Tag Archive for ‘pitch’ at PRactical Relations

Before sending out your press releases to the journalists in your media database, have you ever tried sending an introductory email to ask whether the journalist would in fact be interested in receiving the type of press releases and angles you have planned?

A PR professional named Scott Duehlmeier did just that when he sent a short, descriptive email to a well-known blogger, Chris Brogan, asking if Chris would be interested in receiving further emails with PR announcements from their clients.

Have a look at Scott’s email on Chris’ post “Great PR manners go a long way”. Chris refers to it as “a very polite, very personal-seeming opt-in letter”, which came across well because it was “human-sounding”.

Unfortunately, far too many journalists (and bloggers) are on the receiving end of the spray-and-pray press release distribution approach. Even though software can automatically enter the journalist’s name into the email, they can mostly tell that they’re part of a mass mailing, especially if it starts with “I thought you’d find this interesting”.

Nothing beats personalised, thoughtful communication if you want a good response from the journalists. Of course, if all you’re looking for is a long list of media contacts to tick off and show to your client, then you may need to revisit what your PR goals are.

For some great tips on how journalists like to be pitched to, sign up for this free media pitching tips email series. It’s full of advice on various PR-related topics from editors, producers and journalists across South Africa.

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I’ve just finished a phone call with an editor covering the marketing and media industry in South Africa. She received a press release this week from a PR practitioner where 60 email addresses were included in the recipient list, for all to see. 60! Naturally, the editor said that she didn’t bother to read any further, it was simply deleted without remorse.

Think of this from a journalist’s perspective. If you see that a media release has been sent to 20, 30 or 60 (gasp!) other people covering your beat and industry, what thoughts would possibly be going through your mind? Probably something like this: “if Sally, Susan and Peter are covering this, then why should I bother?”

Personalised and exclusive
A journalist will not use your media release if there is a chance that another competing magazine or newspaper will cover the same story, or at least the same angle of the story. That’s why journalists love exclusives. It gives them a chance to give their readers something unique, something that their target audience can’t read, hear or view anywhere else.

Many PR companies aim to get as much coverage as possible and will send the media release to as many people as possible (including those who left the publication two years ago). But if you’re employing the “spray-and-pray” method to achieve this, then you’re probably wondering why you get no coverage at all.

Well, now you know.

And don’t try the BCC tactic. Journalists receive enough emails every day to spot the personalised emails from the … well, let’s just call it what it is: PR spam.

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