Are you creating the PERFECT PITCH?

When pitching the media, it can seem like a difficult to know and understand what they want and if they believe your pitch is newsworthy for their audience.  The media could be a television producer, magazine editor, blogger, newspaper editor, reporter or journalist.  They are the “gatekeepers” to your public.  You must ensure that you establish credibility and connections to build media relationships.  In today’s social media driven world, more and more of these “gatekeepers” get flooded with pitches everyday, so establishing a relationship and connection with them can definitely get your  pitch some attention.  Outside of the  “must haves,” such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and providing contact information,  here are some key elements to include to “create the perfect pitch!”

1.  WHY ARE YOU PITCHING TO ME?

The first words the media will see is your subject line.  Make it catchy to grab their attention and arouse their curiosity.  Find an interesting angle and do not mention the company name, yet.  Most times, you will be pitching a new client so they will not having any connection or knowledge to your client anyway.  Tell why their audience would be interested in your product or service.  Communicate your passion about the product or service.  In the first paragraph, get to the point and pitch your product or service.  You will lose the reader if you do not put the main reason of why you are pitching to them in the beginning of your letter.  Make the first sentence an extension of the subject line.  Also, do not make your pitch seem as though you are sending to a distribution list – they will automatically hit the DELETE button!

2.  THE FIVE W’s

As you learned in grade school, the 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, and Why) are important in letting a journalist receive the full picture of your pitch.  These are the basic elements of journalism and should not be taken for granted in a pitch.

3.  SHORT AND SNAPPY

The media gets bombarded with pitches and they still have to make time for their other journalistic duties.  So, as you can see, reading a long pitch will more than likely get ignored and/or deleted.  Like pitching in person, keep your pitch to no longer than three (3) minutes.  The same with email, keep it equally short with the most relevant information a journalist needs to show interest in your pitch.

4.  CALL TO ACTION

Be clear and to the point of what you are asking of the journalist.  After explaining your client’s product, service or situation, ask a question or set a clear action step.  If you want a journalist to consider reviewing your client’s product, offer a sample.   A pitch letter is designed to create a dialogue with one journalist.  Don’t sell your product, sell your story.

What are some other elements that have proven successful to you or you like to see in a pitch letter?  Share your thoughts!

WRITE PRESS RELEASES THAT DAZZLE

When a reporter is wowed, intrigued, surprised or captivated by your press release, you can be pretty sure you’ll get some media coverage. And for most businesses, positive media coverage is worth its weight in gold. The bad news: Although truckloads of news releases fill reporters inboxes every day, few of them are dazzling, or even interesting.

As a former editor, I speak from experience when I say that most press releases end up in the garbage can. But don’t let that stop you from sending them, a well-written news release can generate more publicity and goodwill than you could ever accomplish with a paid advertisement. To help keep your release out of the garbage and get it in print, start by following these five guidelines.

1. Make it newsworthy. Releases should be used to announce news, and they should only be sent when something truly newsworthy is happening at your company. Don’t send releases that sound more like advertisements than news; they’ll get tossed immediately. (However, newsworthy events may happen more often than you realize.)

In keeping with the news format, eliminate any superfluous language or outrageous claims (don’t describe yourself or your products as wonderful, amazing or unbelievable!). Is your release written in language that would appear in a story in the newspaper or magazine you’re pitching? If not, it might sound like fluff rather than news. Make it clear from the beginning what your news is and why it should matter to the reporter and his or her readers.

2. Tell a good story. Although you’re sharing hard news (I hope), your press release should still be interesting to read. Even though your readers are media-types who do this for a living, they still like to hear a good story. Draw in your readers with a creative introduction and interesting language. Find new ways to say ordinary things. Read magazines, newspapers and books and pay attention to the stories that interest you and keep your attention. Then try to mimic those techniques and styles when writing your own releases.

