1
Dec
2008
PR Tip #2: The pitch
Pitching. That word has come to instill fear in PR pros and journalists alike. The 24-hour news cycle has made pitching an announcement even more competitive and challenging than ever.
Tons of posts exist about how to craft an effective pitch. But in my conversations and those held in the public forum, the success of the pitch is directly proportianate to the quality of the relationship the company/PR agent has with the recipient of the pitch.
So, my tip for pithing is to not do it blindly. Your client or company is in a vertical. That vertical has press and analysts. Make it your mission as the PR rep to have a great relationship with them.
I don’t think the verticals are the problem. The problem develops with large stories outside an agency’s specialty which encompass other fields with insufficient ramp-up time.
For example – Client in widget field has solid contacts in widget trades, etc. but is then gets a large government order. Now need to integrate local and regional business press (who may not have cared a widget about Widget Co previously), government mags, and numerous others (int’l business, widget raw material producers, etc.) depending on the exact scope of the announcement.
At some level, to get the news out quickly a shotgun method of pitching would have to be employed both in ‘list’ creation and outreach.
Yes, before the pile-on of ‘you shouldn’t pitch w/o knowing the audience, it would be great to take 2 weeks, review the trades, etc. but our job is to respond to the client’s news while it’s still news, and let’s be honest, not all clients let us know with enough time to get it done right.