Getting Links From Local Press and the Chamber of Commerce
Short answer: local press and chamber of commerce links are some of the most valuable ones a small cafe can earn, precisely because they are specific and human rather than generic and automated. The work is not complicated, but it is a routine, not a one time email. Find the right people, offer something genuinely worth covering, follow up once, and track what happened, in that order, for press, then chambers, then tourism boards.
Most owners already know their weekly paper, their chamber and possibly a local tourism board exist. What stops them from ever reaching out is a fear of sounding pushy or like they are asking for a favor they have not earned. That fear is understandable and mostly unnecessary. A chamber's entire purpose is connecting with local businesses like yours, and a local reporter's entire purpose is finding real, local stories, which your cafe can genuinely be if the pitch is honest.
Start With the Chamber, Because It Is the Easiest Yes
A chamber of commerce membership is usually the lowest effort, highest certainty item on this list. Most chambers publish clear membership and listing requirements directly on their own site, an application, some basic business information, and typically an annual commitment. Prices vary widely, so check the chamber's own submission page before assuming anything about cost or ruling it out.
Once you are a member, most chamber directories link back to member websites from their own listing pages. Whether that link is treated as a fully weighted one or carries a nofollow or sponsored attribute varies by chamber and by how their website is built, and an owner curious about a specific chamber can check this directly by viewing the page's source code and searching for the word rel next to the link. Either way, a real chamber directory listing is a genuine, disclosed, earned mention from an organization with an actual ongoing reason to list local businesses, which is exactly the kind of link worth having regardless of its technical attributes.
Tourism boards and visitor bureaus work on a similar pattern to chambers. Most maintain some kind of eat and drink or local business directory aimed at visitors, and getting listed usually means filling out basic business information through their own submission process. A tourism board listing is useful to an actual visitor planning a trip, independent of anything to do with search rankings, which is exactly the quality that makes it worth pursuing on its own terms.
It is worth treating chamber and tourism listings as a starting point rather than a finish line. Once you are listed, many of these organizations also run their own newsletters, social accounts, or seasonal guides that pull from their member directory for additional coverage, a featured member spotlight, a seasonal roundup of local spots to visit. Being a member in good standing, responsive to their occasional requests for information or photos, tends to be what puts a business in position for that kind of extra mention when the organization is looking for one.
Building Your Target List
Before pitching anyone, build a short list specific to your own town. Search for your city's name alongside terms like local news coffee, chamber of commerce members, and visitors bureau eat drink, in a private browsing window so results are not skewed by your own search history. Note which sites accept outside submissions or story pitches, which run a member directory, and which appear to be actively maintained rather than abandoned.
This list does not need to be long to be useful. Most towns, even small ones, have at least one local paper or news site, one chamber of commerce, and often some form of tourism or visitors organization. That is a realistic starting list of three organizations, each with its own submission process, its own audience, and its own reason to potentially mention a real local cafe.
Keep the list simple: organization name, type, contact method, whether they mention cost anywhere on their own page, and whether their listings appear to link back to member sites. You do not need to record a price if one is mentioned, only whether cost is part of their process at all, since that affects how you plan your approach.
It helps to sort this list roughly by effort once it is built. A chamber or tourism board application is usually the fastest item to complete, since the process is defined and waiting for you on their own site. A press pitch takes more thought since it depends on finding a genuine angle rather than simply filling out a form. Working through the list in that order, easiest first, gives you quick, early wins that build momentum before you tackle the harder, more judgment dependent press outreach.
Two Honest Pitch Angles
A pitch works best when it is honest about being a pitch, and when it is actually newsworthy rather than purely promotional. Two angles tend to work reliably for a small cafe without requiring anything invented or exaggerated.
The first angle is something new and specific: a new location, a new roaster relationship, a renovation, a milestone anniversary. This works because it is time sensitive, a reporter or chamber newsletter has a real reason to cover it now rather than at some vague future point, and it gives the piece a natural angle beyond just existing as a business.
The second angle is something connected to the wider community: participation in a local event, a partnership with another local organization, a seasonal offering tied to something happening in town anyway. This works because it ties your cafe to something the outlet or organization already cares about covering, rather than asking them to cover your business purely on its own merits.
