PR Tips for Pitching Media

If you’re looking to garner attention from traditional media - newspapers, radio, magazines, TV, podcasts and digital publications – you’ve got to have a strong pitch game. Journalists can get upwards of 100 pitches day. By taking the following tips into account, you will hopefully avoid getting lost in the shuffle. 

1. Personalize your pitches

Get to know your contacts and personalize your pitches - make sure your ideas are always worthy of a journalists’ time. These days, media are operating with limited resources so if you want to get noticed, you need to pitch to the specific journalist/media contact. It’s also helpful to keep in mind what type of hours they work so that you’re pitching when they’re in the office, ideally towards the start of their day.

2. Be concise

Since media have a plethora of pitches to sift through, keep yours brief and to the point. Avoid using filler words like "happy" or "thrilled" - this will help keep your pitch concise. Make the reader of your pitch focus on the content of your story and try to hook them early so they don’t click delete.

3. Include multimedia assets

Include stimulating visuals in your pitch. Journalists tend to prioritize pitches with photos and videos that further explain your story. Be conscious of the size of any photo(s) you include in the body of the email – you don’t want to deal with bounce backs. Hyperlinks are useful so that you email appears clean and concise, but you can still direct the reader to corresponding visuals.

4. Use the news cycle to your advantage

If there’s a topic in the current news cycle, or a season/holiday that you can connect your business or expertise to, make sure to point that out. Media love a timely tie-in!

Grabbing the attention of a busy journalist – who’s being pulled in several directions - is half the battle, but don’t be discouraged if you don’t hear back right away. Media are extremely busy and if they’re working on time-sensitive stories, your pitch might have to wait. You want to remain top of mind though, so send a follow up in a couple days if it’s time-sensitive or a week if it’s not, and don’t forget to include one new bit of information that could potentially help seal the deal.