How To Create A Perfect PR Pitch: Why Less Is More


October 4, 2012 Leave a comment

You need to believe that you have a compelling story if you’re going to pitch yourself or your company to the media.  But, and this as they say is a big “but”, when launching a media relations campaign, always keep in mind that less is more.  The more succinct and to the point your pitch is, the better your chances of having your story featured in the media.  The truth is that writers, editors and producers are generally so busy that the less information they have to read, the better the chances that they’ll actually read it.  Hone your story down before you start to send it out.   Make sure your information is concise, to the point and compelling.  Make sure that it addresses the media’s needs.  Keep in mind that the media wants stories not facts or information. Use facts and information to support your story. And, once again, keep focusing on the mantra that less is more.  The ironic truth is that most journalists don’t have much time to read your information.  They are busy trying to do get their work done.  You’re not going to help them, or yourself, by sending out a three or four page press release.  You might find the release and the information compelling, but all a journalist is going to see is information overkill.

Remember effective PR is not about being verbose or long winded.  It’s about presenting stories that are compelling, transformational, informational and entertaining.  I know, that’s a tall order.  The bottom line is that it all comes down to the story.  Does your story connect with the media?  Is your press release interesting, entertaining, exciting?  Will your story angles and your approach meet the media’s needs?  If not, take a breather and start over.  Don’t send out information simply in order to feel like you’re moving forward.  Action does not necessarily equal results.  If you have a pitch or release that is filled with facts, statistics and information, but doesn’t tell a story.  Don’t let it leave your home or office.  Start again from a different perspective.  Put yourself in the place of the media outlets you’re going to be pitching.  If you were that editor, producer or journalist, what story, angle or approach would grab your attention?  And come up with a story idea that will grab their attention.  What type of pitch or approach would meet the needs or grab the interest of their readers, viewers or listeners?

When launching a public relations campaign, your  job is not to sell a product service or even yourself.  Your  job is to present to the media a compelling story that they will want to run with.  Your pitch doesn’t have to be completely unique or original; most any pitch can work, if it’s presented the right way.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Whaling, Heather. “How to Take your PR Pitches to the Next Level.” Photo. Mashable. 3 Mar 2012. 4 October 2012. <http://mashable.com/2012/03/03/better-social-media-pitches/>

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Secrets to Launching A Successful PR Campaign

September 27, 2012 Leave a comment

From a PR perspective, perhaps the biggest lesson I learned from being a magazine editor was that a story is only a good story if it meets the media’s needs.  For example, I’d receive hundreds of pitches from public relations representatives and publicists and although a number of the pitches were good, I’d say no to most of them.  Why?  They didn’t meet my reader’s needs.  They might have been great story ideas, but if they didn’t resonate with my readers and my particular target market, I wasn’t interested.  So how does this apply to you?  When pitching your story to the media you have to understand that you need to tailor your pitch to each particular media outlet.  You need to be able to make that editor, writer or producer understand why the story you’re pitching is perfect for him or her.  To succeed, it’s important that you develop a number of different angles to pitch to the various TV shows, magazines and newspapers.  Each media outlet has its particular needs and interests. For example, if you want to successfully place a story, don’t send the exact same pitch to the Wall Street Journal that you you’re sending to Ladies Home Journal or Maxim.  You could pitch the same basic story to each of those, but you’d definitely need a different pitch, angle, or approach.  The primary secret to implementing a successful public relations campaign is to tailor your pitches so that they meet the various needs of each outlet you’re approaching. It’s important to develop a number of different angles to present to the various media outlets. Make sure your pitches are appropriate.  Don’t pitch a finance writer a sports story.  You might have a great story, but it won’t work.  Unless, and here’s where modifying your pitch comes in, you can pitch a story on sports and finance and how you can address that topic.

Start by developing your main story.  That will serve as your framework, your overall structure.   Now modify the pitch so that you can target each media outlet magazine.  You might just need to tweak your pitch a bit to meet the needs of the various outlets.  It doesn’t generally require a major overhaul. Don’t always focus on the obvious story.  Study the various angles and approaches.  For example, is there a trend story you can connect your product or service to? Is there a transformational story you can tell? What is your business angle? How about a holiday story or a seasonal angle?  There are a number of approaches you can take to creating different angles and pitches.

Study the media you’re pitching; understand their needs and the type of stories they run.  Develop compelling pitches that meet their needs and you’re set to launch an effective PR campaign.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

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Isn’t Public Relations Only For National Exposure?

