When you are doing your own PR it's very important to have a system in place to track all of your pitching outreach efforts. This way you can record who you are pitching now, who you are going to be pitching next, who is on your follow-up list and when you will be making additional outreach.

Here are four ways to track your PR efforts on a budget. They are all tactics we use to manage our media relations efforts for our clients, so they are tried and true. As simple as many may sound - they really do work!

1.Google Alerts - Set up Google Alerts for your business. Include several different alerts such as your company name, your top executives/leaders names, your competitors (where are they being featured?), as well as several relevant industry terms. For instance, if you are a fine lingerie company, set up Google Alerts for words such as bras, intimate apparel, corset, panties, sleepwear, shapewear, etc. This way you can keep on top of any news in your industry and about you and your brand. Also, set up Alerts for common misspellings of your business's name or your name too so you don't miss anything important.

2.Excel spreadsheet - Start an Excel spreadsheet media list to track all of your outreach efforts. You can have different tabs for each type of outlet - one for magazines, one for websites, one of local/regional media, etc. You could even set one up for editorial calendar postings that you find. Be sure to include the outlet, name, email, phone and any other relevant notes. Every time you communicate with someone make note of it in the "notes" column. Then, once a week or once a month (depending on timing of the outlet and your follow-up needs), go through each tab to be sure you are staying on top of it all.

3.Calendar reminders - This is one of my favorites to use in whatever calendar system you prefer - your phone, computer, another digital device or even an old school hand-written planner. If a reporter asked you to follow-up with them in a month or so after you sent a press release or pitch, set up a reminder or an alarm so when that day rolls around you are ready to go. The reporter will appreciate your organization and follow-through! You can also use your calendar reminders to remind you of pending coverage. So if the article isn't coming out until May 5 and today is March 1, then you can set a reminder to monitor for the coverage on May 5.

4.Drafts folder - One last way to remind yourself to follow-up with a reporter is draft the email and save it in your drafts folder of your inbox. Before you actually go to send be sure you proof in case there are changes in your follow-up, but I find this is a great "place" to store emails I need to remember to send.

These are just a few ways we like to stay organized and on top of our media outreach efforts. How do you track your PR efforts? Leave a comment and share your "tips" with other entrepreneurs!