In this video, we're going to talk about the public relations pitch. I have heard the analogy, a pitches to a press release like a cover letter is to a resume. From our previous videos you know that a pitch is to quote, sell the story idea to the journalist a way of getting their attention. Journalists are busy and driven by deadlines. PR practitioners are using the press release and the pitch to tell their clients story. And we are trying to leverage the credibility of the news outlet and journalists. When the New York times or the Denver Post or Good Morning America or insert whatever media outlet here. When a media outlet covers a brand or company, the average consumer attach is the reputation and credibility of the media outlet to the news stories. So pitching is a strategy in and of itself. In this video, we're going to talk about the specifics of pitching media pitches are the best way to get your story heard. The environment is very competitive. So it's important that the pitch be newsworthy. We have already reviewed news values and talked about how to think like a reporter. Journalists create stories for their readers that are helpful and interesting. The key for PR practitioners is to think about what is interesting to the journalist readers. You want to develop the pitch from a journalist perspective, not from your own, it's not about you, remember, it's about the audience. The communication objective should also come into play. We don't just do media relations for the sake of publicity. The objective should tell us what we are trying to accomplish, given that there are different objectives when it comes to the media. Maybe our client needs to build awareness and relevance among audiences. So maybe then we go after brand mentions, press release or article syndication or placement in stock or financial news. High profile coverage is placement with great depth and usually places your client alongside other relevant brands for the purpose of comparison or exploring the industry as a whole. This type of coverage builds credibility and prominence. This could be contributed quotes or commentary data or roundups of product announcements. Then another type of coverage could be featured coverage. This requires significantly more time to produce and is far less frequent than other types of coverage. Feature coverage provides the greatest depth and focuses purely on your brand. This type of coverage builds authority this might be through similar outputs like brand mentions or article syndication, but at much more depth. Okay, so let's get into some specifics that you should know as a PR practitioner. First, you must do the research, let's say the intern has curated a media contact list for you now, it's time for strategy. You should research each journalist on the list and their media outlet. Get to know the stories that the outlet covers. Read some of the work of the journalist recent stories past stories, really try to understand what they cover and how they cover it that will inform your pitching strategy. You don't want to send the same pitch to a bunch of journalists, just copy paste, copy paste no, Instead every pitch should be personalized that is how you build relationships. No one likes to get a generic email, especially journalists, we want something from the journalists news coverage so we have to do the work. We need to package the story in a way that the journalist readers will be eager to unwrap. We also want to be aware of the journalists preferences for most journalists they prefer email pitches. Some like social media platforms like twitter, you should keep track of your pitches. Do not email the same pitch to multiple reporters at the same outlet that's a big no, no. Over time, you will learn the preferences of the journalists you work with but you also will be cultivating new relationships I want to briefly touch on twitter. This is such an important platform for PR practitioners. We talked about social listening in the value of monitoring your brand's reputation on social media platforms and that's definitely important. But as an individual, you should be on twitter, you can find influencers online and begin vetting them and building a relationship that will be valuable to your company or client. You can also be part of the conversation online when topics are trending by joining this conversation, you can influence how the story is being told. You can also network with journalists, PR practitioners, but also so many other potential stakeholders. I highly recommend joining and using twitter then a few resources that might be helpful in your media relations effort. We talked about help a reporter out or haro a great resource that connects journalists with experts. There are also some Facebook groups out there specifically for PR professionals like sharing ops PR friendly. This Facebook group is specifically for writers and PR professionals to share pitches, quotes, prices, etc. I would recommend seeking out a group like this. It may be beneficial to your efforts. The success of the pitch hinges on the newsworthiness of the story you want to write the story you want told. It's just important that you don't try to shove a square into a circle the pitch and press release or the story you are telling must fit with the journalist and the media outlet that's crucial. Otherwise your pitch is dead on arrival. You want to create a package that journalists can pull directly from so that might be high resolution photos, a media kit with exec bios accompanied fact sheet. Journalists expect the press release to be an outline of the story from there they take it to their editor. Remember the news making process in getting through the gate well, this is it. This slide is just adding emphasis to the research and planning part of the media relations strategy. Don't skip over it do the research. What is the audience interested in that is what you want to appeal to? We've talked through some of these tips before and by me including them again to pay attention. So do your homework on the journalists and the media outlet. You also should know if the media outlet or journalists you are pitching has ever covered the topic before. You want to know the date when that topic was covered and how that topic was covered. If the media outlet just covered a story similar to the one you are pitching just a week ago, then you might want to choose a different outlet. Remember news is supposed to be new. So unless you can add depth or more information to the story, don't try to pitch that particular outlet or journalist. You want to personalize every pitch you send it should read like you know the journalist to some extent meaning you know how to spell their name, you have read and are familiar with their work. The details here really do matter if you have not yet pitched a particular journalist, send a short introduction of yourself. And ask if the journalists would be cool with you sending over some high level bullet points of what your clients are working on. That may be a fit with their beat focus on pitching the story, not the product or the brand. You want to give a journalist a story idea that they can then turn into their own. You want to be concise in writing your pitch, so lead with the news peg or what the value the story brings to the outlet or to the audience. That's ultimately what the journalist is going to be looking for. So, lead with the news don't lead with your brand or with some fluff. You want to avoid attaching anything to your email instead include links, attachments, give off the impression of malware and you don't want to be deleted. In the next video, we'll talk about writing the pitch and the mechanics of getting it right.
