Media Pitching Lessons

July 13, 2011 1 Comment

To have yourself, your service or your product featured in the media, you need to effectively pith the media.  It’s an art.  By appearing in the media you create a bridge between your company and your clients or customers.  You also build your brand by establishing credibility that only comes with being featured as a news story.  Your best bet is to hire a public relations firm or PR consultant to develop, launch and implement your media relations campaign for you.  It can be a tricky business and you can often do yourself more harm than good by trying it on your own.  But, if money is tight and you’re not in a position to retain a firm, you don’t have to wait to get started.  There are some PR tips and secrets you can try.  With that in mind, the following is a pitching overview.

One approach to pitching a story is to use statistics in order to introduce your topic.  Let’s say you represent a skin care company and are doing a pitch to beauty consumer magazines or trade publications. You could start your pitch with a stat similar to the one below:

According to Skin Inc. “The markets in both Europe and the United States have seen positive gains in 2010. Europe has recovered posting a 3.0% increase following a 3.3% decline in 2009, and sales in the United States have increased by 2.7%.”

It may or may not be the right stat to lead with because it entirely depends on the specific angle or pitch you want to present. If you’re pitching a story about how the skin care arena is growing, look for statistics that back that up.  You can use one of two angles, one being that more and more people are using skin care and your product is at the leading edge of this boom, and the other being that your product or services are unique within this growing field.  Lead with the statistics to grab the media’s attention then follow with you particular pitch or angle.

It’s now time to make your specific pitch.  Remember you are not pitching a product or a service, you are pitching a story.  Don’t approach it from your perspective, but from that of the media.  Sure you want to sell more products and land more customers, but the media wants to tell a compelling story that interests it’s readers and helps it’s ratings. So when pitching, appeal to the media’s needs.

Now that you have the media’s interest, let them know that you have an expert who can address their needs.   Give your qualifications and explain why you are indeed an expert. Even it you’re pitching a product; it helps immensely to present yourself as an expert.  Remember, you don’t want to present a product spokesperson, but a true expert in the field of beauty and skincare; one who can talk about the product but can also discuss the latest trends, ingredients and changes in the field.  If you’ve been featured in other media outlets, let them know.  It makes the media feel more confident in your abilities if they realize that you’ve been in the media before.  If you haven’t that’s fine, but establish why you are an expert.

Finally, close with other topics and angles that you can address or comment on. Who knows, they might pass on your original pitch, but book you for one of the other suggestions.  More importantly the media will begin to see you as an expert in your field.  Those are the ones that get placed in the media rolodex, and that’s just where you want to be.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

Filed under business, Public Relations, traditional media Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

To Phone or not to Phone (pitch) The Media

July 12, 2011 Leave a comment

You’ve come up with your story ideas and pitch angles, you’ve written your press release,  you’ve sent out the email pitches and you’ve placed your release on one of the paid wire services and… nothing!  Not one editor or producer has called  to interview you or write a feature on you.  You’ve done everything right and everything’s gone wrong.  What now?

Time to turn to that small hand-held device that blinks and buzzes and rings (in an endless variety of tones).  Yep, the phone.  While you could pick it up and see if that editor or producer ever read your emailed press release, I can already tell you that chances are 99.9% that your release was never read.  Don’t be discouraged, however. Instead pick up the phone and interest the media in your story, not to try and sell your product or service, but to offer the media a compelling story idea that appeals to them.  There’s an idea.

An effective phone pitch is rarely jazzy or funny (although it can be both) but one that is real and genuine. Your objective is to briefly and succinctly let the media know how and why this story idea will work for them and their viewers or readers.  It’s not the time to try to sell.  Be you when you present the story. It’s best to pretend as though you are not calling someone who’s in the media when presenting this pitch.  It’s important that your enthusiasm is evident in both your voice and your delivery.  You don’t want to sound like a salesperson but like someone who is truly interested in the topic and wants to share it with others.

Review your press release and  break it down into the most important bullet points.  When you’re doing the phone pitch you won’t have time to pitch the full release and you definitely don’t want to read a pitch verbatim  from your release.  You’ll sound like a robot, which will make you less believable.  But do use your bullet points from the release as an aid.  Have them  in front of you and let them guide what  you want to say.  Don’t insist on sticking to a scripted approach.  It’s a conversation and as with any conversation it will ebb and flow and have its own rhythm.

Come up with the most compelling aspects of the story and lead with those.  Introduce yourself and let the producers or editors know that you’d like to give them a story idea.  Be polite and respectful.  Before starting your pitch, ask them whether or not it is a convenient time for them to talk. If they say it’s not a good time, thank them and ask if you can email a release and call at a later date.  Find out when would be a good time, thank them and get off the phone.

If the answer is yes, start your pitch and keep it concise.  Remember you don’t have to tell your whole story.  You want to hit the highlights, the points that make it interesting. And you want to illustrate why this story is a great fit for the particular media outlet you’re pitching.    When to make your pitch, how to pitch national versus local and how to leave a voice mail pitch will be covered in my next article.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2011

 

Filed under Build Your Business, business, Marketing, Media, PR Campaign, Press Release Writing, Public Relations Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Six (More) Insider Tips to Pitching the Media

October 6, 2010 1 Comment

In a previous article I listed five secrets to pitching the media.  Those work.  Give them a try.  But there are a variety of different ways to interest producers and editors.  Remember your job is to meet the media’s needs; to give them stories that talk directly to their readers, listeners or viewers.

When pitching, put yourself in the place of the editor or producer you’re pitching.  Before you pitch a story to Vogue, the Wall Street Journal, the Today Show or the local media, figure out what stories they’re looking for as opposed to simply concentrating on the stories you want to pitch.  Remember they are looking for new and unique angles that will interest their audience.

Develop your primary story:  Your basic story may well stay somewhat the same, but you need to modify the pitch to meet the needs of each magazine, newspaper, radio show and TV outlet.  Develop a number of secondary pitch ideas

If you work it right, you can position it so that they need you and your story ideas as much as you need you need them.  When crafting your media pitch don’t limit yourself to one angle or approach.  Develop a mix of story ideas.  Some of your pitches might be serious; others might be fun or lighthearted.  The following are six more PR secrets to placing stories in the media.

1) Position yourself as an expert.  For example, if you’re an attorney and a legal case is in the news, you can position yourself as an expert to discuss the case or the issues. You don’t have to be one of the attorneys directly involved in the case. What you need to do is present yourself as an expert who can address the topic.

2) Find a strong local, human interest-oriented angle to your story. When pitching the local media, keep the emphasis on the word “local.” If you’re a hometown gal or guy that has created a new product or service, talk about your roots to the city or the community. Bring the local angle and flavor to your story.

3) Always keep in mind that you don’t want to pitch your product or service to the media; you want to pitch the outcome and the benefits. For example, if you’re a physician, don’t pitch your expertise, pitch a patient story that the media can follow.  Give them a story.

4) Develop an underdog story, one where you beat the odds and won.  Everyone roots for the underdog and those types of stories have a great narrative.  You’re able to tell a full story complete with the problem, the journey and the ultimate overcoming-the-odds conclusion.

5) Disagree with a popular point of view.  Embrace controversy.  Explain why all the experts are wrong.

6) Use opposites:  men versus women, teenager versus adults, Midwesterners vs. west coasters, suburbanites vs. city dwellers, etc.

Have fun with your pitch ideas.  Be creative and remember, if you meet the media’s needs – you’ll always meet yours.

Copyright © Anthony Mora 2010

Filed under business, Business Strategy, Marketing, Media, Media Coverage, Media Relations, PR, PR Campaign, small business Public Relations, Your Message Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , ,

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