Test any pitch idea against five quick questions before sending it. Is it new. Is it local, specific to this town rather than something any cafe anywhere could claim. Is it visual, something a photographer or reader can actually picture. Is it timely, tied to something happening soon rather than open ended. Is it easy to verify, a real date, a real detail, nothing that requires taking your word for it. A pitch that answers yes to most of these is worth sending.
It is worth being honest with yourself about the ideas that fail this test too. A pitch built entirely around your coffee being good, with nothing new, local, visual, timely, or verifiable attached to it, is not really a story, it is an opinion, and most outlets will pass on it regardless of how true it is. Save that kind of message for your own social accounts, where opinion and personality carry the post, and reserve outside pitches for the moments that have a real hook attached.
How to Actually Reach Out
Keep the first message short. State who you are, what the news or connection is, in two or three sentences, and offer to answer questions or provide a photo. A long, over explained pitch is easy to skim past. A short, specific one with an obvious reason to exist gets read.
Address it to an actual person where possible rather than a generic inbox, and check whether the outlet or organization has a stated preference for how pitches should be submitted, many do, right on their own site. Following a stated process, rather than guessing at a workaround, is a small courtesy that tends to get noticed.
For a chamber or tourism board, the reach out often looks less like a press pitch and more like a straightforward application through their existing membership or listing process. There is usually less persuasion involved and more simply following the steps they have already laid out for exactly this purpose.
One small detail worth double checking before you send anything: make sure your basic business information, current hours, correct address, working phone number, is accurate wherever you plan to point a reporter or organization. A pitch that succeeds and results in a mention only to have a reader show up to outdated hours or a wrong address undoes some of the value the mention was meant to create in the first place.
Following Up Once, and Only Once
If you have not heard back after a reasonable window, generally a week or two for a press pitch, following up once is normal and expected, not pushy. Keep the follow up even shorter than the original message, a single line checking whether the earlier note came through, with no added pressure.
After that single follow up, let it go. A reporter or chamber contact who does not respond to two messages is very unlikely to respond to a third, and repeated follow ups risk turning a neutral non response into an actively negative impression. There will be another opportunity, another event, another angle, and a patient, professional approach this time makes the next attempt easier, not harder.
A Simple Tracker
You do not need software for this. A simple list with five columns is enough: organization name, date contacted, what you pitched, response received yes or no, and outcome. Update it as things happen rather than trying to reconstruct it later from memory.
This tracker does two things. It keeps you from accidentally pitching the same organization the same angle twice, and it shows you, over time, which kinds of pitches get a response from your specific town's outlets and organizations, information no general guide like this one can hand you, because it depends entirely on your own local relationships.
Revisit the tracker every few months rather than only after a single outreach round. Organizations change contacts, chambers run new programs, tourism boards refresh their seasonal guides, and a list that goes stale after one attempt misses opportunities that show up later. Treat outreach as an ongoing, low effort habit rather than a single campaign you finish once and never return to.
Why This Matters More Than It Might Seem
Across more than 1,000 independent specialty coffee shops in six regions, checked September 15, 2026, 926 have no blog content at all, roughly 84 percent. For a shop in that position, a genuine local news mention or chamber listing may be close to the only editorial page anywhere describing the business in its own right, since the shop has not yet built any owned content of its own to fill that role.
That context does not mean press and chamber links are a replacement for having your own website content. It means they carry real weight for shops that do not yet have much else, and they remain worth pursuing even for shops that do, since a genuine third party mention says something a shop's own site never quite can, that someone independent decided this business was worth telling people about.
It is also worth saying plainly what this post is not claiming. This is not a promise that any specific pitch will result in coverage, or that any specific chamber or tourism board application will be accepted, or that a link earned this way carries a specific, quantifiable ranking benefit. What it offers is a routine that puts you in front of the right people with something real to say, which is the most any owner can control directly. What happens after that depends on factors outside your control, an editor's schedule, a chamber's current focus, and that is true of every outreach effort regardless of how well it is planned.
A Realistic First Round
For a first attempt at this whole routine, a realistic scope is one chamber application, one tourism board submission if your town has one, and a single, well considered press pitch built around whatever genuine news your cafe has right now. That is a manageable first round rather than an overwhelming project, and it gives you real experience with the process before deciding how much further effort to put into it going forward.
