One of the biggest complaints you’ll hear from a journalist is the amount of worthless pitches that litter their email box.
Yet, time and again, when a Publicity Hound shares with me a success story about a big media hit they got, and I ask them how they did it, the response often is, “I emailed the reporter.”
Why is it that journalists are responding to other people’s email pitches, but not to yours?
Because the other pitches:
–Stop journalists in their tracks with a “sticky” subject line of six words or less.
–Make each journalist think the pitch was written only for him or her when, in fact, the person pitching sent an identical or similar pitch to dozens of other journalists. With a little tweaking, the pitch looks like it was created only for a specific newspaper or magazine.
–Press an editorial hot button by using magic words and key phrases that entice the journalist to keep reading. For example, the email pitch might mention a tie-in to a breaking news event.
–Made it past numerous spam filters and avoided getting blacklisted. (Admit it. Do you really know how many journalists actually received you email pitches?)
–Were delivered to the journalist’s iPhone, Treo or Blackberry. A journalist, for example, read the pitch while he was on assignment waiting to interview somebody else. The other PR person happened to catch the reporter at a good time when he had a few minutes to catch up on email. Your pitch, on the other hand, was among hundreds of others in his email box back at the office.
–Were void of the specific words and phrases that turn off journalists and make them hit the “delete” key. (One of those words, by the way, is “publicity.”)
–Included an enticing follow-up email. (How many times have you followed up, with no success?)
On Thursday, John Byrne, the executive editor of BusinessWeek (circ. 971,756), and Kate Carlisle, managing editor of the Washington Post/Los Angeles Times News Service, will join two PR people and share their easy-to-apply, practical ideas for writing powerful, compelling subject lines and body copy that will help you escape the pitch-reject trap.
You can listen in and even ask questions during this 90-minute teleseminar, at 1 p.m. Eastern Time, sponsored by Bulldog Reporter. It’s ideal for PR agencies because multiple people can attend for one price. You can even ask questions.
Bulldog Reporter is hosting the 90-minute conference. Read more about what you’ll learn at http://tinyurl.com/3az7vy
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