As part of the promotions and online PR team at Distilled, I spend the majority of my time trying to get the attention of journalists. If you've ever worked in PR you'll know that this isn't always as easy as it sounds. Journalists are busy. They're on a deadline, they're knee-deep in an article that's exponentially more timely than whatever you're pitching to get coverage for. That email you spent half an hour perfecting? It's getting scanned for something newsworthy, for surprising facts, for data that's going to make an interesting story, and something that's going to make their readers hit the ‘share' buttons.
When I'm not working at Distilled, I run a travel blog and I'm a freelance writer. Consequently I find myself on the receiving end of the kind of emails I send out in my day job. More often than not, I hit the archive button and move on. Why? Because a lot of the pitches I get are totally irrelevant to my readership and, honestly, if you can't take one minute to visit my site ask yourself whether you actually want you client in front of an audience of travel-lovers, then welcome to my trash folder.
That's not where you want to be; the trash folder. You want to be in the yes folder, if there is in fact such a thing. You want your email to be so compelling, so full of the little details that make a journalist's job easier, that their mouse doesn't even hover near the delete button, let alone actually press it.
So how do you make it easy for a journalist to say yes to you?
Stop with the flattery
Flattery might work when you're doing blogger outreach. Or, should I say, genuine flattery works; as a blogger I've received way too many emails where the the first sentence reads like a random positive adjective generator's been used to say some nice things about my blog so that the sender, seemingly too busy to visit my site for a few minutes, doesn't have to do any actual research.
Genuine flattery works with bloggers because it's our site, our hard work, our money being poured into site design and hosting every month, our bedside lamps burning until the early hours as we write, and promote, and plan, and pitch.
Journalists are doing their jobs. You don't need to tell them that the article they wrote for The Atlantic back in 2013 really resonated with you. You don't need to try to make them like you. You don't need to make them feel all warm and fuzzy inside. So stop. Stop with the flattery and get to the point.
'CC' is a big no-no
I get it, OK, you're busy. I'm busy. We're all busy. You know what you shouldn't be too busy to do if you really want journalists to cover your story? You shouldn't be so busy that you don't have a few minutes to send a separate email to each journalist you're pitching.
Unless you're pitching an exclusive story journalists know that you're probably going to be pitching to more than one publication. That's OK, that's what you should be doing to try and obtain the maximum amount of coverage for your company or client.
What you don't want them to think is that you've sent the exact same email to every single journalist with the exact same information which, if you send a blanket email, is basically what you're doing.
When you do that you're almost saying ‘OK, I've done no research into your publication, no research into the kinds of articles you've written in the past, and I haven't tailored any of my pitch to appeal to you or your audience' which is exactly what you don't want.
Write some of the story for them
Imagine if you told your friends you'd cook them dinner anytime they wanted. They wouldn't have to give you any notice. All they had to do was turn up at your door with the ingredients.
Except word gets around and, one day, you're facing the prospect of cooking 20 different meals for 20 different friends. I don't know what your culinary skills are like but can we all just agree that this would be a somewhat stressful and annoying situation?
Now imagine that those 20 people turn up with their ingredients again, except this time they've done some of the work for you. Onions have been diced, garlic's been crushed. Everything you need to make the meal is there, you just need to bind them together.
How much better do you feel? How much more willing are you to forgive your friends for turning up unannounced?
That's kind of what you need to do for journalists. No, not invite them around for dinner; do some of the work for them so that they can write the story around the facts.
In practical terms, I tend to take the stats that are most relevant to their audience, the parts that I want them to focus on, and include them in my pitch email on separate lines. This way, the journalist can see the most important details at a glance without having to dig through data, or read a huge press release. Help them write the story you want them to write about your client and you're much more likely to get a ‘yes' out of them.
Don't Be a Tease, Be Proactive
Do you have images that the journalist can use should they choose to run the story? Do you have a press release with more information in it? Do you have contact details for your company or client's spokesperson?
Maybe you have an awesome interactive graphic the journalist can feature, or an iframe they can use to host it on their site fully. Maybe you have all the things.
So why are you only teasing the journalist in your first email?
‘I have some photos of the product if you want to use them'
‘I can also get your the details of our expert on this.'
‘Let me know if you need anything else.'
Seriously? If you have these things available, give them to the journalist now. Be proactive. If you think they're going to be useful include them in your email. Attach the photos, copy the press release underneath your pitch in the body of the email, include the iframe code.
Journalists are under more pressure than ever to get stories published. They don't spend all day working on one article, they're writing multiple articles each day. This is why it's so important that you give them everything you think they could possibly need so that they can get on with writing the story instead of replying to your email.
Build a relationship
Good news: you did your research, you sent a pitch, and a journalist covered your story. But your relationship with that journalist doesn't stop there. In fact, what you do after they've hit publish on their article is almost as important as everything you did before you hit send on your pitch.
