Crafting the perfect media pitch can be one of the most daunting tasks a public relations professional can face.
Whether it’s a journalist you’ve worked with for years, or a brand-new reporter that you’re reaching out to, you have to choose every word carefully, and make sure you’re putting the most compelling story forward.
It is, after all, what we do as PR pros, so our reputations depend on our success.
Before we continue, let’s remember that a strategic public relations pro does a lot more than media relations to bring value and results for a company – see our previous blog: Ditch The “Do you do…” Approach
But media relations is a critical part of our skillset, helping to generate awareness, establish relationships with key stakeholders, and get our messages out to our key audiences.
We spend our entire careers establishing relationships and working hand-in-hand with media outlets, so for something that should seem so easy, it’s a really difficult thing to do.
For everyone trying to find the perfect media pitch, here are 5 tips to make them effective and produce results:
1. Know Your Audience: even if you’ve worked with a reporter for years, do your homework on what they’ve been reporting on, what social media channels they are engaged in, and any personal updates. Pay close attention to how they want to be contacted. Some prefer email, some like text, and some even prefer to be hit up on Instagram. Many times you’ll find this info in their social bios, but social media makes it much easier to get these details, so start digging in.
2. Get Specific: Forget the shotgun method of sending a press release or pitch to dozens or hundreds of reporters (yes, I’ve seen hundreds of journalists copied on email pitches before, and it’s scary). That’s a surefire way to get your pitch tossed out without a glance. Your pitch should be specific to each reporter, their interests, and they audiences they write for. You don’t like spam, and neither do they, so make it personal, relevant and meaningful.
3. Your Hook: this is the crutch of your story pitch, so make it timely and relevant to the journalist, and their audiences. If it has zero impact on who their audiences are, and no relevancy to them as a journalist (or a person), they won’t cover it and you risk harming your reputation. Check out our previous blog on creating the perfect hook for your story.
4. BLUF – bottom line up front: Call it the inverted pyramid approach, or the BLUF approach (especially if you’re military), but be respectful of their time and get to your hook early! Show them the value of covering this story and why it’s important to their readers, viewers and audiences.
5. Follow Up: journalists are busy chasing down leads, creating content, writing stories, or producing digital content for their channels, so don’t hassle them about your story. Be respectful in your follow up after a couple of days, and if need be, move on to the next reporter or story idea.
As you’re drafting your media pitches, here are some recent blogs to help guide your planning:
– Don’t Let Perfect Be The Enemy Of Effective
– Wake Up. Kick Ass. Repeat.
– Why Owned Media Is Vital In Your Communications Mix
– How to Create Content That Engages Audiences and Builds Brand Trust Quickly
– 7 Tips to Measure Your Strategic Communications Campaigns
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