While researching several stories this week, I’ve been so surprised at how difficult many brands make it to get in touch with either their own marketing person or PR team. To all those brands, I ask: Why have a web presence at all if you’re not going to provide a way for people to get in touch with you? The DM feature on social media platforms is not enough, either. 

Here are a few examples of this:

• A trendy craft ice cream shop that contained zero contact information on its website or social media pages, who responded to my Facebook private message that they would not accept journalist requests through email or phone, only in-person

• An international food brand that contained zero contact information online, who I proceeded to message on Twitter and be refused a contact—only that the mysterious person (or robot) behind the DM would share my information and they’d “respond if interested” (they never did)

• Multiple companies that use form submissions only on their websites, which automatically generate a “we’ll respond if interested” email to you that never actually gets looked at by a real person

• Countless hotel websites, both for large chains and boutique properties, that have no way to get in touch and don’t respond to messages on social media (global contacts for press often don’t respond to emails)

• Press releases with no media contact listed at the bottom

Each of these situations left me flabbergasted. It should not be this hard for writers to figure out how to contact companies. I use a service called Hunter to track down email addresses (pro tip!) but in many cases, even this feature doesn’t work on websites that don’t contain contact information. If I spend more than 15 minutes trying to track down an actual person to reach out to about a product or service, and come up with nothing, I’m likely going to move on to something else.

As an industry, I think we are not doing a good enough job of educating brands on why they need publicists and how journalists—and organic media placements—can help them grow their business. That’s why my No. 1 recommendation for PR teams when they get new clients is to ask to have a contact email (that will go directly to them) listed on their client’s website. It’s the simplest tweak, but it could help you land so many more inquiries from journalists, without any more work on your part.

Tell me: Am I off base here? Are your clients resistant to having an email for their PR team listed on their website or social media pages? Are PR teams ever behind answering DMs for brands? I’d love to know—please tell me below!