Best Media Pitching Tips
Pitching to the media requires goals, a strategy, and good follow through. It’s not a linear process, and careful attention to detail can make all the difference. Embracing these nine media pitching tips will help you achieve your press and public relations goals.
- Know your audience. When pitching, it is imperative to know the person you’re talking to. Understand who they write for, what they write, and why your pitch is relevant to them. It’s also more effective if you can address specific pieces they’ve written and how that material is related to your story idea.
- Target specific media representatives. Avoid the mass pitch approach. It rarely works, and it can harm your reputation with the media. Instead, choose targeted representatives: people who write for your audience and in your industry. Focus on sending pitches and press releases to these individuals.
- Do your research. Before you send a pitch to any media representative, research them thoroughly. When is their story deadline? What information do they need from you? Have they written about your story idea before?
- Personalize it. If you know the reporter, have a mutual connection, or you’ve interacted online, then let them know that. Also, make sure to include some type of personalization in your pitch. Mention an article they wrote or a post on social media that is relevant and connected to your business and story idea.
- Build a relationship. Your pitch shouldn’t be your first communication with the media representative. Connect with targeted journalists, bloggers, and reporters online and start the process of relationship building. Social media provides a forum for these types of interactions.
- Have a community. A reporter is going to be much more interested in your pitch if you have a community of followers, customers, and prospects that are also interested. Building your online community takes time, so does building a relationship with the media. This process takes a bit of diligence and patience.
- Make sure it’s newsworthy. Before you consider pitching to anyone, make sure the information you are sharing is newsworthy. Often, that’s about creating some type of angle or hook. For example, your company website update isn’t newsworthy but the addition of a ‘donate to charity’ feature on your site, with proceeds going to the customer’s chosen organization, is newsworthy.
- Be professional. Being professional covers a lot of ground. It means respecting the journalist’s time and being succinct in your messages. It means giving them enough time to write the story before their, or your, deadline. It also means using appropriate language and communication.
- Accurate contact information. Make sure that you provide specific and accurate contact information. Include your name, telephone number, and email address. Also, include a link to your website and, if you have a media page, a link to that page or material as well.
Finally, make sure that your pitch is specific, succinct, and compelling. Creating a media pitch can take a little time. However, when you finally land that media coverage you’ve been seeking you’ll see that it was worth the effort.
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