3. Target your audience. As with any writing project, keep your audience in mind when you’re writing. The editor of a small-town newspaper has different interests than the editor of a trade journal for CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Choose the media outlets that would be most interested in your release and send it to them. For best results, you might even send each person a unique version tailored to their interests. And always send your release to an actual person, rather than sending a release to a general news desk, find out which reporter covers your industry or the type of news you’re sending and send it directly to him or her.

4. Develop a relationship. Once you’ve located the reporters who cover your industry, start developing relationships with them. Call or e-mail to introduce yourself and find out if they prefer releases to be faxed, e-mailed or mailed. Be respectful of their time and the harried pace of their work, but don’t be afraid to check in occasionally to follow-up on a press release or let them know how much you enjoyed a recent article. Don’t just rely on them for free publicity; find out what you can do for them and do it one-sided relationships never last. Be easy to work with and willing to accommodate their needs, and they’ll be much more interested in covering your news.

5. Be consistent. Your communication with the media must be ongoing in order to get their attention. One release sent in a vacuum will probably not yield a lot of results. If reporters are unfamiliar with you or your business, it won’t be a top priority for them to cover your release. However, if they’re accustomed to receiving (actual) news from you and you’ve made an effort to forge a positive relationship with them (see #4), they’re more likely to a) actually read your releases, and b) publish them, or at least keep you in mind as a resource for future stories. If you really want to take advantage of the possibilities press releases can offer, keep hanging in there.

Copyright 2004 Nancy Jackson

How to Make Your PR Pitch Stand Out in Crowded Inboxes

Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day from public relations professionals. A lot of them may end up in the trash or get ignored, but many of them really, truly are used for stories. If that sounds surprising, you might be one of the PR professionals who is having trouble getting journalists to consider your pitches.

Just like a resume needs to stand out to a recruiter (especially in this economy), a pitch or press release needs to stand out to a journalist. But how can you do that? Let’s review some of the ways we’ve successfully gotten the attention of journalists over the years despite their jam-packed email inboxes.

Craft an Enticing Subject Line

The rules of email marketing apply to PR, too. The first thing journalists will see when they receive an email is the subject, and it may be the deciding factor in whether or not your pitch is opened, let alone read. You can use the subject line to offer the journalist something of value, ask them a question, or make a joke. But you’ve got to give them something more than “Company X Announcement.”

Include Visual Content in the Body

People love visual content, but it’s often ignored in press releases in lieu of the usual press release format. Be different, and include a video or picture that adds value to your pitch. Just make sure these add-ons don’t clog up their inbox, take too long to load, or render poorly on mobile devices.

Use Lists

A journalist should be able to scan through your pitch and quickly pick out the important information. Don’t be afraid to use bullet points and numbered lists. Reading through full sentences takes too much of a journalist’s time, and it is much easier for them to simply read through short phrases that explain the same thing in much fewer words.

Articulate Why the Pitch Matters

Tell journalists why your content is important. What makes it content that they simply cannot pass up? Is it a product launch? A strategic partnership? What about those things is going to rock their readers’ world? Make sure to visually highlight the “so what” of your announcement — whether by bolding, enlarging the text, or italicizing it — so the importance of the pitch is clear, concise, and obvious.

Show Knowledge of the Journalist and Publication

Blindly pitching a journalist without performing any background research is a bad move. Researching what they have written about in the past, who they have interviewed, and what types of articles they write about. It will help you personalize your pitch and grab the attention of a journalist who is constantly inundated with generic, often irrelevant pitches. This also helps you build a relationship that will make it easier for you to get your stories published in the future.

Keep it Short

Never send a long email with giant, text-dense paragraphs to a journalist as your pitch. It is acceptable to attach press releases with more details than your pitch for the journalist to read over, but a pitch will be ignored if, at first glance, it just looked like a brain dump. And remember, formatting is your best friend when trying to make text-heavy sections of your email more palatable for the reader.

Get Rid of Fluff

Journalists don’t have time for fluff. Flowery language is not helpful and should be saved for the story after it is written. Your pitch should get right to the point and provide only the absolutely necessary information.

Source – Rachel Spring, Hubspot Blog