Valley PR Blog

9 ways to avoid a pitch slap

By Dan Wool on November 24th, 2008 In Pitching

Pitching journalists is an art form. But, I’ll let you in on a secret – it’s “paint by numbers” if you provide exactly two things: consideration and customization.

Think about real life for a minute. One simple, always impressive thing to me is when someone I don’t know well remembers my name and something about me. “Hey Dan! How are Abigail and boys? You still playing soccer on weekends?”

They are being considerate and customizing their attention to me. That puts me in a positive, receptive frame of mind. More importantly, it builds trust.

Nothing changes when you pitch journalists – most of whom, we don’t know well — some not at all. You simply try to understand who they are and what they like and adapt your pitch. This isn’t hard, yet in the pursuit of results, results, results — or for lack of a clear strategy — most make rookie mistakes.

Here are nine ways to improve your success by being considerate and customizing your pitches:

It’s not about you or your client – it’s about the journalist. If you get journalists what they need, they’ll get you what you need – coverage.

Actually read the publication. Do your homework. How can you pitch a publication if you don’t know what they cover or how they cover it? You must have a sense of what the publication is like, who writes what, and what types of items get placement before you even consider pitching. There is no excuse. It takes one second to call up a website. Better yet, start an RSS folder for your campaign and put all relevant publication feeds in it – that makes it easy to stay on top of content, and if necessary, to react with a timely pitch.

Never pitch the editor. Pitch the journalist who will write your story. It’s better if they champion it. Your considerate pitch to the journalist turns into a considerate pitch by the writer to their editor and ultimately turns into a considerate story. Freelancers are even better champions: their payment depends on story approval. A good metaphor for how it works: Congress brings the bill for the President’s signature or veto.

Read the journalist’s recent material. Your job is to bring the right information to the right people. Figure out who to pitch and how to pitch them based on what they ordinarily write. You can even leverage this in your pitch. “I noticed you recently wrote about punk maternity clothes and Star Trek-inspired baby names. My client is a tattoo artist who makes hospital rounds to commemorate births.”

One pitch per outlet. Sending to multiple journalists at the same outlet is multiple kisses of death. Guess what? They talk to each other. Always pitch one at a time. If you get to the end of the line with someone, you can ask for that person’s suggestions.

Their time is short, so make your pitch short. Get right to the point (GRFP). A quick intro/lead, a few relevant bullets, and a way they can contact you is generally all you need. Leave details to subsequent conversations.

Make it exclusive. This does not mean you have to play favorites by giving one journalist material before another. It simply means to find the angle that is exclusive to the outlet, based on what they cover. Naturally, the Arizona Republic will be interested in different things than say, Marie Claire. Your job is to figure out those client nuances and make each come alive for the appropriate outlets.

Let the product/service speak for itself. Eliminate hype. Overhype screams overcompensation. It doesn’t communicate the desired enthusiasm; it communicates a lack of confidence. Stick to the relevant facts of the product and how they relate to the publication’s coverage and/or a journalist’s previous material. That’s all they need to know (see ’short’ above).

No form letters. Leave the spamming to the spammers. Your clients hired a PR strategist who can execute, not a fishing trawler. Blast emails and blind pitches are recipes for disaster. Every pitch should be custom. Every journalist is different, thus, so is every pitch. It is more work, but harder work always generates better results.

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