Consistency, Common Sense and Quality (Ring, Ring)
“Media relations” is not clever ideas sent via e-mail blast to a crap-load of reporters. Again: media relations is not clever ideas sent via e-mail blast to a crap-load of reporters.
You must pick up the phone.
Yes, I know, I know. Journalists say—or at least their voicemails do—“I prefer to be pitched via e-mail” or “if you’re calling to pitch a story, it is best to send it by e-mail.” And, yes, you need to respect their request and send pitches via e-mail, but you also need to get them on the phone. 1. Because your pitch may be lost in the hundreds of e-mails they receive daily (especially if you’re new to the industry), and 2. Your pitch will only get better by talking to members of the audience you’re trying to reach!
After you send a pitch via e-mail, call to follow up…not to leave a voicemail, but to reach the journalist. If you don’t get him / her, call again and call again and call again. After a few tries, leave a voicemail, but use common sense. Would you want to listen to a five-minute story pitch on your voicemail? No. So…
“I’m Kelly. I’m calling to follow up with you about a story pitch I sent you on xx date at yy time about zz subject. I’d like to confirm you received it and answer any questions you may have. If you can respond to my e-mail to let me you know you received it, I’d really appreciate it, or feel free to call me with any questions (phone number).
Then, forward the original e-mail to them and advise, “I just left a voicemail for you regarding this story pitch. I want to make sure you received my original message. I know you are busy; I just want to confirm. Thank you.”
Some have simply responded, “got it. thanks.” Many times, however, I’ve gotten several returned calls (and / or e-mail responses) from journalists who were not upset by my voicemail at all, but actually wanted to discuss my client and pitch. Why? I called them about a topic that interested them. I’ve even had some journalists call back to let me know they never received my e-mail, but want to, and provide me with an updated e-mail address. Others have thanked me because they “meant to follow up” on the pitch and my call was a reminder.
The combination of consistency, common sense and quality information has lead to success and interviews for clients over the years, and it will continue to do so. But, tread carefully when it comes to voicemails. Don’t assume your pitch is something a journalist will want to talk about just because you wrote it (no offense). Be SURE it’s information they WANT to hear before you leave a voicemail. Do not abuse this tool; it will only make a defensive journalist offensive.
As your years of experience in the PR world stack up, more and more journalists and editors will come to know who you are and who you represent. If you’re new to the industry, give it time and a little elbow grease; your hard work will pay off over time. Pitching will become less time-consuming, and you will come to know key journalists and build relationships with them. Then, when you only have to call or e-mail once to talk about a story, you’ll know your work has been worth the effort.
Do you have pitch suggestions and tips you’d like to share? If so, comment below.
Knowing the column or the show intimately makes all the difference in the world. Knowing when is the right and wrong time to call could be the one most important thing people don’t get in the “smile and dial” industry of ours. But making “crap-load” of calls is a given. Stinks. But a given. Is that a technical expression over at your shop?
Pitching is always time consuming. Plan for that in your day.
I like “crap-load” of calls. What a glamorous life it is.
Sounds like my day.
All I know is that if you don’t pound those phones, very little actually happens. My impression is that pr people have a great excuse for why they could not place a story today. There has always been heavy news and breaking news. Fact is, we have a lot more places to go today than ever before. But we have to make the calls. Good tips.
Keep good notes and follow up must be perfectly timed.
R. Toth, totally agree! There’s nothing quite like calling a reporter on a deadline is there. LOL. Andrea, totally agree! And, setting reminders within Outlook is super-helpful.
Time management and thick skin. And a creative department like this place seems to have. Was looking through your press rooms. There’s some seriously brilliant concepts in there. But I bet every one of them was “pitched” hard. I have three questions after going through your press rooms:
1) Who comes up with these idea’s?
2) I don’t care how smart they are, how do you get so much ink and air time?
3) Don’t ask us, tell us how to be like this company is?
A little jealous. Very cool concepting here for what seems like a very long stretch of time. Compliments to the company and this blog. Now you tell us what the secret is.
You walk a very, very fine line and better know something about the person you are calling. But no call. No placement. Outlook is helpful for reminders.
I assume this advice is for a person in the first five to eight years of this time sucking life draining got no life career. It’s more simple. Pitch it until you book it or lose your job. All the rest are window dressing details. And for the first five years, don’t stop calling. When you do,it’s only because you lost your nerve or confidence and they smell fear. You can call it a career and go complain about the next one.
Sorry you feel that way about pr as a career Mary. Sound a little bitter to me. This is fundamentally good practical advice. And I for one love pr and always have. I’m quite pleased to have a job that I work hard at.
I certainly agree. I’m happy to have a good job that I like. Very happy to have stumbled on this blog. I’ve read about this company before and this blog and the company website are fabulous.
1) Be brief or be gone: Keep it short and to the point. In fact the subject line of your email should tell the story. Create a compelling subject line and follow that up with a short 2-3 sentence pitch in your email.
2) Relevance and target: I can’t say this enough. Pitch the right person and pitch topical stuff. If you aren’t sure who to pitch look up the show or ask the person answering the phone.
3) Tie-ins: What does your topic have to do with? A calendar date? Holiday? Local event? Tie ins are important, if you have one make sure the media is aware of it.
4) Visuals: What sort of visuals do you have? If your topic is crafting, cooking, painting, sculpting, or even something related to history visuals are always important. These can be props and/or B-roll which is an industry term meaning footage that rolls during your interview. Rarely will an interview be all-you focused. Viewers don’t respond well to talking heads so props, B-roll and anything else you can add that will enhance your interview is a great way to dress up your interview.
5) Responsiveness: thanks to instant access to everything (a la Twitter and blogs) the media response time has shrunk. You must get back to media right away and respond to emails they send immediately (or as fast as you can). In fact it’s not a bad idea to set up a special email account for media pitches that you know you’ll have access to all the time. That way you can check it and don’t have to worry about sifting through the hundreds of other emails and spam you got.
Here’s what Juan Williams from NPR says:
http://www.ragan.com/ME2/Sites/Default.asp?SiteID=2DE73B54303942C4AC9E7EC3867DBF9E&Itemplay=3B3E2E9C1AFB43179C0B6101938B8574
Penny…great advice. Dead on…. And, thanks to james for sharing that video. Excellent way to think about PR.
* Pitch Formula: “Is/Are ________ getting more ________ than
you are? ____ things you can do to turn the tide now”
And here’s a couple of examples of how you might apply it:
Show Pitch: “Are your kids getting more attention from your
spouse than you? 3 things you can do to turn the tide now”
Show Pitch: “Is your dog getting more rewards than you are?
5 things you can do to turn the tide now”
I like to call this the “get-even” formula. People hate it when
someone else is getting more of something than they are and they
are always anxious to learn how to even the score.
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