Incredibly useful PR pitching advice

[noshmarketing]

Just want to pass along an article I found today that I immediately put to use. It's on how to pitch to the media and he includes an example of a pitch that I found to be very useful. Enjoy!

How To Pitch A Story To The Media | Understanding Marketing (http://www.understandingmarketing.com/2009/05/07/pitch-media/)

[erichtoll]

As a former reporter for 7 years, the best way to pitch an article is to ask - what does this editor's audience want to know? Try and do the editor's work for him or her, come up with angle that's useful to his/her audience.

[greenoak]

good points....wish i had an employee to pitch this job to....lol...

[vangogh]

Thanks for the link Tia. Great article. Awhile back I read some similar advice. I wish I could remember where. The article I read brought up something Erich mentioned about doing the work and coming up with the angle. The article I read talked about turning his pitch into a human interest story and I think the guy put together most everything for the story. He volunteered to be the on camera interview, came up with most of the story, and did much of the research.

He made it as easy as possible to get a couple minutes on local tv about whatever it was he was pitching.

[alphadore]

Thank you. It is a well-written article.

[KristineS]

This is a good article.

I know, from my days at a local television station, that people who came in with a well thought out idea and with a way to present it, and with the resources to make the story work always had the best chance of getting their story on air. Reporters, whether print or television are busy people and the more you can gift wrap the story for them, the better the chance is of it getting told.

[noshmarketing]

I want to update you all that I used the advice in the article a few days ago and reached out to a local morning show. The next day the anchor wrote me back and said she wanted to feature my client.

So, I'm sticking by it that the article is good! :)

[noshmarketing]

@VG Exactly. Before I pitched, I came up with 10 different angles for my client. It wasn't hard since her food is pretty unique to the states and especially Tucson, and because we've done some ground work getting people to try and talk about the food. One food editor's response in particular gave us yet another good story idea.

So it's all in the story!

[vangogh]

Congrats on getting a feature for your client.

Oh yeah. I can see how food makes a good human interest story for newspapers and tv. From the taste, to nutrition, to different ways to prepare it, there are lots of different angles to go with. I suppose the trick is knowing the journalist of station and getting a good feel for what kind of stories they like. Then you can craft an angle that matches what they usually look for.

Everything is in the story, isn't it? It's why we read and watch and also why we buy.

[Noelle]

Thanks for the post!