July 9, 2012 Leave a comment

My general rule of thumb is to never use the word only when referring to public relations.  For example, statements such as: public relations is only for celebrities, or PR is only for major corporations, or PR is only for national exposure are all incorrect statements.  Yet, most people have a tendency to think about PR in that type of only perspective.  Which is why there are so many misconceptions around what PR is and how media relations works.  Those type of onlys tend to shut people down and often lead business owners and entrepreneurs to make the wrong marketing decisions.

So they miss out on finding new ways to establish their business, bring in more clients, make more money and build their brand.  For example let’s take the statement that PR is only for national exposure.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  There are a number of ways businesses can local marketing exposure for national companies is one of the most overlooked areas of opportunity. Local exposure for businesses that provide products and services only in a designated local geographical area generally have an abundance of exposure opportunities available to them.

The truth is that PR, like a car, can be used for a multiple of reasons.  If you’d never bought a car and you heard that they were only for celebrities, or only for professional race car drivers, or only for the owners of large corporations, you’d think twice before buying, but think of what you’d be missing. There are myriad reasons that people buy cars. Some drivers only want a car for local transportation, others cover long distances, some carry equipment and are used for work, others are high end or turbo charged; it all depends on the driver and his or her needs.  And the same is true when it comes to launching a public relations campaign.  Your primary focus might be local or national, or a blend of the two; your aim might be to build your business, or bring in more clients, or establish yourself as an expert in your field, or establish your brand.  All of those are legitimate goals that can be accomplished via PR, publicity and media relations.

PR is perfect for start ups, small businesses, huge corporations, artists, celebrities, physicians… you can pretty much fill in the blank.  It is a form of marketing that you can utilize to meet your particular business and marketing needs.

So figure out what your marketing goals are.  What is your target market?  Who is your audience?   Who are your clients and customers?  Once you know your objectives you can develop a public relations campaign custom made for you and your business.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

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PR & Marketing Brainstorming Tips – Part 2

June 25, 2012 Leave a comment

To begin, set up a session to review all of your media hooks and possible PR ideas.  They can be obvious, or they can be crazy.  You don’t have to use all of these, but you do want to push yourself, use outside of the box thinking and let your creativity run wild.  Once you’ve created a list of possible ideas, the next step is to review which ideas are your strongest, which have a chance of gaining you and your company media coverage.  Now start thinking like the media.  Let’s say you’re an editor or a producer; which of the stories you’ve come up with would be the most appealing.  How and why will those ideas work?  Now drill down even further, which ideas will work specifically as TV pitches?  TV is a visual medium; you want to present stories that offer more than just a talking head.  When pitching TV, think in terms of the strongest visual stories you can present.  Now think in terms of radio, what type of story ideas would work best there?  Next, do the same type of exercise with print media and social media.

Finally, start segmenting the media.  Different media outlets have different needs.  You need to keep that in mind when pitching and presenting your story ideas.  This is where most stories meet their doom.  You need to not only pitch great story ideas, you need to pitch stories that a particular journalist who writes for a very specific target market understands.  For example you might come up with a great pitch idea that you could present to women’s magazine, men’s magazine and general interest magazines, but how you pitch your story to each particular outlet  is going to decide whether the media is going to cover it or not.  That’s why you want to spend time brainstorming practicing how to build those media bridges.

Remember your PR hooks and media pitches need to meet the needs of the various magazines, newspapers, radio shows, and internet sites that you’re targeting.  You could have a great story, but if you pitch it to the wrong media outlet, it won’t get you very far.  Effective PR comes down to effective story telling. Take time to brainstorm and develop your stories.  It will be time well spent.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Brown, Ronald. “Innovation- Idea-Light bulb.” Photo. Mashable. 22 Jun 2012. 25 Jun 2012. <http://mashable.com/2012/06/22/measure-product-viability-agile-time/>

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PR & Marketing Brainstorming Tips – Part 1

June 21, 2012 Leave a comment

Before you launch a PR, social media or marketing campaign, you want to make sure that you’ve outlined your objectives, reviewed your marketing approaches and thoroughly mined your PR stories.  One of the best ways to do this is to set up a marketing brainstorming session.  To start, sit down and make a list of objectives that you want to achieve before starting the process.  You don’t want to limit your ideas, but you do want to define the objectives you’re setting out to accomplish.  When it comes to brainstorming your PR and marketing strategies, your goal is to come up with a list of the ideas and approaches that will best serve you, including new business concepts, the unique value you offer, important information you offer your clients, and anecdotal stories that illustrate how you  work.  I also suggest spending some time focusing on how and why you can be presented as an expert in your overall field.

