After recently attending a PR Brisbane event revealing the “secrets” on how to develop and execute the perfect pitch it, became abundantly clear that there is no one way to perform the perfect pitch – every single journalist and publication is different!
It’s not earth shattering news but it’s something we need to remind ourselves – each pitch should be tackled differently and you need to know your media, you need to understand the person you’re pitching to.
For example when asked “so just exactly when would you prefer to be pitched to” I received a whole range of different answers. TV journos like to be called at 7am (yep 7AM) before their morning meeting, community press journos like to be called well in advance (1-2 weeks) of a story so they have time to set up photos and interview sources and daily news journos want to be taken out for lunch and schmoozed – any excuse to get away from their desk!
A very interesting point to note was always pitch to your local community press first. If the story is run by a community/local newspaper, it can then be picked up by major media outlets, but not the other way around.
When it comes to journalist’s pet peeves every expert on the panel brought up easily avoided issues. For example; know who you’re pitching to (Margaret Gee’s is archaic do NOT use it), don’t pitch without an image or visual idea and, the age old dilemma; make sure your pitch is relevant! I know it might sound simple but don’t pitch a story about fashion to the health editor – they will bite your head off down the phone and rightly so!
Some other great tips:
- Understand deadlines – before you contact any journalist check their deadline date. If you call them during deadline, even if it was a story about Lady Gaga helping sick kids, they will NOT be impressed.
- Know the publication’s audience – e.g. female grocery buyers targeted for afternoon news and community press.
- Pictures are news, sell your story with pictures!
- Always include a phone number on your release
- Befriend the cameraman/photographer – always ensure adequate parking is available and they will love you forever
- Sell a story, not the brand – sounds simple but you would be surprised how many PR’s still miss this point.
Working in consumer focused PR has its benefits – we have the ability to adjust to each to medium and learn many different pitching styles. Whether it’s pitching the launch of a new restaurant to a food editor, a celeb appearance to socials or a road safety story to the local news, there’s a prescribed method and you need to know how the journalists prefer to work in order to get your story across the line. PR is about relationships – to put it simply if you don’t know your media then you don’t have a chance.
Tweet me at @danni_redpr with any tips or pitching advice you have picked up along the way OR better still, tell me if you think I’ve got it wrong – look forward to continuing the conversation!
