Top 10 Media Pitching Tips

25 Aug Top 10 Media Pitching Tips

A great media pitch will grab attention, offer a brief explanation of a particular issue and entice journalists to tell your story. It is critical that PR practitioners craft a media pitch that is unique, engaging and relevant to the journalist and their audience. Here are our top “10 Media Pitching Tips” from the team at Double Edge PR:

1. Know your audience – research and establish ‘who’ audience is for the media that you are approaching – for example the readership for a glossy magazine will differ to the listeners of a radio talkback program.  Then, ensure your product or service is relevant to this audience, before crafting your pitch.
2. Know the media – research the media you are approaching to gain an understanding of what they have recently covered and what interests them. There is no point pitching in a story that has already been covered by the magazine/website/newspaper/blog recently, unless you have a strong ‘follow-on’ story to propose.
3. Get to the point  – write a brief and relevant introduction. Media are time poor and they don’t want to read slabs of writing before they get to the key purpose of your pitch.
4. Add value – provide research, sources, statistics/data, spokespeople, case studies, images, online videos and any other material that will assist your pitch. This assists the media when reviewing your pitch.
5. Make it newsworthy – if you can tie your client in with a current news hook it’s more likely to catch the attention of the journalist.  What makes your story relevant, right now?
6. Pitch the story not the product – unless you’re pitching in for inclusion on a product page, you need to have ideas about how your product or client can be covered by the journalist. You know the product better than the journalist and are more likely to come up with possible angles.
7. Deadlines matter – if you don’t know the deadline days for the media you are pitching to, you should check and even start the pitch conversation with ‘have you got time to talk now, or are you on deadline?’ If the media requests more content such as an interview or image, remember to ask them again for their deadline to ensure you meet their requirements.
8. Unique selling points – you should try and highlight what is new/different/better/unique/interesting/newsworthy about your product or service and why it deserves editorial consideration.  Every PR says their product is ‘better’ or ‘innovative’ so ensure you can back this up with ‘why’ and ‘how’ through supporting facts, awards etc.
9. Give clear calls to action – let reporters know what you’d like the next step to be once they’ve finished reading your pitch and provide the means to do so. For example, suggest that you will follow-up the pitch by phoning them in a couple of days or provide a timeframe for them for an ‘exclusive’ opportunity or interview availability.
10. Always include your contact details!