This type of brainstorming is generally best done as a group process.  I know that if you’re working on a start up, chances are you’re wearing several hats, but if you have others on your team, bring them in.  For example, set up a marketing- brainstorming session with your PR consultant, or, if you’re doing this in-house, meet with members of your staff.  If you’re a one man, or one woman show, bring together some friends or associates who understand your business.  You want people you can bounce ideas off.  You want feedback, plus you want shared enthusiasm and energy.  Make it fun; make it a game, but one with a purpose.

When you do set up a brainstorming session, allow everyone involved to speak freely.  Set up an agenda but let the information flow.  Think out of the box.  Be creative.  Remember you don’t have to use all of these ideas but the deeper you drill down, the better the chances of mining some real marketing gold, so let the ideas fly.  Let yourself banter about marketing, social media and PR ideas.  Even if these are ideas you might never use.  You never know, those might actually turn out to lead you to some golden PR nuggets.

Make a marketing list and break it down into marketing, public relations and social media.  Now see how many ideas you can place in each list.  For example, when it comes to social media, what are some unique Twitter, Facebook or Google+ approaches that you can take?  How can you present yourself and most successfully engage with others?   In the PR realm what are some different stories that you could pitch to the media?  These ideas can be about your product or service, but they also might be about your journey as an entrepreneur, or they might be stories about how you’ve impacted others.  Each one of those stories can speak to a different target audience.

In the second part of the brainstorming tips I’ll be focusing primarily on social media and traditional media relations, but the brainstorming basics remain the same, step out of the box, let go of any preconceived ideas and let your creativity soar.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

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The Oscar Race is On & Hollywood’s Media Machines Rev Up

January 28, 2012 Leave a comment

Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo,” came away with eleven Academy Award nominations, and “The Artist,” which won the Golden Globes received ten.  The two films, which are both about the bygone days of film making, head the list of best picture Oscar contenders announced Tuesday.  Ironically there is a belief in Hollywood that films about films, particularly films about film making are doomed to die at the box-office.  If true, at least this year they’d do so in style.

It’s interesting to sense the difference between the Golden Globes and the Oscars.  As one well known film critic recently put it, the Golden Globes are so much fun, because they really don’t matter.  The sense is that people go to the Globes to see and be seen, party, have fun, say things you’d never say at the Academy Awards and possibly help create a bit of a media buzz for your film.   The Golden Globes is a PR vehicle.  A feel good party where the winners hope to influence the Oscar voters.

The Academy Awards remain the main event.  This will always remain the award the public views as the golden ring in the film business and it’s hard to tell the influence that the other awards have on the Oscars.

The best picture category is an interesting one with heavy hitter Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse,” going against, among others, Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris.”  Allen’s film hit a chord this year, and could result in an (all is truly forgiven) embrace from the Academy.  Perhaps the most interesting inclusion is Terrence Malick’s (either love it or hate it) “The Tree of Life;” but it’s good to know mystics can climb the Hollywood heights.

Superstars Brad Pitt and George Clooney go head to head in the best actor category with Pitts’s “Moneyball” and Clooney’s “The Descendants” garnering a number of awards.  Those two are where the glitz and glamour is, but that’s not always where the awards go.

The best actress category includes Meryl Streep’s performance as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady” and Michelle Williams’ role as movie legend Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn.”  It’s always a gamble bringing an icon to the screen, but in both cases the gamble paid off.

Now that the nominees have been named, the Hollywood movie machine media relations blitz goes into high gear.  From here to the awards date the publicity and media campaigns run 24/7.  Public relations, and some subtle and often not so subtle arm twisting are the staples of race to the Oscar.  As long as Harvey Weinstein is involved in the race, it will be interesting.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

Seib, Al. “Plaster Oscar statuettes used for rehearsals.” Photo. The Envelope. Jan. 2012. 27, Jan. 2012.                                                  <http://theenvelope.latimes.com/news/la-env-oscars-winners-nominees-scorecard-2012,0,2535525.htmlstory&gt;

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Politics and the Death of the English Language. How Moderate Turned Bad:

January 12, 2012 Leave a comment

One definition of moderate in Webster’s Dictionary is:   “kept within due bounds; observing reasonable limits; not excessive, extreme, violent, or rigorous; limited; restrained”.  From this definition, moderate would seem to be a positive attribute.  Some synononyms are: reasonable, sensible, and judicious.  Sounds like a good thing, eh?  Well, think again, the language is shifting.  From the attacks that rival Republicans are mounting on Mitt Romney, moderate is now a dirty word.  A few years ago, a politician would have been praised for being moderate, now he or she is being accused of it.   Who knows?  Maybe this is just the start of the dismantling of the English language.  Next election one of the slings and arrows that may well be volleyed by rivals will be that they have the audacity to be reasonable.  Another word bites the dust.   

