A Critical Decision Before You Pitch

Issue #1037 July 12, 2016
Publisher: Joan Stewart

“Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity”

In This Issue

1. A Critical Decision Before You Pitch
2. 125 #Hashtags for Every Day of the Week
3. Jumpstart Your Speaking Career
4. Hound Video of the Week

This Week in the Hound House:

I’m garden peeping this week in my little community, searching high and low for six new private gardens to feature on my garden club’s garden walk next near when I chair the event (am I nuts for volunteering???). Most homeowners who we ask turn us down. Others are honored. Saturday’s Garden Walk attracted 240 people and made $1,200 for horticulture scholarships.

1. A Critical Decision Before You Pitch

You have a clever idea for a guest blog post. Or a column you want to write for your industry magazine. Or a homemade video you want to share with your local TV station.

Before you pitch anything, ask yourself these two questions:

1. Who is my target audience? Know the demographics. Know their passions and interests. What makes them angry? What keeps them loyal? What do they need? What do they want?
2. What is my call to action? In other words, what should people do after they read your article or see your video? You must train them like puppies.

Without knowing your target market or call to action, you’ll be pitching the wrong media outlets and missing an opportunity to sneak your call to action into the coverage. A call to action might be something like leading people to your website where they can join your email list. Or sending them to YouTube to subscribe to your videos. Or asking them to “Call Today” for a free 15-minute consultation.

Those questions are the first of five important steps you must take to pitch correctly. On Thursday, July 14, I’ll walk you through the other four steps during a webinar I’m hosting from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Eastern Time. I’ll show you exactly how to create and target the perfect pitch that encourage people you’re pitching to say, “I’m interested. Tell me more.” I’ll also what word to never, ever use in a pitch–or you’re toast. For almost 40 years, including 20 years as a newspaper editor, I’ve been on the receiving end of thousands of pitches, most of them awful.
After the call, you’ll get a cheat sheet with 27 story angles you can steal on days when the idea well is dry.

To do: Register for “How to Pitch Your Story in 5 Easy Steps for a Publicity Homerun.” If the time is inconvenient, register anyway because you’ll receive the video replay and other materials within 72 hours.

2. #Hashtags for Every Day of the Week

If you want to use hashtags to make it easy for people to find your content, but you can’t think of a your own hashtag, you’ll love this tip from book marketing expert John Kremer.

John has compiled a list of 125 hashtags for every day of the week, to get you into the habit of posting content regularly, and using the appropriate hashtag.

Entries for Tuesday include: #FairTradeTuesday, #TakeMeBackTuesday (like #ThrowbackThursday), #TastyTuesday (food-related), #TastelessTuesday, #TipTuesday, #TongueOutTuesday (for photos of animals and humans with their tongues out), #TOT (TongueOutTuesday), #TransformationTuesday, #TravelTuesday, #TuesdayBoozeDay, #TuesdayTreat (freebies, fun stuff), #TuesdayTrivia, #TuesdayTunes, #TuneTuesday and #TwitterTuesday (follow recommendations for Tuesday, like #FF).

I can envision these being used by authors who write about transformation, cooking instructors and foodie bloggers, travel freelancers, bartenders and breweries, animal experts, speakers who speak to Boomer audiences, and more.

To do: Read John’s entire list of Hashtags for Every day of the Week. Notice how he used #Hashtags in the headline. IF you’re confused about hashtags and how to use them, take advantage of my half-off special for the webinar repaly “How to Use Hashtags: The New Search Tool.” It includes a checklist to follow when creating your own hashtag. Use the coupon code hashtag at check-out to save $24.97. Order here.

3. Thursday: Learn How to Pitch

Public speakers speak for free. Professional speakers get paid.

If you aren’t well known, you might be reluctant or embarrassed to ask for money. That’s a mistake.

Many companies, colleges and organizations have budgets to pay speakers like you handsomely, even if you’re not famous or well-known in your field. But you’d never know that unless you ask.

Join Steve Harrison and five other successful speakers–all authors–for a free telephone seminar this Thursday, July 14, at your choice of two times: 2 or 7 p.m. Eastern.

They’ll explain the five critical steps for landing speaking engagements, especially when you don’t have a lot of time to market yourself. Their tips include proven ways to brand yourself and your message in a way that will promote a flood of requests for speaking engagements, how to use LinkedIn to get more invitations to speak, and the topics that corporations and colleges are most interested in having speakers address.

To do: Register here. (This is an affiliate link. Even though the call is free, I earn a commission if you buy anything from Steve down the road.)           

4. Hound Video of the Week

Thanks to Publicity Hound Sophie Wajsman of Melbourne, Australia for this video of a dog doing a good deed for a sleeping baby.

[Tweet “RT @PublicityHound #PublicityTips — A Critical Decision Before You Pitch #PitchingtheMedia”]