How To Articles

How to Pitch the Media

Having your company, executive, or product or service appear in a publication is great marketing. When you appear in news stories, not only are you reaching prospective customers, but you'll also have reprints or links that you can point prospects to later on, showing that your company has legitimacy. To get your business covered in the news, however, you need to reach journalists and pique their interests. That all starts with a pitch.

Start the process by laying some groundwork if possible. Try to position yourself or your company as an expert among your particular niche. You can do this through public speaking or doing some writing for trade publications. You could also become more involved with organizations and associations in your industry. However you decide to go about it, establishing your credentials before you pitch will go a long way.

Now you need to create the actual pitch for the story you want. Here is where many small business owners stumble. They tend to be so enamored with their company, product or service that they forget to step outside the box and administer the all-important ?who cares? test. Because of their size and status it?s often difficult for small businesses to pass the ?who cares? test in the eyes of many journalists. That?s why the best route for most small businesses is to find a way to fit in with a bigger story. Search for ways in which your company, product or service might be able to cling to the coattails of a wider trend or currently hot story. Remember that the job of a journalist is to inform readers not promote businesses, so frame your pitches as such and don?t expect a feature story all the time, if ever.

Another way to add value to your pitch is to supplement it with a human element. Make journalists aware of how real customers use and feel about your product or service. Tell them you'd be willing to arrange interviews with real customers or provide written case studies if need be. Either way, adding the human element will make it much easier for journalists to write about your company.

Now that you know what you want to say, here are a few tips you should keep in mind regarding the pitching process.

1. Know newsroom deadlines.
   You don't want to send a monthly magazine a pitch two days before it goes to print. There's no way your story will get covered. Know when the publications print (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.) and what they're exact deadlines are. To get this information you can look online or call the news outlet directly.


2. Pitch the right people.
   Journalists hate being bombarded with pitches that have little or no relevance to what they actually cover. From a numbers standpoint you may think that more is better, but blasting out a ridiculous number of pitches isn't going to get you covered. Instead it's going to get you blacklisted. So do your homework and build a highly accurate, up-to-date media list.


3. Tailor your pitches.
   Don't? just write one generic pitch that gets sent to everyone. Journalists can see right through that. Instead have one general idea that can be tailored to each journalist. Let them know that you've read/heard/seen their work, that you understand the subject matter that they cover, and how your company, product or service fits into that.


4. When in doubt, email your pitches.
   Not all journalists like to receive their pitches the same way. Some like to receive phone calls, while still others prefer regular mail (although that?s very rare these days). The vast majority, however, prefer to receive their pitches via email. Journalists are very busy people and would rather deal with pitches when it's convenient for them.


5. Don?t send email attachments.
   Even if it's a press release, send everything in plain text. Journalists don't like to open attachments, whether they're from companies they know or don't know. If you have supplemental materials, just explain that you have them and would be willing to send them in a subsequent email upon request.