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012


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The Reason Why: Facts Tell, Stories Sell

January 9, 2012 Leave a comment

People love stories.  Stories are how we communicate.  Storytellers are revered in many cultures, and in the western world the writers and directors of films and TV are generally quite well paid both financially and status-wise.  Stories are our currency of communication, yet when it comes to marketing, most businesses forget about the story and focus on the facts.  By doing that they lose the impact that a compelling story brings.

PR and media relations is all about effective storytelling.  For example, when launching a public relations campaign for a physician, I realize that what’s going to benefit him or her the most is not to primarily focus on their credentials and medical savvy, but to emphasize impactful and compelling patient stories   A tale of how a patient went from pain and suffering to living a healthy fulfilling life is one that we can connect with.  It’s much more compelling to tell a vivid and compelling patient’s story, than to explain exactly how a particular procedure or medication technically worked.

People identify with the patient, not the physician; they commiserate and root for him or her.  They’re emotionally involved in the story from beginning to end, particularly if the story somehow personally affects them or someone they know.  If the time comes when they need to seek out the services of a physician who works in that field, guess who they’ll most likely turn to?  You got it; they’re going to want the doctor who helped turn that patient’s life around in the story they heard.

Facts and figures are great.  They give us information and they help give credibility.  But facts and figures alone will seldom result in a sale.  A laundry list of facts offers very little call to action.  And even if a fact list does inherently have a call to action, chances are there is no emotional resonance to it.  The information may be factual, but, unlike a story it is not always emotionally believable.   Stories are evocative; they bypass thought and go directly to feeling.  They shoot past the cynical adult and go right towards the child in each of us.

It’s the story that awakens interest.  For example, when we launch a PR campaign for beauty products spas or beauty salons, our focus is not on the ingredients that the products contain, or precisely how a procedure is performed, or the exact technique that a particular stylist uses; our emphasis is on how the client looks, feels and changes when using that product, going to that spa, or visiting that hairstylist.   Our focus is on how the client’s life is transformed.

The personal journey in the story told might be major or less dramatic, but it is the transformation that will affect the reader or viewer, or listener.  Just as in real estate the saying goes that it’s location, location, location, in promotion, marketing and PR, it’s the story, the story, the story.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2012

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Successful PR Pitch Examples

November 10, 2011 Leave a comment

The media wants stories.  Producers and editors want journeys that offer a strong narrative, something that will capture the public’s attention.

There are hard and soft news stories.  Unless your story is timely and generally relates to a breaking news story, chances are your pitch is going to fall in the soft news category.  Hard news stories cover such topics as a war zone, or a political race or a natural disaster; soft news focuses on human interest oriented stories, such as a new technology product, or a story on a disabled runner participating in a marathon.  The following are some media stories we pitched that worked.  Each illustrates a different way of landing a story.

1) We worked with one client who was down to her last few dollars.  She had developed some fashion-oriented products.  It took some time, but they began to sell.   She made it through the rough patch, built her business into a million dollar enterprise and created an amazing story that resonated with both the media and the public.  Stories on her and her products, boosted sales, but they also gave entrepreneurs, particularly female entrepreneurs hope.  This is a “yes you can” type of story that gets people excited about what the human spirit can accomplish.

2) We also placed a story on acupuncture facelifts.  This was a more fun upbeat story.  It combined health and beauty, offered TV a good visual and offered the acupuncturist an opportunity to discuss some of the other more health-oriented acupuncture treatments she offered.  Unlike traditional facelifts the procedure was non invasive and made for a good TV segment.

3) There was also a story where grade school kids from a local elementary school “adopted” seniors who were living at an assisted living facility.  This was a feel good story about kids giving to seniors and shattering the age barrier.  It offered some good visuals, but also made for a good print feature story.

4) Still another revolved around a cosmetic company that made a product that camouflaged tattoos.  We placed stories on how grooms use the product at their weddings and prospective employees use it at job interviews.   This offered great visuals and allowed us to tailor the pitches to the specific media outlets we were approaching.

These generally fall into the soft news category.  The following is one that is more in the hard news arena:

5) We pitched a story about a physician who was working on clinical trials for a new treatment for pancreatic cancer.  The hospital was looking for people to participate in the trials.  The stories reviewed what the treatment entailed and the type of trials they were running.

