4 Mistakes People Make When Preparing a Media Pitch
Press and public relations are often the most complicated marketing strategy to plan and implement. Unfortunately, it often gets the least amount of time and attention. This leads to mistakes, shortcuts, and unfortunately it can ruin your chances with the media. Let’s take a look at the top four mistakes people make when preparing a media pitch.
Mistake #1 Bad Research
You’re setting yourself up for failure if you don’t research your media representative, and the company they write for, before you pitch your story idea or press release to them. When you’re pitching to the media, one of the first things that you want to do is to make sure you’re pitching to someone who might actually care. This means knowing what types of stories they cover, what industry and niche they prefer, and what type of information they usually like for their stories.
Mistake #2 No Clear Understanding of Your Goal
It’s important that you know what you want to accomplish with your release before you begin a media pitch – even before you write your press release. Before you pick up the phone or send an email, make sure you know what you want to accomplish. What are your goals for the release? How does the story, and media coverage of it, help you achieve your goals? Understanding what you want to accomplish will help you have clearer, and perhaps more convincing, communication with your media rep.
Mistake #3 Sending a Template Pitch
It’s easy to work with a template, right? You plug in the keywords and names that you need and you’re good to go. Templates make life much simpler. However, they also produce lackluster results. When reaching out to build a relationship with the media, it’s important to personalize not only your communications, but also your goals. Some media channels can have a different impact on your press and public relations goals than others. And a media representative can spot a template pitch a mile away. Woo them. Know what they like and use your pitch as a starting point to build a relationship. The media are good people to have as friends and associates.
Mistake #4 Not Following Up
So you send a pitch and then what…You just wait for the media rep to respond, right? Wrong. Make sure that you put it on your calendar to follow up, and then actually do that. Don’t wait more than a week or so to reach out and re-connect. In fact, it’s a great idea to tell the media representative when and how you plan on following up.
For example, “I’ll follow up with you next Wednesday to see if you have any questions or concerns. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me.” When you do follow-up, you’ll send the groundwork as a reliable source.
These four mistakes are easy to avoid. Create a clear-cut media strategy. Identify a key person to implement the strategy and track your results. You don’t have to pitch to 100 media representatives when one quality pitch to the right person may get you the results you need.
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