In PR, not getting an answer is extremely common. It might be that the journalist didn’t have time, or just wasn’t able to see your email in his or her inbox. Unfortunately, journalists receive huge amounts of emails every day, hundreds or more depending on the outlet they work in, most of which are completely irrelevant.
For some PRs it’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. How will they learn what works if they never get feedback? The truth is journalists would love to get only relevant pitches but just don’t have the time to respond and give feedback on why it wasn’t a fit.
The good news is journalists do like to communicate beyond their work on their pieces, and they like to spill their guts out on Twitter. It’s not always served on a silver platter, but there are bite-sized pieces of advice from journalists scattered all over that you should learn to pick up and learn from.
The following is a selection from the team from the past months:
Do not promise something you can’t deliver, ever. You won’t get that win, you will have wasted your own time, and probably you will not get another chance with the journalist anytime soon.
Don’t be creepy.
Some journalists prefer direct contact with the founder, CEO or members of the executive team. That’s just the way it is. Your client or CEO should be open to being introduced and spend time talking to journalists in their industry.
Journalists are human beings. They are not coverage machines. Encourage your CEO and other executives to develop relationships with journalists. Communication with journalists is not always part of a campaign to get you coverage.
Not doing basic research means pitches can be irrelevant. Sometimes it can create hilarious coincidences.
You should not underestimate the importance of the salutation and getting the name right. Do not rush, do not send mail merges.
Particularly bad is to lie or pretend you are rising up to the situation when you’re actually not.
Unless you are a well-funded startup or a large tech company, TechCrunch will probably not cover you unless you receive a substantial amount of funding. There are some exceptions.
There might be things going on in the world that make you think you need to hold off from pushing otherwise relevant stories. That’s not always entirely true.
Do not make assumptions about names. Use the name you see on the publication the journalist writes for.
This one is just terrible:
What you or your company thinks is relevant will not necessarily be relevant for the journalist. Do your homework on the journalists you’ll contact before you reach out to them.
Avoid cliches, being repetitive, copying what others seem to be doing. Journalists want unique, newsworthy stories.
Basic email etiquette.
‘Circling back’ is one of the worst things you can put in an email followup. Similarly, you should never follow up just for the sake of it. If you believe your story is relevant, state why and give more reasons to demonstrate it.
Similarly, and this goes against the instinct of anyone that’s worked in sales, don’t call. Unless you are 1 million percent sure, it just annoys the hell out of journalists.
So many lessons here. It’s about newsworthiness, relevance, not ego. Something like ‘the state of tech’ is quite vague – only a very limited number of high profile people could pull it off. If you want to do thought leadership you will be focusing on your industry. Definitely don’t pitch anything as long as 30,000 words. Also, LinkedIn is probably not the best place for a cold pitch.
Don’t pitch a story based on other coverage you got. And much worse, don’t make it seem the journalist is your second choice.
A lot of journalists are very open about getting tips sent to them. However, “a press release is not a tip”.
It’s always worth looking at the journalist’s Twitter bio. Many of them will give you specific advice on how to best pitch them. It doesn’t mean what you have to say is relevant.