A couple of weeks ago, I got a piece of creative we'd built for one of our clients some coverage on the site of one of the UK's largest national newspapers so, afterwards, I emailed my contact to say ‘thank you' and shared the article on my social media channels. It literally took me all of 10 seconds.
I mean, sure, I didn't get another email back from my contact (remember when I said journalists were busy?) but that's because, by that point, she was probably more interested in writing her next article.
And that's OK, because the next time I have a story I think she'd be interested in covering, and I email her, I'll carry on the email thread and she'll know that I was helpful, and quick to reply, and courteous. Things that go a long way in the world of PR.
Beverly, Thanks for the post...
I think the same, the title and the subject heading MAKES A DIFFERENCE.
I usually test different subject to know which is more effective.
Say ¡YES!.
¿The difference? ¡The engagement! I'm sure about that. A good tittle and and amazing subject are the points to make a difference.
Hi Beverley. Some good points. My company had a couple of big PR pieces towards the back end of last year and, for the effort we put into each personal email, we were probably slightly disappointed with the amount of responses we got in the end. Are there good times and bad times during the day to contact journos with things like this?
Hi Gareth, thanks for commenting.
In general I try not to pitch on Mondays and Friday - I've found that those are the days when I get fewer responses from journalists. Also try to take into account time differences: if I'm pitching to a journalist based in the States, I'll usually send my pitch over in the afternoon (UK time) so that it hits their mailbox in the morning. It's different for everyone though :)
It really depends on the publication you're pitching to... If they're a weekly, bimonthly or monthly publication, you've got some days leading up to deadline where you can actually get a hold of the journalist. ~~ Down side: They publish on a limited basis, as opposed to every day, so you've got more competition on trying to get your story noticed, picked up and published.
If you're pitching to a daily publication, you're going to have a harder time getting time with the journalist, because they're always on deadline. ~~ BUT, you've got a better chance of having your story picked up because they publish daily & need lots of new stories to talk about.
Hi Beverley these are some good points you raised about doing the email outreach the right way. What I have personally observed is that people are too lazy about the email outreach, they just compose a single message and shoot them all to every journalists/ bloggers regardless of the fact that they might be working in different verticals which might not suite their products/services either.
I have to agree here - I think a lot of the issues that arise with outreach (and really, a LOT of aspects in digital marketing) are that people are looking for validation, fast. Blasting a template out is a great time saver but a horribly constructed strategy. Not only does it bring down the integrity of the person doing the outreach, but it makes everyone who is doing outreach's job a lot more difficult.
Hi Beverly, I love the fact you start with "stop the flattery". It surprises me how often some of our clients in the past resorted to forced adulation when reaching out to members of the press. When every one and their brother are approaching the press in the same BS manner it makes it much simpler to cut through the clutter.
Let's say your post was published in newspaper A, a week later you want to publish another post in newspaper B. If you include in your email to newspaper B something like: "Our previous post was published in newspaper A a week ago, but we think that this post better fits your audience ..." will this help to get response ( journalist will have the impression that we are newsworthy )? Or will have opposite effect?
Also, is there some "best way" to write subject heading? Or just classic verb + benefit + urgent time / place ( with a few modifications ).
I enjoyed this post a lot, email is one of my weak points I would say. At least when it comes to creating a list and attempting to engage readers. I do like the idea of simplicity in the title, I must spend an hour a day deleting and filtering email and the title typically says it all for me, as in should I even open this or not. Good post, thanks!
Beverley, this is a great post -- in my opinion, the one area in which digital marketers need more knowledge is PR, media relations, and publicity. (Note to readers: By "PR," I do NOT mean PageRank -- that's pretty much dead because Google isn't updating that metric externally anymore.)
Just had a few comments to add!
Stop with the flattery and get to the point.
Yes! Journalists get tens, if not dozens, of pitches a day. They know why you're contacting them. Forget the BS and fake niceties. You've got a pitch, so get straight to the pitch.
Depending on how the specific journalist wants to be contacted -- and that takes research -- you might make initial contact over e-mail or Twitter. A short tweet asking if and how they accept pitches can be good. A short e-mail with an inquiry and short summary -- think elevator pitch -- can be good. Then, if you get a positive response, follow-up with all the details.
What you don't want them to think is that you've sent the exact same email to every single journalist with the exact same information which, if you send a blanket email, is basically what you're doing.
Yes, this is the worst thing to do. Every publication is different. Every reporter at every publication is different. First, make sure that your story is something that both the specific publication and specific reporter would want to cover. Don't send a pitch about sports to a reporter who writes about politics. You'll get blacklisted for spam.
