The Art of Effective Pitching: Relevance & Relationship

We live in an age of information relevance - journalists are constantly fine tuning the content they provide for their respective audiences to deliver news and information that directly affects their readers.

Relevance is a word the Media Relations team at PR Newswire hears often during the conversations we have with hundreds of journalists each month. Journalists use words like “disappointed,” “baffled” and “aggravated” to describe their feelings about the lack of relevance in pitches they receive from PR professionals.

“I receive irrelevant pitches from time to time, and I agree with other journalists that this remains a problem in the PR industry,” said Derek Gale, Senior Editor, Hotels Magazine, Oak Brook, IL. “For journalists, there is nothing lazier than a PR person not doing the basic work of researching what specific publications cover.”

“We get hundreds and hundreds of things a day,” said Wendie Feinberg, managing editor of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. “We do a very focused program and our biggest problem is that people who pitch us have no idea what we do or have never seen one of our programs. It simply amazes me that PR people don’t take the time to learn about us and what we do before pitching us.”

Journalists are starting to fight back however, by blocking e-mail from PR people who purvey irrelevant pitches. ("Sorry PR People - You're Blocked" http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2007/10/sorry-pr-people.html). Feinberg uses a spam filter to block all email addresses from which she received an irrelevant pitch. “Once I send your email address into the spam filter you stay there,” she said. “Everyday I take email addresses and stick them in the spam filter and tell the system not to send me any more emails from that address.”

Relevant, thoughtful pitching will keep you out of the spam filters, and will increase the likelihood that journalists will consider your idea. Best practices include:

Doing your homework first
After you identify the outlets you want to pitch, browse their web site, read articles from past issues, request hard copies of back issues and read them cover to cover, download their media kits and editorial calendars, and watch or listen to past broadcasts. In short, familiarize yourself intimately with the outlets.

Cultivating the relationship
It is absolutely critical that you get to know the journalist before making a pitch, and the first step in building a relationship is an introduction. Make your first call to the journalist an introduction, not a pitch. “That is a phone call I rarely get, and one I would not hang up on,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg, a former PR executive for a telecom company, understands how difficult it is to get a story placed. “But I always made an effort to get to know the reporters I was pitching,” she said. “I traveled to newsrooms all over the state. I wasn’t pitching – I was building relationships.”

More than just pitching
While PR efforts focus on editorial coverage of a client’s news, Ed Silverman, editor of Pharmalot, (http://www.pharmalot.com/), a pharmaceutical industry news site owned by The Star-Ledger, said PR professionals can forge a solid relationship with journalists by making an effort to become a resource for journalists that goes beyond just pitching. Silverman writes about insights in the pharmaceutical industry – the effect of a new product on a company’s fortunes and FDA approvals.

“One of the key things I need is the opportunity to talk with more people inside the company,” said Silverman. “I want access to people who are immersed in the issue and want to talk about it. As an agency, you are in the unique position to deliver if you can get me on the phone with that person.

“But,” he cautions, “it only works if you deliver.” “It’s rare for me to have this source relationship with an agency but it’s one I would welcome having.”

Silverman advises that you lay the groundwork ahead of issuing the release. “Get the spokesperson set up before you issue the release,” he said. “This way when the release goes out, you have someone ready to talk about it. Not enough PR people lay the groundwork ahead of time, and I wish more would do that.”

You must invest time and effort into doing your homework and cultivating relationships before you pitch. By pitching journalists only relevant stories you not only increase your chances for pick up, but you also build credibility with journalists who will recognize you as a trusted resource they can depend on.