Whether you're aiming for paid or earned media, you need to do your homework to determine whether a partner is the right fit for you and your company. When you choose a media outlet to pitch as part of your marketing efforts, do the research upfront to ensure they are the right fit for your products and services. When you research the publications or even blogs where you might want your portfolio to be featured, you can create a priority list of partners, and weed out those that are not a great fit for your brand.

When you start doing your research, determine who the readers are. If you have a strong, well-defined customer profile for your core customers, you can easily match up your customer profile to the reader profile of the media outlet that you want to target.