Public relations can be the least expensive and most effective means of getting your message to the public, policy makers and  investors . But to be effective you need to recognize what a good story is and then create news stories related to your work that appeal to the media and the public.  So study the media, learn the types of stories they run and pitch them accordingly.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

 

 

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Creating The Perfect Holiday PR Pitch: Tapping Into The Billion $ Spending Season

October 28, 2011 Leave a comment

The holiday season represents a huge opportunity when in comes to selling your product or service.  According to the National Retail Federation, “in 2010, holiday sales increased 5.2% to $452.9 billion, which was a significant improvement from the -0.4% decrease in 2009. On average, holiday sales have increased 2.6% per year for the last 10 years.  For some retailers, the holiday season can represent anywhere between 25-40% of annual sales. In 2010, holiday sales represented 19.4% of total retail industry sales.”

And that’s just retail.  Just about any business or service can utilize the holidays to boost sales.  We generally think of the season boosting sales of clothing, jewelry or electronics, which is does, but those are just the obvious ones.  Think about it, if you’re a florist, what better way to make the holidays cheerier.  If you’re a psychotherapist, there is help for the holiday blues.  If hairstylist, cosmetic surgeon or make up artist, you can help create a new look for the new year.  If you’re a restaurateur you can offer the perfect holiday meal. If you’re a marketer or business advisor, there is no better time to prepare for the new year, you get the idea.  If you’re in the FBI or CIA, the pitch might be a bit more troublesome, but overall, generally there is going to be a way that you can pitch your business, product or service during the holiday season.

I realize that you might feel that the commercialization of the holiday season has gone too far (and you’re right), still the last quarter of the year presents unique opportunities to get your story out to the media, your customers and your prospects.   The holiday season is a time when people loosen their purse strings and spend money.  It’s a time when people spend on others and themselves.  It’s also a time when the media is looking for story ideas with holiday themed gift guides and a stories having to do with holiday gifts, gadgets and products.

What you need to do is drill down and develop story ideas that speak to the needs of the various media outlets.  Remember during this time you need to tie your media angle and pitch to the holidays and you need to keep the needs of the various media outlets you’re pitching in mind.  TV is a visual medium, so you want to pitch them a visual hook.  If you have a product that you can bring on and show, that helps, or if you do a quick makeover that that could work.  Print needs a strong story.  If you can tie your product in with a cause, charity or local angle, that can give you a step up.

My next, and final, holiday-oriented PR article will review some specific pitch ideas you can create and use to garner press coverage during the holiday season.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

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The Value of Online Press Releases

September 30, 2011 Leave a comment

Online press releases are a bit like ants at a picnic.  They are everywhere and can be a bit annoying.  Whereas they do have their uses, it’s important not to confuse online with offline releases.

Traditional (offline) press releases are used to pitch a story to the media.  They are your calling card; a quick way to tell your story and highlight exactly why the media should cover you.  But when it comes to landing media, a press release on its own is seldom going to do you much good.  It’s true that we’ve placed stories by sending out a press release, but those instances are rare.  Chances are you’ve also heard stories of companies that have placed a press release on one of the paid wire services and have gone on to garner national media coverage.  Those stories are also true, but, to be honest, your odds are better of winning in Vegas than of hitting it big in the media world on the strength of a press release.  A press release can be a great introduction, but if it’s not followed up with phone calls and other media approaches, chances are it’s not going to get you far.

The job of the traditional press release is to start a conversation and to generate some initial interest or curiosity.  Online press releases have different objectives.  When effective they can help you move up in search engine rankings, build back links and help drive targeted web traffic.  If you’re lucky they will get picked up by other news sites and blogs.  If you’re remarkably lucky they can result in landing you traditional media coverage.

As I mentioned earlier, they can help with your SEO.  So know what keywords to use.  Use one of your primary keywords in your titles and incorporate other keywords into the content.  Don’t overdo it though.  Be judicious in your keyword usage.  Keep in mind that with online press releases you’re primarily talking to your target audience, whereas with traditional press releases you’re talking directly to the media.  Those are very different audiences.  With online releases, create copy that is as relevant to your audience as possible article content.  Don’t sell yourself or your product or service; offer solutions.

But if traditional media is your objective, sending out online press releases is generally a very ineffective approach.  They can be seductive at first.  Your releases might get picked up by Google or Yahoo or other online sites, which is fun to see, but the chances of that type of exposure leading to coverage in a magazine, newspaper or on TV are remarkably slim.  So keep your objectives in mind when deciding what types of press release you want to utilize.  Both traditional and online releases have their place, but each has a different function.  If your objective is to help increase your web traffic and raise your search engine ranking, online is worth a shot.  If you’re looking to gain coverage in TV, print, or radio, whereas online might help, to be truly effective, focus on the traditional approach.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Gregory, Alyssa. “Publish Your Story to the World.” Photo. SitePoint. 02 Oct 2009. 30. Sept. 2011. <http://www.sitepoint.com/online-press-release-distribution-sites/&gt;

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