The Secret to a Great PR Pitch
Posted by admin on September, 6th 2011
Public relations is more than writing press releases and emailing them out to a list of contacts. To get the best coverage, you have to pick up the phone, call journalists and pitch the client’s story.
It is nerve-wracking doing this, so we have put together some tips that should help anyone making a pitch over the telephone.
- Keep it brief – there is nothing worse than picking up the phone to someone who wastes your time rambling and going around in circles around a couple of incoherent points. Loads of people write a script with the main points they need to cover to help them stay on track.
- Act confident, even if you’re not. It is pretty scary picking up the phone and trying to talk to someone who you’ve never met before and sell in a story. Keep a glass of water by your desk, sit up straight and don’t let the fear show in your voice. You can hyperventilate in the toilets afterwards!
- Show you have done your homework. If you were busy at work and had PR agencies calling you all day to sell in stories, who would you give the time of day to? The nervous junior who wasn’t even sure who your readership is and trying to sell in an irrelevant story or the confident junior who has timed their call well and is certain that their story will fit in well with next week’s edition?
- Sum up the story succinctly – if you can’t reduce the story to the key points then the journalist will probably conclude that it is too complicated to cover… and don’t forget…
- Closing is everything – even if the pitch went terribly. Never forget to get the email address of the person you are speaking to because even if your pitch could have been better, the information pack you’ve so lovingly put together prior to your calls may be able to save it for you. Dropping an email with the usual pleasantries such as thanking the journalist for their time (not forgetting all the information they might need if they choose to run with your story) is the most important part of your telephone call.
Want to find out more about how JPR can help your business achieve its targets with public relations? Contact David Wiltshire on 0845 544 1765.
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