Once that first round is complete, the tracker described above tells you where to focus next. An organization that responded quickly and positively is worth returning to with a future pitch when you have something new to share. One that never responded may simply need a different angle, a different contact, or more time before trying again.
Related Reading
More from Hillcane on this topic, plus the pages on the site that sit next to the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get local press coverage for my cafe?
Build a short list of local outlets, find a real, honest angle, something new like an opening or milestone, or something tied to the wider community like an event partnership, and send a short pitch to an actual person where possible. Follow up once after a reasonable window, then let it go. Track what you send and what happens so you learn what works for your specific town.
Do chamber of commerce links help?
A genuine chamber of commerce membership listing is a disclosed, earned mention from an organization with an actual ongoing reason to list local businesses, which makes it a meaningful kind of link regardless of its specific technical attributes. Whether the link carries a nofollow or sponsored attribute varies by chamber and can be checked directly by viewing the page's source code.
What should I pitch to a local reporter?
Two angles tend to work for a small cafe. One is something new and time sensitive: a new location, a new roaster relationship, a renovation or a milestone anniversary. The other ties the cafe to the wider community: an event, a partnership with a local organization, or a seasonal offering linked to something happening in town. Test each idea against five questions: is it new, local, visual, timely and easy to verify. A pitch built only on good coffee is an opinion, not a story.
How many times should I follow up if I don't hear back?
Once, after a reasonable window, generally a week or two for a press pitch. Keep the follow up shorter than the original, a single line checking whether the earlier message came through, with no added pressure. After that, let it go; a contact who ignores two messages is unlikely to answer a third, and repeated nudges can turn a neutral silence into a negative impression. Log the date and outcome in your five column tracker and try a new angle later.
Does a tourism board listing require a fee?
This varies by organization, and this post publishes no cost figures. Check the tourism board's own submission page, and record in your target list whether cost is mentioned at all, not the amount. Most visitors bureaus keep an eat and drink or local business directory aimed at visitors, filled through a basic information form. A listing like that helps a real visitor planning a trip, and some boards also pull members into seasonal guides or newsletters.
How many cafes have no other online content besides listings like these?
Across more than 1,000 independent specialty coffee shops in six regions, checked September 15, 2026, 926 have no blog content at all, roughly 84 percent. For a shop in that position, a genuine chamber or press mention may be close to the only editorial page describing the business, since it has not yet built owned content of its own.
Do chamber and tourism directory links pass ranking credit?
This varies by how each organization's website is built, and it should be checked directly rather than assumed. What makes these links worth pursuing regardless is that they represent a genuine, independent decision by a real local organization to mention your business, which is valuable to actual visitors and members whether or not the specific link carries full ranking weight.
What should I track after reaching out?
A simple list with five columns: organization name, date contacted, what you pitched, whether you got a response, and the outcome. Update it as things happen rather than reconstructing it from memory. It prevents pitching the same angle to the same outlet twice, and over time it shows which kinds of pitches your own town's outlets answer. Revisit it every few months, since contacts change, chambers launch new programs and tourism boards refresh their seasonal guides.
Should I pitch the chamber the same way I pitch a reporter?
No. A chamber or tourism board reach out is usually closer to completing an application through their membership or listing process, often an application, basic business information and an annual commitment, than to persuading a reporter. Follow the steps they already publish. It is typically the fastest item on your list, so do it first for an early win. Once listed, staying responsive to requests for photos or details can lead to a member spotlight or seasonal roundup.
What makes a pitch honest rather than purely promotional?
A pitch stays honest when it leads with something newsworthy, new, local, visual, timely, easy to verify, rather than simply asking for coverage because you exist. Being upfront that you are reaching out with a specific, real update, rather than disguising a promotional ask as something else, tends to be received better by both reporters and chamber contacts.
Work with Hillcane
You do not need to sound like a salesperson to ask your local paper or chamber for a mention. Here is a repeatable routine that does not depend on being pushy.
If you want help building your own local press and chamber outreach list, reach Hillcane at hillcane.co/contact or call (256) 384-2449.
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