Marketing and PR Tactics | Pitching the Media
A large part of marketing success is usually measured in the success rate of media coverage or earned advertising. How does a company get that sort of coverage, though? Well, usually through pitching. Pitching is simply the title given to marketers and PR professionals sending out a “pitch”, which should be a targeted, informative, and relevant piece of literature that allows the media person being pitched to agree that the story is worth covering and featuring in their publication, blog, etc.
Here are a few tips to pitching:
- Avoid spamming people. You hate spam, right? Well, so does everyone else. If you think your news is the greatest piece of information that everyone needs to know, it most likely is not. (There are some exceptions, like a cure to cancer, or the abolition of nuclear weapons, but that’s usually dealt with by a PR firm or marketing professional who already has media connections. I digress.) Your news is only important to people who care about it. How do you know who cares about your news, you ask? It’s not that hard to figure out.
- Do your homework. This is the “finding out who your target market is” step. If you don’t know what your target market is, there are a few steps you should be taking before you ever think of pitching the media. Step 1: Go back to your marketing plan. Don’t have one? Create one.
- Find their sources of information. Once you’ve determined who your target market is, you can then figure out where they go for news, information, entertainment. What sites, blogs, publications, etc., do they frequent? Not sure? Look at the publications you have in mind to see who they define their target market as. You can probably go so far as to ask them what their target market is, or who they feel is their main consumer. If you’re still at a loss, look at forums, message boards, other bloggers; evaluate what they talk about and see where they go for more of their information.
- Write a targeted pitch. Just finding the right publication to pitch is not enough. You have to find the right person who writes on your industry and would be interested in your story. Identify them in your pitch, and make it clear that you know what they’re enjoy writing (or simply write) on, and describe why your story would be a good fit. This ensures that what you send is indeed not spam.
Overall, remember to take into consideration their deadlines and time frames. There is no better way to be inconsiderate (and often moved to the trash) than ignoring what their publication calendar looks like (there are editorial calendars for bigger publications that are available to the public; for more information on editorial calendars, check out Public Relations Tools | What is an Editorial Calendar?.) This shows a great lack of respect and indicates that you very much find yourself more important than the person you’re contacting. Try to avoid doing this.
What are some tips you have for pitching? What have your successes been?
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