If you have these things available, give them to the journalist now. Be proactive. If you think they're going to be useful include them in your email. Attach the photos, copy the press release underneath your pitch in the body of the email, include the iframe code.
This is the one thing I have an issue with. Journalists get so much spam that they often will not open attachments. So, it's best to paste as much as possible into plain text. If you get interest, then you can include attached files and more in a follow-up e-mail.
Build a relationship
This is the most-important part of the post. Don't think about short-term results. Don't badger a reporter to get coverage. The most-valuable resource a marketer can have is a friend at a major, relevant publication. But those relationships take time to develop naturally. Invest in those for the best long-term results.
I've also written some similar thoughts on Moz. Just wanted to share in case people might be interested. An Introduction to PR Strategy for SEOs and The Coming Integration of PR and SEO.
Again, Beverly, thanks for the great tips!
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment.
I think the email subject heading definitely makes a difference. If I'm pitching the same thing to a few journalists I'll generally try to use a few different subject lines to test out which ones get the best response.
I think your last point "build a relationship" can be compared with a retail customer lifecycle. Building an awesome brand with great products that will turn your customers into advocates is the best way to build a business.
In the same way, building an awesome website, with great content, supported by unique resources gives you the groundwork to begin your outreach. Once you have something awesome built, and have convinced a journalist to look at it and publish it then you can begin a relationship. This can continue for weeks, months, and years and can lead to that journalist sharing your resources with their journalist friends at their publication and different publications they work with in future years. One great relationship can be much more "profitable" in the long run than 20 one-off's.
Interesting and useful article Beverley. I always wonder about email subject headings when contacting journalists. Is the title of the press release or subject matter enough or is there another way that seems to get their attention?
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment.
I think the email subject heading definitely makes a difference. If I'm pitching the same thing to a few journalists I'll generally try to use a few different subject lines to test out which ones get the best response.
This thread is really a blast from the past... reminds me of digging through Bacon's lists in the mid '90's and faxing out press releases.
Great post. Thanks beverley.
I think we should add (and help rid the world of spam) to the title of this post, terriffic job! Everyone doing outreach needs to read this first.
Totally agree with the whole "flattery is nonsense" bit. So many people do it so often that it comes off as completely fake. I for one would prefer real criticism over false flattery any day.
I love the "flattery" part, it's just so true. It works for bloggers 80% of the time.
Great article btw!
I've just been sending content to local journalists for my sports team.
I feel ever so slightly ashamed at the messaging now! Pretty sure I'd need to remove 'let me know if...' from my vocabulary!
Hi Bervely. Thank you for this interesting article.
Among the items that I look when contact me by mail are: subject line, content, but also the email address of the sender. Generally, the sender's email address says a lot about him. You can see at once whether it is spam or not. For example, a mail address [email protected] kind is more likely to be read than [email protected]. I think a journalist also argues in the same way.
Hi Beverley - blanket emails are a sure fire way of getting sent to 'trash'. If you are going to spend the time getting in touch with journalists then you might as well spend a little longer and do it right! Having something genuine to say that is relevant to their audience is most certainly true, but it is also true for getting in touch with anybody (let alone journalists). Being proactive and making their life as easy as possible is great advice, after all who wouldn't want that?! As you speak to more and more journalists you realise that they often have the same questions, do you have any images we could use? Being proactive about these questions will only make you more memorable, and as you say you will be able to pick up the conversation at a later date for a different article.
Glad you agree, Simon. Thanks for your comment :)
My marketing background started in PR over 15 years ago. The only thing I have to add to this is to emphasis NEWSWORTHINESS.
If it isn't, don't bother pitching it. You're only wasting your time and theirs.
synonyms: interesting, topical, notable, noteworthy, important, significant, momentous, historic, remarkable, sensational; unprecedented, groundbreaking; bloggable
I agree with everything you've written Beverley,
Journalists are too busy writing several articles today.
Getting your email Discarded not have to draw attention. Having a couple of sentences that highlight for journalists to have an interest in your article. And an attractive title.
Love this little bit, "...data that's going to make an interesting story..." That could be a blog post in and of itself. As a bit of early expansion on it though, PBS ran this story (https://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2014/09/9-things-the-best-political-reporters-do/) in late 2014 with the lead, "Journalists are using social science research, “big data” and innovative alternative story formats to better serve their audience." And while the story is Politics based, points 5-8 on the list are a really handy intersection for those working in online marketing in any industry. FiveThirtyEight is another powerful example of the strength in the data trend as well... Put easy access to that kind of data in the format Beverly's described here and you're well on your way.
Hi Beverley,
Thanks for such a great piece of information. Last year I tested my guts in a media outreach campaign. Today I realized why I failed. I think I should apply your tips next time.
Nice article. Thanks Beverley
Thanks Simon & Beverley Your Conversation has clear my points Too....