn't spend finding the reporter who would have said yes. For a founder running outreach alongside fundraising and hiring, that trade-off is real.

Where this cadence doesn't fit

A few honest exceptions:

• Breaking or reactive news. If you're offering comment on a market event, a follow-up the next day can be stale. Send one well-timed message and let it go. If the moment has passed, the follow-up adds nothing.
• Wire and paid placements. If you've paid for a placement, you're managing a vendor, not a journalist, and normal account-management rules apply. That isn't earned media, and I'd rather you knew the difference.
• Reporters who've told you their preference. Some say "nudge me twice, I miss things." Some say "if I'm interested, I'll reply." Whatever they've told you beats any rule here, so write it down in your media list.
• Large-scale outreach with an agency. If someone is sending your pitch to 200 reporters with automated follow-ups, the cadence advice won't save the campaign. Fewer, better-targeted reporters will, which is how I run Web3 PR campaigns.

FAQ

Is it OK to follow up with a journalist by phone?

In crypto media, almost never for a first follow-up. Most reporters work across time zones and prefer written messages they can answer on their own schedule. Keep calls for reporters who've given you their number and said to use it.

Should I follow up if my news has already gone live elsewhere?

Only if you can offer something the published coverage doesn't have, such as an interview, a deeper data cut or a regional angle. Otherwise you're pitching old news. It's better to save that reporter for your next announcement.

What's the best day and time to send a follow-up?

There's no magic slot, but avoid sending it in the middle of a market crash or a major exploit when desks are flat out. Early in the reporter's working day, in their time zone, is a sensible default. Check their recent bylines to see when they publish.

How do I keep track of follow-ups across many reporters?

A simple sheet with the reporter, outlet, date pitched, follow-up count and outcome is enough for most early-stage teams. The point is to stop at two and to remember who passed on what. That history is what makes your next pitch to them sharper, and my crypto media relations guide covers how to build the list itself.

If your follow-ups keep disappearing into silence, book a 30-minute teardown and I'll look at the pitch, the list and the cadence with you.