{"id":9066,"date":"2018-11-27T21:33:52","date_gmt":"2018-11-27T21:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/?p=9066"},"modified":"2024-05-01T19:48:09","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T19:48:09","slug":"pitching-4-types-of-killer-subject-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/tips-of-the-week\/pitching-4-types-of-killer-subject-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitching? 4 Types of Killer Subject Lines"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\">Issue #1279 Nov. 27,\u00a02018<br \/>\nPublisher: Joan Stewart<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center\">&#8220;Tips, Tricks and Tools for Free Publicity&#8221;<\/h2>\n<h3><strong>In This Issue<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Pitching? 4 Types of Killer Subject Lines<\/li>\n<li>Ban These PR Buzzwords<\/li>\n<li>Event Reminders<\/li>\n<li>Hound\u00a0Video\u00a0of the Week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong>This Week in the Hound House:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m nursing a bad cold that started last week. I&#8217;m guessing I caught it from the germ-infested poles I touched while riding on the horses at my twin great-nieces&#8217; third birthday party at a carousel in Ohio the weekend before. I always turn to Fisherman&#8217;s Friend, the world&#8217;s best cough drops, usually available at Walgreen&#8217;s, Rite-aid and, of course, Amazon.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\">1. Pitching? 4 Types of Killer Subject Lines<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9071 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/Emaili-image-with-finger-on-at-sign.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"213\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can spend hours writing the perfect pitch for a top-tier media outlet where you want publicity.<\/p>\n<p>But the recipients won&#8217;t open it unless it has a compelling subject line that implies, &#8220;Click here and open this NOW.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fractl, a content marketing agency, analyzed the results of 150 successful PR email pitches from its senior media relations supervisors during the first quarter of 2018. Every pitch resulted in diverse, high-authority placements from newspapers like the L.A. Times and Washington Post to sites like Bustle, the giant online magazine for millennial women.<\/p>\n<p>They analyzed every detail in every pitch. Here are the four types of subject lines they found:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;The Statistic-based subject line that can be used for content that features unique date. Example:\u201c85% of writers open a pitch based on the subject line alone\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;The Information Gap subject line, which arouses curiosity. Example: &#8220;Find out which subject line has the best CTR.&#8221; (CTR stands for click-through rate.)<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;The Content Title subject line that explains immediately what the pitch is about. Example: Analysis of 150 Successful Pitches Reveals the Best Way to Write a Subject Line\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;The Personalized subject line. It has nothing to do with the content of your email. It&#8217;s based entirely on personal information you learn about the journalist&#8217;s digital footprint, great for media outlets that receive hundreds of pitches a day from people who are too lazy to research the journalists they&#8217;re pitching. Example: &#8220;I too love rainy day Black Mirror Netflix binges.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This study makes for fascinating reading because it&#8217;s the most thorough analysis of email pitches I&#8217;ve seen anywhere. Can you guess which one-word closing was used in more than half of the successful pitches?<\/p>\n<p><strong>To do:<\/strong> Find out by reading <strong>Domenica D&#8217;Ottavio&#8217;s<\/strong> article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semrush.com\/blog\/what-150-successful-pitches-can-teach-you-about-securing-top-tier-press\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;What 150 Successful PR Pitches Can Teach You About Securing Top-Tier Press.&#8221;<\/a> A doggy treat for <strong>BL Ochman<\/strong> of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whatsnextblog.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">What&#8217;s Next? Blog<\/a> for this one.<\/p>\n<p>#ContentMarketing #EmailMarketing<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: left\">2. Ban These PR Buzzwords<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9070 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/stop-buzzwords.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"160\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m guilty of using buzzwords, especially when I&#8217;m in a hurry. I bet you are too.<\/p>\n<p>How about if we promise each other to edit our copy more closely, especially PR materials, and find substitutes for the uninspiring words on the list compiled by <strong>Dorothy Crenshaw<\/strong> of Crenshaw Communications? It includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Incredibly. It&#8217;s meaningless.<\/li>\n<li>Leading. It&#8217;s a weasel word that often appears in the first line of a press release or on an &#8220;About Us&#8221; page.<\/li>\n<li>Lean in. It seemed cool when <strong>Sheryl Sandberg<\/strong> started using it. Within months, it became a cliche.<\/li>\n<li>Game-changing. What game does it change? And how?<\/li>\n<li>Curated. Better to say hand-picked or carefully chosen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>To do:<\/strong> Read her entire list, and check out the comment I wrote at the bottom about three variations of an overused verb that dilutes press releases. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ragan.com\/are-these-putrid-pr-buzzwords-polluting-your-pitches\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Are these putrid PR buzzwords polluting your pitches?&#8221;\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>#Buzzwords #PR<\/p>\n<h3>3. Event Reminders<\/h3>\n<p>Two events I don&#8217;t want you to miss:<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;The Dec. 5 luncheon sponsored by The Publicity Club of Chicago is a perfect opportunity to meet five print and broadcast journalists from WGN Radio, WLS-AM, Crain&#8217;s Chicago Business, Chicago Magazine, and WVON. They will discuss the PR blunders of 2018, PR campaigns that scored big, and PR trends on the horizon. I&#8217;ve attended several luncheons by this group and they&#8217;re excellent. Learn more and register <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicity.org\/news-events\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Authors, speakers and experts who want to hear shortcuts on how to become a highly-paid speaker, should join a free teleconference at <strong>2 or 7 p.m. tomorrow&#8211;Wednesday, Nov. 28<\/strong>&#8211;sponsored by <strong>Steve Harrison.<\/strong> He will interview six top speakers who will share their best tips on how to get paid very well to speak, whether you&#8217;re presenting at corporations, associations, university, churches or women&#8217;s conferences. For example, they recommend that you set your speaking fee at $3,000 minimum even if you&#8217;re starting out. Register for <a href=\"https:\/\/m164.infusionsoft.com\/go\/stc0215\/A10011\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;How to Become a Highly-Paid Speaker As Quickly As Possible &#8211; Especially If You&#8217;re Not Yet Famous&#8221;<\/a> using this affiliate link.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Hound\u00a0Video of the Week<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-9069 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/tips\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/11\/whiskey.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" \/><\/p>\n<p>If you missed the <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/_SlhB1euxxo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Dog Show<\/a> this year, on Thanksgiving Day, here are the seven finalists. And the winner is&#8230;<\/p>\n[Tweet &#8220;#PublicityTips &#8212; Pitching? 4 Types of Killer Subject Lines #ContentMarketing&#8221;]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h2>The Publicity Hound&#8217;s Tips of the Week<\/h2>\n<h3>&#8211; Issue #1279 Nov. 27, 2018<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Pitching? 4 Types of Killer Subject Lines\n<\/li>\n<li>Ban These PR Buzzwords<\/li>\n<li>Event Reminders<\/li>\n<li>Hound Video of the Week<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/tips-of-the-week\/pitching-4-types-of-killer-subject-lines\/\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"rmlink\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":5,"wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[265,318,548],"class_list":{"0":"post-9066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tips-of-the-week","8":"tag-content-marketing","9":"tag-email-marketing","10":"tag-media-marketing","11":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}